Pericopes of Peter, the Gospel of Mark

Early in this week we will finish up Paul's letter to the Romans and begin a read through the Gospel of Mark, a favorite of mine.  On Sundays I take a break from the chapter-per-day posting and examine a topic or do an overview of a book, so today I will look briefly at what we know about the Gospel of Mark.

Tradition has it that some thirty years or more after the death of Christ, Mark wrote down the oral history about Jesus, as given by Peter.  This "Gospel" consists of a series of energetic brief stories, called pericopes, that fit well with oral storytelling.  One can imagine Peter -- an eyewitness of Jesus and one of three disciples in Jesus's inner circle -- later telling these stories in various sermons and in various synagogues.  These pericopes include small descriptive details seen by an eyewitness account.  John Mark would then have written these down later to preserve the oral teachings.

There are some good online references for a study in Mark.  Here are a few I found.

A Jesus Creed blog post discusses the 30 year transition from oral history of Jesus to printed reports as given in the gospel of Mark.

The Bible Project has a nice video survey of Mark.  (I recommend the nice book summaries from the Bible Project!) As emphasized in this video, Mark's goal is to introduce Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

Overview Bible has a simple introduction and synopsis of this book.

EasyEnglish (of Wycliffe translators) has a commentary on Mark intended for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.

Here is another Jesus Creed blog post on the healing of the blind man in Mark 8 and the immediate question it raises, "Who is this man, Jesus?!"

Rummaging through online resources I found this 8 hour (!) youtube video study through the Gospel of Mark.  (It is in a "King James only" viewpoint.  No, I don't really recommend this....)

But I do recommend this commentary by William Barclay. I am trying to read through this book as I post the various chapters.

Make sure you know how to pronounce "pericopes" (purr -- rick -- cup-- pees) and then impress your friends with your Bible training!  No.  Sorry. Don't!