Understanding the Book of Mark [An Overview]

The Book of Mark is one of the four Gospel accounts that begin the New Testament, and its author is widely believed to be John Mark, a relative of Barnabas who worked with both Peter and Paul. It’s the shortest Gospel account, and it gets straight to the point: the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

But don’t let its size fool you. Mark is action-packed and event-centric, informing its readers of all the amazing, surprising, and deeply meaningful things Jesus did during His few years walking among us. And most importantly, Mark helps us gain a more profound appreciation of who Jesus really is and what He came to do for us all.

So let’s break down what makes this book unique and what it adds to our understanding of Jesus:

• An overview of Mark’s narrative
• The author and historical context
• Mark’s focus and recurring themes
• Details of Jesus’ ministry that are exclusive to the book of Mark
• What makes the book interesting in its own right

Let’s start with an overview and then dig into the finer details.

An overview of Mark’s account

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The Gospel of Mark can be divided into 2-4 parts. Mark 1:1-13 and 16:1-20 can be viewed as the prologue and epilogue, and some readers may see them as separate parts from the rest of the book altogether.

Mark starts with some background setup about John the Baptist, linking the following events to Old Testament prophecy. Mark identifies John as the “messenger” or “herald” of Jesus’ arrival, chosen by God to prepare His people to receive the Messiah.¹ Jesus then appears, gets baptized by John, spends 40 days in the wilderness, resists Satan’s temptations, and kickstarts His public ministry—all within the first 15 verses!

The rest of the book takes us through the events of Jesus’s ministry as He teaches, performs miracles, and encounters opposition throughout Galilee, Gentile regions (like the Decapolis), and Judea.

Finally, He enters Jerusalem, where He eventually gets arrested and executed. The story ends with some of His female disciples discovering an empty tomb and learning about His resurrection (more on this later).

The overall narrative can be split into two halves.

Bible scholar Mark L. Strauss, PhD., sums up what the first half (Mark 1:14-8:26) is about:

“The first half of Mark’s Gospel presents Jesus as the mighty Messiah and Son of God, who acts with authority and power.”²

So Mark skips over the birth and early life of Jesus and goes straight to the beginning of His public ministry.

The story climaxes at Mark 8:27-30, where Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is. Peter answers on everyone’s behalf that Jesus is the Christ. His full identity is established.

Now we get the second half. And from this point on, the pace slows down and focuses on Jesus preparing for the culmination of His public ministry. It covers His journey toward Jerusalem, where He faces opposition, arrest, questioning, ridicule, torture, and death—while at the same time demonstrating His true mission as the Messiah.

Understanding why Mark wrote his account the way he did can be tricky without some of its background information. Why the controversial ending? Why the emphasis on sacrifice?

It makes more sense when we look at some important background details.

Context: The who, what, when, where, and why of Mark’s account

To understand what the Book of Mark is about, it’s helpful to consider some historical and cultural context, such as:

• Who wrote the Gospel according to Mark?
• Who was his intended audience?
• When was it written and why?

Let’s start by going over how John Mark’s identity and authorship were determined.

Who is the author?

Church tradition accepts that a man called John Mark is the author of this Gospel account, and here’s how that came to be a scholarly consensus.

Bishop Papias of Hierapolis was the first to identify Mark as the author, noting that he worked as the apostle Peter’s translator and scribe.³

The early church fathers Eusebius, Ireneaus, and Clement of Alexandria also wrote that Mark recorded Peter’s words and served as his interpreter.⁴

So, who was this particular Mark, since this was not an uncommon name?

Clues from Scripture show us that John Mark was the son of a woman named Mary, who likely played a significant role in the early church (Acts 12:12).

We can also read that he accompanied his cousin Barnabas⁵ and the apostle Paul on some of their missionary journeys. After what seemed to be a falling out with Paul, Barnabas took Mark under his wing and continued working with him (Acts 12:25-13:12; 15:36-40).

Mark eventually reconciled with Paul (2 Timothy 4:11; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24) and joined Peter (1 Peter 5:13). No doubt Peter would have a lot to say about Jesus. It’s widely believed that the Book of Mark is the result of Peter dictating to Mark.⁶

But was Mark simply writing down for the sake of keeping the story alive? Or did he have a specific audience in mind as well?

