I have, in this article, been sharing information about the New Testament (NT) and presenting the books which comprise it in chronological order. The first books to be included in the NT were seven of Paul’s Letters. After that, the Gospel of Mark was written, even though there was probably a text of the Sayings of Jesus (Manuscript “Q”) that was extant. As I shared in the last article, Mark’s Gospel is essentially     separated into three parts.

Part One: Galilee

Part two: Journey to Jerusalem

In this issue I would share information about the third part of Mark’s Gospel.

Part Three: Jerusalem

Part three of Mark’s Gospel makes up almost 40 percent of his Gospel and includes chapters 11 – 16. These chapters present Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt at the beginning of the week, on Sunday. By this act He provocatively acted out an Old Testament text that speaks of a king of peace coming to Jerusalem on a donkey. By His act, he signified he would banish the weapons of war from the land and speak peace to the nations. On the following day, Monday, it is recorded that He performed another public prophetic protest by indicting the temple – the center of native collaboration with imperial power – as a den of violent robbers.

Tuesday, representatives of the Temple authorities challenge Him with a series of questions in the presence of crowds of   pilgrims. They plan to arrest Him, but want first to discredit Him with the crowd, who like what He is teaching. The authorities fail to accomplish this task. Wednesday, He is betrayed by a follower named Judas. Thursday, after He and His followers share a final meal, they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where the authorities arrest Him. Then on Friday He is condemned to death and crucified.

On Saturday it was the Sabbath, and nothing, in accord with Jewish custom, happened. The Church’s understanding that Christ descended into Hades on Saturday only came into Christian history later.

Mark’s gospel concludes with what is known as Easter Sunday. His story is very brief, only eight verses long (16:1-8), and it all fits into an hour or so of early Eastern morning shortly   after dawn. The other gospels have significantly longer Easter stories and continue them into the next days and perhaps weeks. Compared to Mark’s eight verses, Matthew has twenty-eight, Luke fifty-three, and John fifty-six.

It is believed that Mark felt there was sufficient information shared in the various Christian communities about the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus that he didn’t need to include a great deal of information. Each of the other Gospels had a different focus and intent and therefore include more information.