The Gospel According To Mark.

The Gospel is The Good Message (euaggelion; G2098), or The Good News or The Glad Tidings (euaggelizo; G2097).

According to Mark. This is The Good Message, or The Good News (Glad Tidings) by the account of Mark, told by Holy Spirit through the person and personality of Mark.

Here is some background on Mark by Chuck Smith’s C-2000 Through The Bible Commentary:

Mark was a young man when Jesus was crucified, perhaps about twelve years old. So, the gospel that he writes is considered to be the understanding that he received from listening to Peter relate the stories of Jesus Christ. Peter does call Mark his son; that would be son in the faith. And Mark was a companion of Peter through much of Peter’s ministry, and thus, heard Peter relate these stories of Jesus Christ. And so in his gospel, you have pretty much Peter’s account as written by Mark of Jesus.

There is only one part of Mark’s gospel that he probably wrote from personal experience. It’s a little insertion in the gospel of Mark that you do not find in the other gospels, and it is concerning the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Mark’s gospel tells us that there was a young boy there about twelve years old. And one of the soldiers grabbed him, but he wriggled out of his coat and left his coat in the soldier’s hand and ran home. And that is believed to be Mark’s personal account of his own experience as a little twelve-year-old boy. He happened to be there in the garden with Jesus and his disciples that night that Jesus was betrayed.

Mark’s mother’s name was Mary. She was a wealthy woman. She lived in Jerusalem and her home was a gathering place for the church. When Peter was imprisoned by Herod, the church had met in her home for that prayer meeting. And so when Peter was released by the action of the angel and came to the house and knocked on the door, and the young maiden came and saw it was Peter, and was so excited she didn’t even open the door, but ran back in and told the people, “Peter’s here.” And they said, “Ah, you’ve seen a ghost.” That was the home of Mark. His mother’s name was Mary, a wealthy woman who lived in Jerusalem. Her home was the gathering place for the early church.

Her brother’s name was Barnabas, and he was the companion of Paul on the first missionary journey. Mark also went with them on that first missionary journey, but Mark left them. And we don’t know why he left. There is speculation that Mark was afraid to go on into the more hostile areas of Asia, but that is only speculation. We do not know why Mark left Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. But Paul evidently was offended by his leaving, so that when Barnabas and Paul were getting ready to leave on their second missionary journey and Barnabas wanted to take his nephew Mark along, Paul objected strenuously because of the fact that he had left the first time. And from this, the contention between Paul and Barnabas became so great that Barnabas took Mark and went off himself to the island of Cypress. And Paul took Silas and headed on out to Asia. However, this breach between Paul and Mark did not last long, for Paul makes mention of Mark being in Rome with him and ministering to his needs.

It was probably while Mark was in Rome with Paul that he wrote this gospel. It is one of the earliest gospels written, and thought to be written some time before the year sixty-three. It is thought to be written by Mark for the Romans, as he was there with Paul in Rome. Inasmuch as whenever he deals with any of the Jewish customs, he takes the time to explain it, which would not be necessary if he were writing to the Jews. But it is thought that he wrote this gospel for the Romans. Mark is brief in his style. He doesn’t go into a lot of details, but he just briefly relates the stories and he covers, therefore, a lot of territory.

So we see that Mark was about 12, and was likely present, when Jesus was taken to be crucified. Mark’s mother Mary was wealthy and used her house for meetings of the Early Church. Barnabas, of Barnabas and Paul, was Mark’s uncle. And Mark was a companion of Peter during much of Peter’s ministry; which is likely where the bulk of Mark’s account of The Good News came from. It also appears that Mark was in Rome ministering to Paul in prison when Mark wrote this account of The Good News, and that this account was likely written to the audience of the Romans (a Gentile audience not familiar with Jewish ways).