Dates and events—when did Mark write his account?

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact year Mark wrote his book, scholars point toward the 50s or 60s in the first century for a few reasons:⁷

• The church father Clement of Alexandria stated that Mark wrote his Gospel account while Peter ministered in Rome, which Eusebius says was during the reign of Emperor Claudius (around 41-54 AD).
• Irenaeus said Mark wrote after Peter and Paul departed. If he meant their deaths, then the account would have been from the late 60s or even the 70s—around the time of the Jewish War of 66-73 AD.
• Church tradition upholds that Peter and Paul were martyred around 64-67 AD, during Nero’s reign. If that’s the case, then it would make sense for Mark to write everything while Peter was still alive.

It would make sense for Mark to write about Jesus as a suffering savior to Roman Christians during the 60s, when Christians suffered for their faith under the rule of Emperor Nero. And this also helps understand what possibly prompted Mark to write.

Why Mark wrote his account

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Mark ultimately wrote the Gospel story to reveal and uplift Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. The first verse immediately tells us what it’s all about:

“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1, ESV).

As we read the story, we also come to understand that it’s about Jesus coming to earth to give His life to save others (Mark 10:45).

And given the historical context, Mark likely had other reasons as well.

One reason was to preserve the eyewitness accounts of Jesus for future generations.⁸

Mark may have also written the Gospel story to counteract false teachings such as the “divine man” belief that taught Jesus was a magician, or Docetism, which claimed that Jesus was not a real human but only appeared to have a physical body.” (And that could explain why Mark’s account has more references to Jesus’s humanity than the other Gospel accounts.⁹

A practical reason was likely to encourage believers who were suffering during a time of persecution. After 64 AD, under the Roman Emperor Nero, “Christians were charged with incendiarism and were torn apart by lions and dogs, crucified, killed by animals, and burned alive as torches to light nocturnal games…”¹⁰

But overall, it’s not hard to see how Mark’s portrait of Jesus is one of a messianic king who conquers evil by way of sacrificing Himself. It’s a theme we can sense throughout the book.

Major themes

Mark shows that Jesus’ role as the Messiah is complex and intertwined with several themes, including:

• Enduring hardship/sin
• What it means to follow Jesus, even when it’s hard
• What the kingdom of God truly means
• Conflict and spiritual warfare
• Jesus’s authority

Enduring hardships and bearing the full weight of sin

Once Jesus’s messianic identity is confirmed to His disciples, the related themes of suffering, self-denial, and sacrifice continue throughout the rest of the narrative. Jesus demonstrates that, while He is the Son of God and the long-awaited messianic king, He is also a servant to the very humans He created, allowing His body and spirit to be crushed by the sin of the world, as prophesied in Isaiah 53.

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. … and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6, NKJV).

Mark records that Jesus was rejected, betrayed, condemned, mocked, tortured, and killed (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). He endured this immense suffering to bring salvation to all of humanity and to share in the experience, in the fullest sense possible, of what we struggle against in this life.

It was at His death on the Cross when a Roman centurion recognized His identity as the beloved Son of God (Mark 15:39).

The Jews in Jesus’ day hoped the prophesied Messiah would be a triumphant king who would restore Israel as a favored nation under God, rather than under the Roman government. Many even thought he would overthrow the Romans once and for all. So the idea of the Messiah sacrificing himself was unthinkable, let alone dying what was considered a humiliating death at the hands of his enemies.¹¹

While the emphasis on sacrifice and perseverance might feel intimidating or unsettling, Mark didn’t intend to scare or discourage his readers. He wanted to encourage their faith in the one who had suffered the most for them and triumphantly came through the other side.

But even with this focus on the suffering Jesus endured, let’s be clear that Mark isn’t suggesting that we all must be destined for significant suffering. In fact, some of the intense hardships Jesus suffered were so we wouldn’t have to—such as the eternal, destructive consequences of sin.

All in all, Mark emphasizes Jesus’s willingness to suffer for us. It’s not a warning that a Christian’s life will be nothing but pain. Even though there will be difficulties to endure, no life is without struggle. And Mark helps believers see that they’re not alone in their struggles.

So we can trust that if Jesus could endure, then through the power of His Holy Spirit, so can we.

That would also explain why Mark ties suffering and sacrifice with discipleship.

