Similarities Between Mark And John
Each gospel of the Bible tells their own story of Jesus’ arrest. Matthew and Luke derive their narratives based upon Mark’s while John’s version of events is drastically different. Mark’s tale showcases Jesus’ agony while John’s tale depicts Jesus making peace with God’s ultimate plan. Audience criticism helps explain the variances between Jesus’ arrest within Mark and John.
In the gospel of Mark 14:32-52, Jesus and his disciples came to Gethsemane where he told them to sit and wait for him to return. Jesus took Peter, James, and John aside from the group and expressed his emotions and concerns to the three about the unfolding events to come. He fell to the ground and began to pray to God to not go through with the plan. Each time Jesus returned from praying, he found his disciples asleep instead of keeping watch. After the third hour of this …show more content…
Unfortunately, scholars cannot say for certain who penned the gospels of Mark and John for sure. What is known about the author of Mark is that he was a Greek Christian with his audience comprising of Christians converting from pagan religions (Ehrman 74). More than likely, Mark was written at a time during the early stages of the Jewish War against Rome between 66C.E. and 70C.E. (Ehrman 75). This was a time of immense suffering for the Christian community. Therefore, Mark also wanted to depict Jesus as suffering, so the audience could relate. Like Mark, whoever wrote the final copy of John, was also a Greek individual living outside of Palestine (Ehrman 125). John’s audience, on the contrary, consisted of Christians worshipers around the time of 95C.E. (Ehrman 47) to convince the people of Jesus’ identity of the Messiah (Ehrman 124). John wanted his audience to believe that Jesus was divine and the Son of God. Therefore, if you believe in Jesus, you will be
In the gospel of Mark 14:32-52, Jesus and his disciples came to Gethsemane where he told them to sit and wait for him to return. Jesus took Peter, James, and John aside from the group and expressed his emotions and concerns to the three about the unfolding events to come. He fell to the ground and began to pray to God to not go through with the plan. Each time Jesus returned from praying, he found his disciples asleep instead of keeping watch. After the third hour of this …show more content…
Unfortunately, scholars cannot say for certain who penned the gospels of Mark and John for sure. What is known about the author of Mark is that he was a Greek Christian with his audience comprising of Christians converting from pagan religions (Ehrman 74). More than likely, Mark was written at a time during the early stages of the Jewish War against Rome between 66C.E. and 70C.E. (Ehrman 75). This was a time of immense suffering for the Christian community. Therefore, Mark also wanted to depict Jesus as suffering, so the audience could relate. Like Mark, whoever wrote the final copy of John, was also a Greek individual living outside of Palestine (Ehrman 125). John’s audience, on the contrary, consisted of Christians worshipers around the time of 95C.E. (Ehrman 47) to convince the people of Jesus’ identity of the Messiah (Ehrman 124). John wanted his audience to believe that Jesus was divine and the Son of God. Therefore, if you believe in Jesus, you will be