Book of Mark Summary

Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels and probably the first one written. It has no birth story and no family tree. Its first line says the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, starts here, and within a dozen verses Jesus is baptized, tested in the desert and preaching in Galilee. Mark uses the word "immediately" about 40 times and spends more than a third of his book on Jesus' last week. His portrait is of a Messiah who rules by serving and wins by dying.

Mark at a glance

Who wrote Mark, and why?

The Gospel never names its author. Around AD 120 Papias, a bishop in Asia Minor, wrote that Mark had been Peter's interpreter and wrote down what Peter remembered of Jesus' words and deeds, though not in strict order. This is the John Mark of Acts, whose mother's house in Jerusalem was a meeting place for the church (Acts 12:12). He set out with Paul and Barnabas on their first journey but went home partway through, and Paul refused to take him the next time (Acts 15:37-39). Years later Paul calls him useful to his ministry (2 Timothy 4:11), and Peter calls him his son (1 Peter 5:13).

The Gospel itself fits the Peter link. Peter is the first disciple called and the last one named (1:16; 16:7), his confession is the turning point (8:29), and his failures are told without softening (14:72). Mark also explains Jewish customs and translates Aramaic words (7:3-4; 5:41; 15:34). Clement of Alexandria said Mark wrote in Rome for believers who had heard Peter preach. Those readers lived under Nero's persecution, and a Messiah who suffered and called his followers to carry a cross spoke directly to them (8:34).

Most scholars think Mark was the first Gospel, used by Matthew and Luke, since nearly all of Mark appears in one or both. Dates range from the late 50s to just after AD 70.

How Mark is structured

Mark tells the story in three acts, set in three places. The hinge comes in chapter 8, when Peter says who Jesus is and Jesus starts to explain what that will cost.

chapters 1–3: the kingdom breaks in

Mark starts with prophecy. He joins lines from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 about a messenger sent ahead to prepare the Lord's road, and John the Baptist appears in the desert as that messenger (1:2-4). As Jesus comes up from baptism, the sky tears open, the Spirit comes down like a dove, and the Father says he is pleased with his beloved Son (1:10-11). The Spirit drives him into the wilderness for forty days among wild animals, tested by Satan and served by angels (1:12-13). Then he announces that God's kingdom has come near and calls people to turn back and trust the good news (1:15).

He calls two pairs of fishermen, Simon and Andrew, James and John, promising to make them fish for people, and they leave their nets at once (1:16-20). In one Sabbath at Capernaum he teaches with an authority the scribes never had, drives an unclean spirit out of a man, heals Simon's mother-in-law, and by sunset the whole town is at the door (1:21-34). He touches a leper and makes him clean (1:41).

Opposition comes early. Jesus tells a paralyzed man lowered through a roof that his sins are forgiven, and the scribes call it blasphemy, since only God forgives sins. He heals the man to show that the Son of Man has that authority (2:5-12). He eats with Levi the tax collector and sinners (2:14-17). He calls himself Lord of the Sabbath (2:27-28). By 3:6 the Pharisees are already planning his death with Herod's supporters. His family thinks he is out of his mind, and teachers from Jerusalem say he works by Satan's power (3:21-22). Jesus says whoever does God's will is his true family (3:35).

chapters 4–8: parables, power and blindness

Jesus teaches in parables. In the parable of the sower, seed falls on four kinds of ground, and only the good soil gives a harvest of thirty, sixty or a hundred times (4:3-8). Seed grows while the farmer sleeps, and the tiny mustard seed becomes a large plant (4:26-32).

Then come four great acts of power. Jesus stills a storm with a word, and the terrified disciples ask what kind of man even the wind and sea obey (4:39-41). He frees a man from a legion of demons, which rush into about two thousand pigs (5:9; 5:13). A woman who has bled for twelve years touches his cloak and is healed (5:25-34), and Jairus' twelve-year-old daughter is raised from death (5:41-42).

Wrapping one story inside another is a favorite technique of Mark's, so each explains the other. He does it again with the fig tree and the temple (11:12-21) and with Peter's denial and Jesus' trial (14:54-72).

In Nazareth people dismiss him as the carpenter, Mary's son, and he does few miracles there (6:3-5). Herod beheads John the Baptist at a banquet (6:27), a preview of what powerful people will do to Jesus. Jesus feeds five thousand men because they are like sheep with no shepherd (6:34; 6:44), walks on the lake (6:48), and teaches that defilement comes from the heart (7:21). A Gentile mother wins healing for her daughter (7:27-29), and he feeds four thousand (8:9).

