The Jewish Gospel of Mark: An Invitation

By Dr. Eliyahu Lizorkin-Eyzenberg

January 23, 2018

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This is a very exciting time for me personally. My heart is longing to begin a new adventure through another gospel - one I have not previously studied in depth. Many thousands of people have traveled with me through the incredible paths of John’s Gospel. This time I invite you to go with me as we encounter Jesus by following the roadmap we know as the Gospel of Mark. This new study is essentially my ongoing journal, documenting my heart’s journey through this gospel.

Why did I choose to deal with the Gospel of Mark now? Well… there is an interesting and almost anecdotal reason behind it. I chose this Gospel because of how different it is from the Gospel of John.

It can be said that some people divide humanity into basic categories (men and women, rich and poor, west and east, educated and uneducated, etc.).  However, one of my mentors, Prof. Daniel Boyarin, aptly states, "...the world (well at least the Christian world) is divided into those who love the Gospel of John and those who love the Gospel of Mark!" While this may appear to be merely a humorous anecdote, there is a lot of truth in it. These two Gospels are very different in their approach to chronicling Jesus' ministry, the content they include (or exclude), and their style. As a result, it is only natural that people with different styles, interests, and approaches relate more to one Gospel than to the other.

Some may take the above statement as valuing some parts of the Holy Scriptures over others. They may argue that preferring one Gospel over another is contrary to honoring what theologians call “the whole counsel of God” – placing all of the scriptures on equal footing. I do not see it this way.

We have many examples from New Testament that justify this perspective. The New Testament authors certainly do not quote from or allude to all the books of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in equal measure. They too have their “favorites.” The three books from which the New Testament quotes most often are Isaiah, Psalms, and Deuteronomy. Incidentally, copies of Isaiah, Psalms, and Deuteronomy were also the three books that were found in the greatest number in Qumran when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. There is no denying that of the four Gospels, John and Mark took the lead in capturing the spiritual imagination of early Christ-followers. Now that we have slowly walked through John's Gospel, it seems like a wonderful idea to see what the Gospel of Mark (which almost certainly predates it) has to say about Jesus.

For many years it has been customary in New Testament studies to divide the four Gospels in terms of their greater or lesser "Jewishness." This is a nonsensical idea. For example, the most traditional position is to say that the Gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of all the Gospels, while the Gospel of Mark is the least Jewish. If you have read my book The Jewish Gospel of John or taken part in our Israel Bible Center learning community (and if you haven't, you should!), you know my point of view on this. I think all the Gospels, including the Gospel of Luke, come to us from a first-century Jewish matrix. All four canonical gospels are authored from within the contours of the rich and diverse Jewish theologies and missiologies of their day.

When any modern Christ-follower reads the Gospels through the "lens" of the first-century Israelites, new and surprising insights emerge.

Therefore, with this brief introduction, I invite you, my dear friend, to join me in my exploration and reread the Gospel of Mark as a first-century Jewish document. May the Lord open our minds and hearts to receive his gracious teachings. May He add His great blessings to our readings and interpretations of His magnificent word!