CE, Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, known as the ôFather of Church Historyö quoted from Papias, Bishop of HierapolisÆ logion kyriakon exegesis (or the Interpretations of the LordÆs Sayings): ôMark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately everything that he rememberedö (Holy Bible, 1966, p. 851; The 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia Online, 1997, www.newadvent.org/cathen). Thus, his gospel may be assumed to be based mostly on eye-witness accounts of Simon Peter, the Apostle (Holy Bible, 1966). Additionally, however, Mark may have also used other sources. Biblical scholars have dubbed these other sources, or at least one other source, ôQö, while other biblical scholars believe that ôQö could be the Gospel of Thomas (Nickle, 1980; Schenk, 1992).
The Gospel of Mark then became the source material, along with ôQ,ö for the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. As Nickle points out, each evangelist was influenced by the particular needs and problems in specific Christian communities and ôeach author had his own particular theological interests and insightsö that he advanced to address those concerns (Nickle, 1982, p. 59). According to Stewart, each gospel then addresses a different aspect of Jesus. For example, Matthew writes to the Jewish believers about the Kingship of Jesus, Mark to the church in Rome about Jesus as a Servant, Luke to the Greeks about Jesus as a compassionate person and the Son of Man, and John, to anyone, about Jesus as the Son of God (2003).
As stated above, MarkÆs primary audience was the church in Rome. These believers probably had some knowledge of Christianity already since Mark frequently uses the term ôgospelö without explaining it (Nickle, 1982). However, As Nickle points out, Mark also specifically interprets some phrases from the Aramaic for those who may not understand, such as Gentiles, as seen in the raising of the dead girl in Mark 5:41, the healing of the blind man in...