Themes in the Gospel of Mark

The narrative is divided into several segments. The ones of primary concern here are the journey to Jerusalem, from 8:2710:52, Jesus in Jerusalem, from 11:113:37, The Passion, from 14:115:47, and the Empty Tomb, from 16:116:8 (Johnson, 1986). The three themes that characterize Mark are not all expressed in each segment of the narrative. The temple theme is part of the teaching in Jerusalem, along with the passion, although it is foreshadowed by Jesus' confrontation with the elites who represent the temple standpoint (as in 7:113, for example). Still, the culmination of the relationship between Jesus and his fellow Jews (and correspondingly between the Jewish community and new Christian community) begins with Jesus' entry into the temple at 11:11.

At the beginning, he merely entered the temple. This is juxtaposed with his encounter with the fig tree, which he cursed because it did not put forth fruit (11:12). After th

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environ, that the disciples are shown as understanding what he is trying to tell them. The pattern in Mark is for Jesus to indicate in some way that he is the son of Man who will be rejected and die, after which his disciples will be left to take forth his message. However, in each instance, the disciples appear to misunderstand the message and Jesus is forced to clarify his meaning. This happens three times between verses 8:22 and 10:52. Each time the indication is that the disciples have misunderstood Jesus' message and that discipleship would require a specific image of Jesus and a particular way of relating to God.  According to Fiorenza (1983), the essence of Mark's message is here in this focus on discipleship. For her, Mark's message is that discipleship requires a literal following of Jesus and his example, including following Jesus into suffering and death. Thus, this would be the destiny of the true disciple. Fiorenza noted that this is probably a reflection of the actual situation in Mark's time, during which Christians were being persecuted, beaten, and killed for the sake of their faith. This discussion of discipleship also involved a discussion of leadership. In the last of the three major discussions o
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Empty Tomb, Jesus Son, God Son, Annotated Bible, James John, Mark Jesus, Luke Johnson, According Fiorenza, Mark's Christians, Son Narrative, christian community, johnson 1986, suffering death, oxford annotated bible, segment narrative, god son, access god, temple theme, insiders outsiders, jewish community, entered temple,
Approximate Word count = 1300
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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