Discipleship: what it really means to follow Jesus

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Each time Jesus mentioned His upcoming death and resurrection, He wanted to make sure His disciples truly knew what it meant to follow Him.

When He first revealed that He would suffer and die, we see Peter get deeply offended by this idea. So he tried to tell Him it couldn’t possibly happen. But Jesus had to rebuke Peter and remind him of His true mission, warning him that he was not “thinking about God’s concerns, but human concerns (Mark 8:33, CSB). And to help everyone around understand why He said this to Peter, Jesus followed up the rebuke with this explanation: “If anyone wants to follow after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (verse 34, CSB).

This is a call to make Jesus, the highest example of a servant leader, the center of our lives, rather than always chasing after our own whims, aspirations, or pursuits of power. Especially to the Jews at that time, who were hoping for a messiah who would bring military and political victory, this verse turned that idea upside down.

So while it may sound like it’s saying that following Him is all about sacrifice and suffering, it’s really about commitment, sincerity, purpose, and thinking bigger—from a larger, greater perspective than just our own.¹²

When Jesus mentioned His death the second time, His disciples were afraid to talk about it. And somehow, that led them to start bickering over who would have the highest rank in God’s kingdom. So Jesus gave them some more advice about servant leadership: “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35, NKJV).

To prove His point, He drew their attention to a child, explaining that following Him means welcoming others along, with the same attentive care as one would give a child. There’s no room for worrying about who is better or greater than who—there’s only room for love, service, humility, and sharing what we find, not hoarding it or rationing it out.

And to keep this strange trend going, the third time Jesus declares He’ll be tortured and killed, Mark documents how James and John ask Him to make them His right-hand men.

Jesus answers them outright that they don’t truly realize what they’re asking for. He adds that His followers shouldn’t try to exercise authority over others, giving a foothold to pride. True greatness and power come from humility and service (Mark 10:33-44).

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (verse 45, NKJV).

We keep seeing how difficult it was for the disciples to give up the idea of a messianic king who would overthrow the Roman Empire and restore God’s kingdom on earth with militant force.

(And before we look on them with disdain for harboring hopes like this…think about how hard it would be to give up a treasured, shared belief that had been reinforced from early on, and exchange it for what felt like the exact opposite.)

Mark’s coverage helps us see how Jesus’ approach bends their minds in ways they struggle to comprehend. Unconditional love? Humility? Service? Sacrifice?

People also struggled to grasp how, alongside all that, there’s also joy, compassion, peace, contentment, and so much more (see John 14:26, Galatians 5:22-23). Most of what we would truly be giving up is worldly, fleeting, and ultimately unsatisfying—like pride, greed, envy, materialism, and fear.

And whatever God asks of us is ultimately for our good. Everything He leads us to do draws us closer to Him and enables us to love others more. It is also used to transform our characters to reflect Jesus (see Romans 8:28-29).

Mark’s writing uses more showing than telling, and that can give us a solid understanding of how God’s kingdom actually operates.

The kingdom of God

The “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven” is often how Jesus would refer to the spiritual reality that exists now and will be fully realized and experienced in the future. The concept of God’s kingdom helps us see what it would be like to live in a reality completely governed by God’s love, and without sin, selfishness, or fear interfering.

Jesus begins His earthly ministry declaring “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14-15, ESV). This would have excited His listeners, who were waiting for God to establish His ways once again (Mark 11:10; 15:43).

His parables of the sower, the growing seed, and the mustard seed gave insights into the mysterious ways God’s kingdom operates (Mark 4:1-32). It’s experienced through childlike faith, service, and love for God and others. These enable us to let go of our misplaced trust in our own resources and cut off anything that hinders us from it (Mark 10:14-15, 23-24, 12:28-34; 9:45-48).

Jesus says there are people among His audience who wouldn’t die until they saw the kingdom of God “present with power” (Mark 9:1, NKJV). This was a nod to the Transfiguration that was about to happen in the view of Peter, James, and John,¹³ but Jesus was also reinforcing that He’s not just spouting information, He’s talking about a real, powerful, spiritual reality to be taken seriously.

It also means that God is always present with us, and His kingdom—His ways, His salvation, His power, His love, etc.—is also a reality we can experience and share now, even while we wait for the fullness of it when He returns.

