It is my intent, in sharing thoughts about the Gospel of Mark, that my readers will begin to have a new and inspired understanding of the Gospels. They are not meant to present history in a strict sense but are historical in that they present the life and death of Jesus. They are apologetic documents, that is documents that are meant to inspire belief in Jesus. They are documents which grew out of the oral tradition of the followers of Jesus and which became formulated as a part of Christian worship.

Mark is given to the repetition of certain key words or phrases if we pay close attention to his gospel. For example, he uses some form of the verb “release” to indicate both the forgiveness of sin and the healing of a dis-ease. In chapter 1 he says that John the Baptizer was “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the release of sins (1:4). Later in the same chapter, when Jesus cures Simon’s mother-in-law, Mark says, “the fever released her (1:31). In chapter 2, when Mark describes Jesus’ healing the paralytic, he notes that Jesus said, “Child, your sins are released” (2:5). The word is not translated this way because it is not idiomatic English, but the literal meaning conveys two aspects of Mark’s interpretation of Jesus. First, it suggests an equation between healing and forgiveness. Second, it indicates Mark’s view that Jesus continually sets people free. At the end of chapter 7, when Mark shows Jesus engaged in a healing action that summarizes much of what has gone before, he calls attention to the important of the episode by quoting Jesus in Aramaic: Ephphata! – that is Be opened or, literally, Be released (7:33).

In chapter 15, Mark returns to the theme, using it in an ironic way as part of the speech of Pi-late. As Pilate strives to please the crowd, he keeps asking them which prisoner he should release to them (15:9, 11) until he finally releases Barabbas (15:15). When Jesus dies, however, Mark says he released his last breath (15:37), thus implying that in dying, Jesus himself is set free.

So we see that Mark, and also the other Gospel writers, write their gospels in a manner that was meant to influence others to believe in Jesus and his teachings. In proclaiming Jesus as Savior and Lord, they used every liter-ary means to convince others that Je-sus’ teachings were such that they filled people who followed him with the fullness of life. Remember, that when the gospels were first written, there was not a vision of him being God.