The Gospel of Mark (i)

Lion of St. Mark, Piazza San Marco, Venice

At some point after I was first able to get on the Internet when my family & I were living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I began what might be called a proto-blog called "HeRD," which stands for Herb's Research Diary.  About twenty times a month, I sent out an email entry to HeRD most of which had to do with my work as a church research historian in Thailand.  In the course of things, as explained below, I spent some time studying the Gospel of Mark and shared my findings with the folks who received HeRD (the list of recipients grew to about 60 at one point).  Basically, I set out to reflect on the contents of Mark from the point of view of a church historian.  I think these Mark posting are worth reviving, and I intend to share them here off-and-on.  Those who really can't wait (?) to see them all can find them on my personal website starting (here).

The original introductory posting begins:

"Over the last two years, I've given a fair amount of time to preparing a course on of early church history at the McGilvary Faculty of Theology. I took on this particular task for several reasons. First, early church history is important in and of itself. Every church historian should study it. Second, that history provides insights into the development of all church history. Understanding the beginnings of any history is vitally important to understanding the whole of that history, and the early church is church history's 'Mother of All Beginnings.' Third, the early church provides us with important comparative insights.

"In the natural course of things, I've had to spend some time with the Gospels since they're key primary documents for the study of the early church. I've focused on the Gospel of Mark because most of the "experts" generally take it to be the earliest of the Gospels. Beginning this month, I'd like to share with you some of the things I've learned from studying Mark as a historical document. I confess that I'm undertaking these notes on Mark's Gospel with 'fear & trembling.'  The study of the life of Jesus and the disciples is in a great deal of ferment these days, and an amateur treads these grounds at his own risk. At the same time, there are a number of HeRD recipients who are far more qualified in New Testament studies than I ever hope to be. The opportunities for 'going astray' are legion.

"On the other hand, if we pursue the limited and focused task of 'mining' Mark for information about the earliest beginnings of the church we can avoid at least a few of the pitfalls ahead of us. Many of the scholars tend to try to look behind the Gospels to find the 'real Jesus'. They seem to view the Gospels themselves as an obstacle to that quest. They obscure the data the scholars seek. Granted that, I think it's still useful to view the Gospels as significant secondary sources that provide us with their own insights into earliest church history. Those of us who aren't trained New Testament historians can still learn a few things from them for ourselves. So, let's just say that HeRD is taking a holiday in the Holy Land. It should be fun. We might learn something about our own historical situations as well. That's my hope."

And that remains my hope today.  By the way, these notes on Mark were written originally in 1998.