And He reminded His disciples of all this right before His betrayal and arrest set His final earthly events in motion. During their last supper together, He promised He wouldn’t “drink from the fruit of the vine again, until that day when I drink it, new, in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25, NASB).

Conflict and spiritual warfare

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While reading Mark’s account of the Gospel, it can feel like Jesus is in a constant battle, both spiritually and physically. This gives us a peek behind the scenes into the cosmic war between the forces of good and evil, also referred to as “the great controversy.”

Jesus encounters conflict, misunderstanding, debate, and confrontations with:

• Religious leaders (Mark 2:6-12; 3:1-30; 11-12)
• His own family (Mark 3:20-21, ESV)
• Forces of nature (Mark 4:35-41; 6:45-51)
• Demons working through people (Mark 1:23-27, 34; 5:1-15; 9:14-29)
• Satan himself (Mark 1:13)

These interactions reveal Satan’s influence, hoping to prevent God’s kingdom from expanding its influence. So this spiritual army throws everything at Jesus and tries to use anyone they can to deter His mission.

Jesus warns His disciples that they will experience conflict as well. Many would witness their fair share of war, natural disasters, and disease. Some would even experience conflict within their own families due to their faith (Mark 9:29-30; 13:7-13).

Yet Mark wanted his readers to find encouragement in seeing how Jesus always comes out victorious. His opponents are silenced, rebuked, and forced to back down. And even if it seems bleak for us, He promises that He will never leave us. His resurrection also testifies that God will make everything right again and make up for what we go through.

Jesus’s authority and power

Mark uses the conflicts in his account to demonstrate Jesus’s divine authority as the Son of God.

• He outsmarts His opponents who question Him, seeing right through to their ill intent (Mark 2:8).
• Demons are powerless to resist when He casts them out
• He has power over nature itself

While Mark records Jesus’s emotions to help us understand His human nature, he doesn’t downplay the fact that Jesus is also divine.

Mark likely wanted his readers to remember that no earthly or demonic force could overpower Jesus, who overcame all hardship, even death itself. This would strengthen their resolve to cling to Him in difficult times and trust in His power and promises.

What makes the book of Mark unique

Even though it’s one of the Synoptic Gospels (meaning it’s similar to Matthew and Luke), Mark’s account reveals its own style and characteristics through the following:

• The book’s literary features
• How it shows Jesus’ emotions
• Details and perspectives that are found nowhere else
• The confusing ending

Literary techniques and themes

Mark uses different techniques that add to his writing style, including:

• Pace and tone
• Irony
• Triads and sandwich narratives

Pace and tone

It can feel like the Gospel according to Mark follows one big thing right after another, with no breaks in momentum.

Though some of his stories include more details than other accounts, Mark’s writing generally moves at a faster pace, often using a phrase we translate as “immediately” in English.

The word in Greek is eutheōs, which can be translated as “immediately,” “straightway,” “forthwith,” etc.¹⁴

Mark uses the phrase 40 times, compared to Matthew’s 15 times, Luke’s eight times, and John’s four. It creates a sense of action and urgency throughout the narrative. It’s possible Mark did this to reveal something about Jesus.

Mark L. Strauss says, “Mark contains more miracles than the other Gospels… the narrator provides few examples of teaching, focusing instead on His powerful deeds.”¹⁵

Theologian Peter Leithart agrees, saying, “Jesus is what He does.”¹⁶

According to Mark, Jesus practices what He preaches because He is the embodiment of His teachings.

Irony

Mark uses irony as a literary device to reflect the Gospel’s most surprising ideas: God’s chosen one is a king who suffers and dies for His enemies, and the kingdom of God is for the broken, poor, and outsiders, not the self-righteous elite who want everyone to think they have it all figured out.

In literature, irony plays on sarcasm and the element of surprise, defying expectations and letting the audience in on secrets that the characters don’t know.

Mark’s ultimate example of irony is his depictions of Jesus Himself. He’s the long-awaited Messiah who gets rejected by His own people, even though they claimed to have been waiting for Him. He’s also a king who suffers apparent defeat so He can introduce His kingdom into this world. He gets “conquered” by Satan in order to conquer him. And this goes against our expectations of conquest, which we usually picture as power-grabbing, not willingly sacrificing oneself.

