Commentary on the Gospel of Mark

Home

Mark was a young student of Jesus Christ who was apparently with him in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night Jesus was arrested. His mother organised the last supper in the upper room in Jerusalem. Later Mark became a student and close friend of St Peter and accompanied him to Rome. This Gospel was probably written down during Nero‘s persecution of the Christians in Rome and the Jewish revolt, as suggested by internal references to both a war in Judea and to persecution. This Commentary is written with a historical focus aiming to extract what can be discovered about the historical person of Jesus and his earliest context, but also to discover the theological and psycho-spiritual meaning of the text – how can these ancient writings speak to us, in our current human situation ? Does the message of Christ (that the Kingdom of God is among us, and that love, not the love of power, should be our goal) still have useful lessons for us today, even amidst our technologically complex world ? By tradition Mark ended up in Egypt and became the first Bishop of Alexandria, and is greatly esteemed by the Coptic Church. He is also Patron Saint of Venice, which claimed to bring his remains back from Egypt to lie at the great Patriarchal Basilica of St Mark in Venice. Mark has been likened in iconogaphy to a Lion, which means that we need to be courageous to become true disciples of Christ. (The Lion motif also occurs in the Gospel of Thomas). This commentary draws on Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Greek, Latin and Egyptian studies, to try and track down the roots of Christ’s teachings in all their depth. It also explores the many levels of interpretation which the New Testament requires: historical, literal, figurative, mystical, and allegorical. It draws on the concepts of transpersonal history to enable a comprehensive overview of both the details of the text, but also their wider archetypal, symbolic, psychological, spiritual and historical meanings to unfold. It draws on Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Quaker, Protestant, Qabalistic, Hermetic, Gnostic, Platonic, Druidical and transpersonal ideas.