Exquisite reading (gospel of Mark)

Book Club December 2019. Gospel Mark

Yesterday I went looking for something general about Mark on the Internet. I found David Suchet (of Agatha Christie fame as Poirot) being introduced in St Paul's Cathedral in London and reading the whole of the book of Mark.

It is a two-hour session, so I haven't heard and watched all of it yet, but it is excellent. Not the King James Version, but he didn't actually name the translation (Ed. I believe it's NIV). Exquisite reading.*

David Suchet has been recorded reading the whole of the Bible!

Meanwhile, in the Reading Room on Friday I came across an article Bible Texts and Manuscripts by Walter Meredith, which I found to be a valuable source on the history of the publications which have gone into the evolution of the sacred word-- see Christian Science Journal April 1948. (Non-subscribers to jsh-online can request a copy of this article from any Christian Science Reading Room.) It gives a history of the biblical writings from their earliest days of papyrus, which, being fragile, suffered much from use. 

Meredith's article was written about the time of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it doesn't mention them. So no doubt scholars have updated some of the information that is given in the article.

Joyce Voysey

* Suchet mentions his fellow actor Alex McCowen who performed this gospel by heart in venues around the world, including the White House. Mr McCowen is mentioned by Bible teacher Madelon Maupin in her most recent teaching on Mark.

Ed. I found these paragraphs from Meredith's article most enlightening:

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 179): "The Old and the New Testaments contain self-evident truths that cannot be lost, but being translations, the Scriptures are criticized. Some dangerous skepticism exists as to the verification of our Master's sayings. But Christians and Christian Scientists know that if the Old Testament and gospel narratives had never been written, the nature of Christianity, as depicted in the life of our Lord, and the truth in the Scriptures, are sufficient to authenticate Christ's Christianity as the perfect ideal."

 ...as late as 303 A.D. the Roman emperor Diocletian issued an edict ordering that the churches should be abolished and all Christian writings destroyed.

What are we listening to?

Jesus was a great teacher. He often used parables to convey his ideas and many parables included farming analogies, as in the parable of the farmer and his seeds--see Mark chapter 4. We remember that not all of the seeds germinated and brought forth fruit. And so it is with our endeavours today.

Up before dawn

The gospel of Mark is the earliest of the four manuscripts (gospels) written concerning the appearance of the much-awaited anointed one. Isaiah had foretold his coming and Mark heralds him in his opening passage: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God (Mark 1: 1) - James Moffatt translation quoted throughout this post.

This was good news (the meaning of the word gospel) and Mark, the scribe of the disciple Peter, was assigned the task of getting the story down before all the eyewitnesses had passed on!

After quoting Isaiah, he verifies his story by referring to John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, who recognizes Jesus' status as 'one who is mightier' and who will 'baptize...with the holy Spirit' (Mark 1: 7 and 8). Finally, 'a voice from heaven' proclaims the Messiah: 'my Son, the Beloved...my delight' (Mark 1: 11).

Swift on the heels of this announcement, Jesus finds himself beset by temptation in a forty-day desert experience where 'he was in the company of wild beasts, but angels ministered to him' (verse 13).  The story then moves swiftly into Jesus' ministry as he goes about choosing his disciples from among the local fishermen. (This snappy gospel--there are just sixteen chapters--condenses Jesus' three year ministry into one.)

'Come, follow me and I will make you fish for men' he commands (Mark 1:17). Soon he is teaching in the local synagogue on the Sabbath and his teaching astounds the listeners. It's not like anything they've heard before and it upsets at least one person in the congregation (verse 23-27) who happens to get healed during that church meeting. Suddenly, Jesus is big news.

Later that night, Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law (I wonder how she was handling the idea of her son-in-law giving up his fishing to follow Jesus!) and soon 'the whole town [is] gathered at [their] front door (verse 33). 

The next day, way before the sun was up, Jesus had already found a quiet spot where he could be alone to pray. Surely he would have expected what happened next--the disciples tracked him down. He had a plan: he took them off to the synagogues of Galilee, healing by 'casting out daemons' (verse 39). I believe that a demon is another name for devil or evil, and readers might like to check out the definition of 'Devil' in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - see page 584. It begins: 'Evil; a lie...'

Despite the marvellous work Jesus was doing, the political atmosphere was fraught, and Mark tells us that 'Jesus could no longer enter any town openly' (verse 45).

What an astounding first chapter! It is filled with intensity and insight. We can feel the wave of something new and astonishing touching the lives of the people, not only more than two thousand years ago, but for us today too because the holy Spirit is an abiding force and Jesus' ministry is for all time as we too are invited to follow his path.

Julie Swannell