Yet the disciples still do not understand. Jesus asks whether they have eyes that do not see (8:17-18). Then he heals a blind man in two stages: first he sees people like walking trees, then everything plainly (8:24-25). The disciples are about to go through the same thing.

chapters 8–10: on the way

Near Caesarea Philippi Jesus asks who they think he is, and Peter answers that he is the Messiah (8:29). That is half the truth. Jesus immediately teaches that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed and rise after three days (8:31). Peter objects, and Jesus rebukes him: he is thinking the way people think, not the way God thinks (8:32-33). Anyone who wants to follow Jesus must deny himself and take up his cross, because trying to save your life loses it (8:34-35).

The same pattern happens three times. Jesus predicts his death (8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). The disciples answer with Peter's rebuke, an argument about who is greatest (9:34), and a request for the best seats in glory (10:37). Each time Jesus teaches that the first must be last and the greatest must serve (9:35; 10:43-44). The third lesson ends with Mark's central verse: the Son of Man did not come to have others serve him, but to serve, and to give his life to set many free (10:45).

In between, three disciples see Jesus transfigured with Elijah and Moses, and a voice from a cloud tells them to listen to God's beloved Son (9:2-7). Jesus welcomes children and says the kingdom must be received the way a child receives it (10:14-15). He loves a rich man who cannot let go of his wealth, and says that what is impossible for people is possible for God (10:21-27). The section ends as it began, with a blind man: Bartimaeus receives his sight and follows Jesus on the road (10:46-52).

chapters 11–13: the King in Jerusalem

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt while crowds shout praise and welcome the coming kingdom of David (11:7-10). He curses a fig tree that has leaves but no fruit, clears the traders out of the temple courts, and quotes the prophets: God's house was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, but they have made it a hideout for robbers (11:13-17; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). The next morning the fig tree has withered from the roots (11:20).

The leaders question his authority. He tells of tenants who kill the vineyard owner's beloved son, a parable they know is about them (12:6-12). He answers traps about taxes and the resurrection (12:17; 12:27) and names the two greatest commands: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (12:29-31). He praises a poor widow who gives two small coins (12:42-44). On the Mount of Olives he predicts the temple's fall and promises that the Son of Man will come on the clouds (13:2; 13:26). No one knows the day, so his followers must stay awake (13:32-37).

chapters 14–16: the cross and the empty tomb

A woman anoints Jesus' head with costly perfume, preparing him for burial (14:3-8), and Judas agrees to betray him (14:10-11). At the Passover meal Jesus gives the bread as his body and the cup as his blood of the covenant, poured out for many (14:22-24). In Gethsemane he calls God Abba, Father, asks for the cup to be taken away, and then accepts his Father's will (14:36). He is arrested, and every disciple runs. Only Mark mentions a young man who escapes naked (14:50-52), perhaps Mark himself.

Before the high priest Jesus openly claims to be the Messiah (14:61-62), while in the courtyard Peter denies him three times and weeps (14:72). Pilate releases Barabbas and hands Jesus over to be crucified (15:15). Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross (15:21). Jesus is crucified at the third hour, darkness covers the land from noon, and at the ninth hour he cries out in Aramaic the first words of Psalm 22:1 (15:25; 15:33-34). When he dies, the temple curtain splits from top to bottom, and the Roman centurion becomes the first human in the story to call him the Son of God (15:38-39).

Women watch the crucifixion (15:40). On Sunday they come with spices and find a young man in white inside the tomb. He tells them Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has risen, and they should tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of them to Galilee (16:5-7). The women run from the tomb shaking and say nothing to anyone, because they are afraid (16:8).

The oldest complete manuscripts end at 16:8. Most scholars think the longer ending, 16:9-20, with its appearances and ascension, was added later. Many read the sudden stop as deliberate, leaving the reader to decide whether to tell the news.

Mark chapter by chapter

Click any chapter number to read it.

Main themes of Mark

Jesus the Son of God

Announced at the start, the baptism, the mountain and the cross (1:1; 1:11; 9:7; 15:39).

The servant who suffers

The Messiah gives his life as a ransom (10:45).

The secret of who he is

Jesus silences demons and the healed until the cross explains him (1:34; 1:44; 9:9).

Following on the way

Disciples carry a cross and serve others (8:34; 9:35).

Faith and fear

Mark often sets trust against terror (4:40; 5:36; 16:8).

Lessons from Mark

• Greatness means serving. Jesus led by giving himself away (10:43-45).
• Weak faith can still pray. Jesus answered a father who admitted his doubt (9:24).
• Failure is not the end. The risen Jesus sent word to Peter by name (16:7).
• Small gifts count. The widow's two coins outweighed the large ones (12:43).
• Stay awake. No one knows when he will return (13:35-37).

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