Mark uses ironic moments to drive us back to that point. The religious elite accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil, and mocked Him as being someone who could save others, but not Himself. The irony is that they’re the ones who are opposing God’s work and don’t (or won’t) realize that if Jesus wanted to save this broken world, then He couldn’t save Himself from the Cross. It was usually the “outsiders”—lepers, beggars, Gentiles, tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.—who more easily recognized Jesus’s identity and power.

Using groups of three

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Another common element found in Mark’s writing is how he uses patterns of threes. This added layers to the message and highlights different perspectives by making events reflect or contrast each other.¹⁷

Remember the section on discipleship when we looked at the three times Jesus predicted His death? Each prediction was followed by a teaching on how to follow Him. Mark uses the repetition to add more depth each time.¹⁸

Mark also sandwiches three stories together to help the reader compare and contrast the patterns. On the topic of discipleship, Jesus sends His disciples out for ministry. When they return, He invites them to rest before people come to look for them. Between these events is the execution of John the Baptist.¹⁹ Jesus warned His disciples that not everyone would accept them (Mark 6:11). John’s death would be an example of what Jesus meant. But He also encourages them to rest when they return (verse 30-31), showing that while discipleship can be exciting and tough at times, Christ offers us rest in Him so we can enjoy the adventure of following Him and have hope and peace when it’s not easy.

Another way Mark adds to the Gospel story is through Jesus’ human nature, especially His emotions.

Jesus’ complex emotions

Mark’s portrayal of Jesus is relatable because we see Him experience familiar emotions and react in ways that feel relatable to us.

• With fervor, He sprang into action to counteract something harmful or misleading (Mark 1:25; 8:33)
• He was moved with compassion when He witnessed suffering (Mark 1:41; 6:34; 8:2)
• He became angry when He witnessed injustice or oppression (Mark 3:5; 10:14)
• He experienced sorrow, grief, and disappointment (Mark 3:5; 6:6; 7:34; 8:12; 14:34)
• He loved, even in difficult circumstances (Mark 10:21)
• He felt hunger (Mark 11:12)
• He felt troubled and distressed (Mark 14:33)
• He cried out in pain and overwhelm (Mark 15:34)

Not only does this show that Christ was a real and emotional human being when He walked on earth, but also that He can relate to us and help us. He knows what it’s like to be frustrated. He felt the pangs of rejection and misunderstanding. He even knows what it’s like to feel the crushing weight of depression.

And because He experienced what we experience without giving in to temptation or sinning, He can give us grace to cover our failures and help us move forward (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Jesus’s emotions add layers to the narrative. And Mark doesn’t just end there. His account is loaded with details that aren’t found in Matthew, Luke, or John.

Stories with unique perspectives

Most of the stories in the Gospel according to Mark can be found in the other accounts, especially the other Synoptics (Matthew and Luke). However, Mark includes some differences or unique additions.

• Because Mark is recording Peter’s eyewitness account, he crams in as many important details as possible. Here’s a list of examples:
• Jesus was around wild beasts during His 40-day venture in the wilderness (1:12)
• Jesus is “moved with compassion” when He heals a leper (1:40)
• Only Mark records the parable of the growing seed (4:26-29).
• Mark gives more details about Jesus’s encounters with a demoniac from Gennesaret and the father of a demon-possessed boy (5:1-20; 9:14-27).
• James and John ask Jesus for the highest positions of honor, while in Matthew, it’s their mother who approaches Him (10:25-45; see Matthew 20:20-28).
• Only Mark mentions the blind beggar named Bartimaeus (10:46-52).
• Jesus won’t let anyone bring “goods,” or wares to be peddled, into the temple after He cleanses it (11:16, CSB).
• Jesus includes “mind” when He recites the commandment to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength (12:29-30).
• Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary see where Jesus is buried (15:47).

And although Mark’s points of view may be different from Matthew’s and Luke’s, it doesn’t affect their validity. Instead, it adds depth.

The confusing ending (Mark 16:9-20)

Mark’s ending to the story is unique because scholars speculate that it abruptly ends at verse 8, meaning that verses 9-20 didn’t exist in the original manuscript and are believed to have been added later.²⁰ If that’s the case, then it’s possible Mark did this to appeal to his readers on how they’ll respond to the Gospel.

