"Hellenists"--Jews who spoke Greek . . . in the synagogue, and related themselves to Hellen istic culture. The last, the Apostles, under Barnabas and Paul, worked with synagogues in what is now Turkey and Greece, ministering especially to "godfearers"--Greek men and women attracted to Judaism but who were not proselytes (Eberts 305-6).
Eberts describes the distinctive theologies of each group as partly rival conceptions of the correct versus heretical Christian message, partly a function of the distinct populations targeted in the apostolic era of the Roman Empire as either Jewish or Gentile, partly a function of emergent institutional dynamics of the period. Peter's mission extended beyond largely Jewish Galilean village culture to Rome, where it ended in A.D. 64, and where Gentiles predominated. The Gospel of Mark has been traditionally associated with Peter; 1 Peter makes a reference to "my son Mark," and one tradition has the evangelist working as Peter's secretary (Biblical, 1999).
The larger point is that Mark as a whole, including that first parable, is
...