Mark

• DatesAbout AD 65–70 (debated)
• GenreGospels and Acts
• AuthorshipAnonymous; tradition names John Mark, Peter’s interpreter
• TimelineJesus the Messiah
• Key textsMark 1; Mark 8:27–38; Mark 15–16
• Read the textMark in the World English Bible
• Covered in classSession 4, Session 11

What the sources say, and how sure we are

• The text says

  The book begins “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” and gives no author. Its earliest manuscripts end at 16:8, and the passage in 16:9–20 is missing from the oldest copies such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus.Mark 1:1; Mark 16:8

• Outside evidence

  Papias, about AD 100–130, is reported by Eusebius as saying that Mark wrote down Peter’s teaching accurately but not in order. Irenaeus and others repeat the tradition that Mark was Peter’s interpreter.Papias, in Eusebius, Church History 3.39; Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1; 1 Pet 5:13

• Debated

  Most scholars hold that Mark was the first Gospel and that Matthew and Luke drew on it. The date is usually placed around the Jewish war with Rome (AD 66–70), because Mark 13 speaks of the temple’s destruction, though some place it earlier.Mark 13