Akin to this, too, is the quality of peculiar circumstantiality. Mark’s is the Gospel of greatest detail. As a general rule, it is richer than the other Gospels in the particulars which go to give certainty and distinctness to narrative. It is copious in indications of time, place, number, situation, and the like. It tells us, e.g., that the swine which ‘ran violently down a steep place into the sea’ were ‘about two thousand’ (5"8) ; that the disciples were sent forth ‘two and two’ (67); that on the occasion of the miracle of the 5000 the people ‘ sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties’ (64°); that Jesus went to pray, rising up ‘a great while before day’ (1%) ; that it was ‘the third hour’ when they crucified Him (1535) ; that it was ‘very early in the morning, the first day of the week, . . . at the rising of the sun,’ that the women came to the sepulchre (161). So, too, Mark explains how Jesus withdrew ‘to the sea’ (37); how He ‘sat in the sea’ (41); how He was in ‘the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow * (4%); how He sat ‘ over against the treasury’ (12), and on the Mount of Olives ‘over against the temple’ (13%) ; and how the healed demoniac preached ‘in Decapolis’ (530); how Peter ‘ went out into the porch’ (14%); how the centurion ‘stood over against’ Jesus (15%) ; how the young man was seen ‘sitting on the right side’ in the sepulchre (16°), etc.
‘He is an author,’ says Keim, ‘in a flower- bedecked garment. . . . He makes the narratives more effective by the contrast between rapid progression—marked by the continually repeated ‘‘immediately *°—and contemplative stillness, paint- ing the scenery with a thousand touches, the house,
MARK, GOSPEL OF
the sea, the followers, the growing throng, the names of persons, the numbers of the men and of the animals and of the pieces of money, the greenness of the grass, the pillow in the stern of the boat on Gennesareth—all given with a prefer- ence for affectionate and familiar diminutives, and in the present tense’ (Jesus of Nazara, Eng. tr. i. pp. 128, 129).
It belongs also to its genius that it is distine- tively the Gospel of action. It is this in a two- fold sense. Its primary interest is in deed and incident rather than in discourse. It does not limit itself, it is true, wholly to the works of Christ. It gives a considerable place to dialogue, and records not a few of our Lord’s briefer sayings. But these seem to be introduced mainly because of their connexion with the events and acts; while the longer discourses, which are characteristic of each of the other three evangelists in different ways, do not appear in Mark. ‘The one great exception is the Eschatological Discourse in ch. 13. It is the Gospel of action, too, in the sense that its narrative of the deeds of our Lord is rapid, energetic, undisturbed by reflection, moving steadily and regularly to its goal. ‘The only passage that is of the nature of an episode is the story of Herod (6), With the briefest possible preface it goes straight to its main subject, the official ministry of Christ; and it proceeds with that subject with a simple and rapid directness, passing from one thing in it to another often by abrupt transitions and without pausing to study form or artistic connexion. - The same holds true of it when it goes beyond the function of a chronicle. It does not always confine itself to the simple report of what was done by Christ and others or what befell them. In not a few cases it records the impressions which were produced— the awe and wonder with which the crowds beheld Christ’s works or heard His words (1% 57 912 6?) ; the eager anxiety of the multitudes to get near Him as they thronged and pressed Him, so that there was scarce room to stand, or sit, or leisure even to eat (22 310. 20. 82 41 551. 31 631. 88 81); the feelings of fear, sore amazement, astonishment, and the like, which overcame the disciples (451 691 1054. 56. 32), At times Mark even explains cases that he records, e.g. Herod’s attitude to the Baptist (6!%); the terror of the disciples when they saw Jesus on the sea (6°?) ; the silence of the women (16°), etc. He deals in the same way now and again with things which he reports Christ to have done (e.g. the ‘knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him,’ 58°; the καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα 7° etc.). But all is done rapidly and by a few clear strokes. It is in harmony with this that Mark presents Christ so largely in the energy of His superhuman power. ‘The prevailing aspect in which the second Gospel sets forth its Subject is not that of the Son of David and Abraham, in whom Matthew sees the fulfilment of OT prophecy ; nor that of the Son of Adam, in whom Luke sees the Perfect Man, the Saviour for all mankind, the minister of love and compassion for the worst and most despised ; nor the eternal Word, in whom John sees the fulness of the Godhead. It is that of the ‘Son of God with power’ (Ro 14), moving among men with His gift of miracle, and making the things of nature the servants of His grace. So Mark gives a large place to His mighty works, and exhibits Him in the majesty of His energy. He shows us how He used His miraculous power; how that power was felt and recognized by different classes; how the multitudes believed in it and made their appeal to it, and brought their sick to Him, confident that if they could secure His notice or even touch Him it would be enough (15? 310 528 658 etc.) ; and how resistless were the effects that were produced alike