The Authority of Mark’s Gospel

The Authority of Mark for the first Christians

The first Christian Church believed the Gospel of Mark to be authoritative. This means they believed it. We know this is true, because the writers of the gospels of Matthew and Luke included most of it in their Gospels. They wouldn’t have done this if they hadn’t thought Mark’s Gospel was a trustworthy account that they could rely on. They must have felt that it was close to the teaching of the apostles and to Jesus himself.

The Authority of Mark for Christians today

Christians believe that Mark’s Gospel has authority for them today. They believe that Scripture is the word of God. God inspired the people who wrote it to guide Christians and what they believe. This means they still see it as trustworthy in lots of ways.

The Church uses the Gospel in worship - at Mass - and many Christians study the Gospels to learn more about their faith.

Problems

However, it is hard to say Mark is perfectly trustworthy, in the way that a tape recording or video might be. Human memory isn’t perfect, so we might not have the words of Jesus exactly. Sometimes stories are simplified or changed in other ways when they are told over and over again. The events in the gospels might not be in exactly the same order as they happened. Even so, most Christian scholars who study the Bible don’t think the whole thing was made up.

Understanding Authority

One way to understand how Christians see the authority of the Gospel today is like this: what the Gospel does is tell us what Christ was like and what the meaning of his life is. The exact words of Christ would be valuable - but more important than these is his personality and what happened to him. The Gospel of Mark has authority because it is so close to Jesus (perhaps through Peter), what he did, said, and what happened to him.

Some Christians have different points of view on how true the stories in the Gospels are.

0 Questions

  1. What does it mean to say Mark’s gospel has authority.
  2. How do we know that the first Christians thought Mark’s Gospel was authoritative?
  3. What do Christians believe about Mark’s Gospel today?
  4. How do Christians use Mark’s Gospel nowadays? (give two examples)
  5. Name three problems with believing that Mark’s Gospel is literally accurate, like a tape recording or a day to day diary.
  6. In your own words, explain what it means when Christians say that Mark’s gospel has authority for them.
  7. Here are three statements about Mark’s Gospel. For each one say whether you agree with it and explain why?
  1. I believe that the Gospel is literally true - it all happened exactly as it written down
  2. I believe that the Gospel is just a fairy story - completely made up.
  3. I believe that the Gospel tries to explain what Jesus was really like, and what the meaning is of his teachings and what happened to him.

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