This might feel weird to us at first, because that would mean Mark’s account ends on an open-ended note, with people reacting from the news about Jesus’ resurrection, then running off and leaving us with the question of what happened next. This is strikingly different from Matthew 28, Luke 24, and John 20-21, which depict Jesus appearing to people and then ascending to heaven, with witnesses.

Strauss proposes the possibilities that maybe the original ending was “lost in the transmission process,” or the abrupt ending was intentional.²¹

There’s also this thoughtful explanation from Christian musician and biblical studies scholar, Michael Card:

“The scene outside the tomb with the women fleeing in fear and amazement is the single moment that links the first followers of Jesus, who had actually seen and heard Him, with you and me. Mark means for us to share in the emotionality of this final scene. In a sense, every other moment had been leading up to this one. It is the supreme moment, like others earlier, where believing comes before seeing and faith is born before the appearance of proof…”²²

Similarly, Strauss points out that the “narrator leaves the readers with the proclamation of the resurrection and an implicit call to decision.”²³

So regardless of the exact reason of the differences in ending, it can always be helpful to ask ourselves, after reading verse 8, How will we respond to the message of the resurrection? And will we follow Jesus, even when it is difficult?

Reading and studying Mark today

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For being the shortest Gospel in the New Testament, it is loaded with information and insights scholars continue to discover and discuss. So it’s likely that even if we read this whole Gospel account all the way through several times, we’ll still find new bits of inspiration each time.

Overall, we can appreciate how John Mark’s portrait of Jesus gives us a glimpse into how complex our Savior is. He lived among humanity as the unstoppable Son of God, whose divinity overwhelmed demons. But He also experienced deep human emotions and did not keep Himself from experiencing any of the human struggles that came His way. We see how He can identify with us and lead us to the best path forward.

Mark certainly shows that following Jesus isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. And his mysterious ending calls for us to decide for ourselves how our hearts and minds will react and respond to the knowledge that Jesus not only died a death meant for sinners like us, but He conquered death and offers us complete salvation and reconciliation through Him.

We’ve learned about Mark’s writing, but what about John Mark himself?

1. Luke’s account reveals that John was related to Jesus through Mary’s relative Elizabeth. Matthew, Luke, and John give us more details about his work, including Jesus’s baptism, John’s discourses with the religious leaders and his followers, and how some of his followers became Jesus’s disciples. [↵]
2. Strauss, Mark L., PhD, Four Portraits, One Jesus: A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels, 1st ed., Zondervan Academic (2007), p. 17. [↵]
3. Nichol, F.D., The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5 (1956 ed.), p. 563. [↵]
4. Card, Michael, Mark: The Gospel of Passion, InterVarsity Press, pp. 192-193. [↵]
5. Most Bible translations of Colossians 4:10 call Mark “Barnabas’s cousin” or “Mark the cousin of Barnabas.” The KJV, however, uses the phrasing, “sister’s son to Barnabas,” so other sources may vary in how this relationship is described, based on which Bible translation the author used for reference. [↵]
6. “The Gospel According to Mark,” Britannica.; Nichol, F.D., p. 563. [↵]
7. Strauss, p. 203-204. [↵]
8. Strauss, p. 204. [↵]
9. Ibid. [↵]
10. Graetzer, Daniel G., “Nero Persecutes the Christians,” EBSCO Research Database (2022). [↵]
11. Card, p. 111. [↵]
12. NKJV Andrews Study Bible, Andrews University Press, p. 1309, comment on Mark 8:34. [↵]
13. Lehmann, Richard, PhD, “Advent on Ice?” Ministry Magazine (Nov. 1984); “Commentary on Mark 9,” BlueLetterBible.org. [↵]
14. Strong’s Concordance, G2112 – eutheōs, via BlueLetterBible.org. [↵]
15. Strauss, p. 179. [↵]
16. Leithart, Peter J., The Four: A Survey of the Gospels, Canon Press (2010), loc. 1734. [↵]
17. Strauss, p. 177. [↵]
18. Ibid. [↵]
19. Strauss, p. 176. [↵]
20. Strauss, p. 193. [↵]
21. Ibid. [↵]
22. Card, p. 190. [↵]
23. Strauss, p. 193. [↵]

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