Mark - The Vine NYC

Bible Study: Gospel of Mark

Basic Background Information:

Mark is the earliest gospel. Matthew and Luke use it as a source.
Gospel is a new genre - telling the story of Jesus Christ. Different from other biographical books of the time, except they focus on peasants and poor people, not kings or wealthy rulers.
Tradition holds that Mark, a companion of Peter and Paul, wrote the book, hence its name.
Scholars generally believe it was written for gentile followers of Jesus in a community somewhere outside Palestine (possibly Rome) shortly after the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.
It speaks to a community experience challenges if not outright direct persecution from the prevailing Greco-Roman culture.
It was written in Greek, the dominant language of the Roman Empire, rather than the Hebrew or Aramaic that Jesus and his disciples would've spoken.
The primary purpose of the author of Mark was to announce a message rather than to report literal history
It was likely written to strengthen the faith of those who already believed, not to convert people