would be more likely to remember and report the fact as a stimulus to humility and gratitude than
Peter himself.
On the other hand, Mark omits the laudatory words of Jesus to Peter: "Thou art Rock, and
upon this rock I will build my church;" while yet he records the succeeding rebuke: "Get thee behind
me, Satan."^953 The humility of the apostle, who himself warns so earnestly against the hierarchical
abuse of the former passage, offers the most natural explanation of this conspicuous omission. "It
is likely," says Eusebius, "that Peter maintained silence on these points; hence the silence of Mark."^954
Character and Aim of Mark.
The second Gospel was—according to the unanimous voice of the ancient church, which
is sustained by internal evidence—written at Rome and primarily for Roman readers, probably
before the death of Peter, at all events before the destruction of Jerusalem.^955
It is a faithful record of Peter’s preaching, which Mark must have heard again and again.
It is an historical sermon on the text of Peter when addressing the Roman soldier Cornelius: "God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."^956 It omits the history of the
infancy, and rushes at once into the public ministry of our Lord, beginning, like Peter, with the
baptism of John, and ending with the ascension. It represents Christ in the fulness of his living
energy, as the Son of God and the mighty wonder-worker who excited amazement and carried the
people irresistibly before him as a spiritual conqueror. This aspect would most impress the martial
mind of the Romans, who were born to conquer and to rule. The teacher is lost in the founder of a
kingdom. The heroic element prevails over the prophetic. The victory over Satanic powers in the
healing of demoniacs is made very prominent. It is the gospel of divine force manifested in Christ.
The symbol of the lion is not inappropriate to the Evangelist who describes Jesus as the Lion of
the tribe of Judah.^957
Mark gives us a Gospel of facts, while Matthew’s is a Gospel of divine oracles. He reports
few discourses, but many miracles. He unrolls the short public life of our Lord in a series of brief(^953) Mark 8:27-33; compared with Matt. 16:13-33.
(^954) Dem. Evang., III. 5, quoted by Morison, p. xxxv. In view of the facts quoted above the reader may judge of Dr. Davidson’s
assertion (Introd. 1882 vol. I., 541): "That Mark was not the writer of the canonnical Gospel may be inferred from the fact that
it is not specially remarkable in particulars relative to Peter."
(^955) Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., III. 1) says "after the departure" of Peter and Paul, "post horum excessum," or in the original Greek
preserved by Eusebius (H. E., V. 8. ed. Heinichen, 1. 224), μετὰ τὴν τούτων ἔξοδον. This must mean "after their decease," not
"after their departure from Rome" (Grabe). But Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Jerome, and other fathers
assign the composition to a time before the martyrdom of Peter. Christophorson (in his Latin Version of the Church History of
Eusebius, publ. 1570, as quoted by Stieren in Iren. Op., I. 423, note 4) suggested a different reading, μετὰ τὴν ἔκδοσιν,i.e., after
the publication of Matthew’s Hebrew Gospel, as spoken of in the preceding sentence, and Morison (p. xxv) seems inclined to
accept this conjecture. Very unlikely; all the MSS., Rufinus and the Latin translator of Irenaeus read ἔξοδον. See Stieren, in loc.
The conflicting statements can be easily harmonized by a distinction between the composition before, and the publication after,
the death of Peter. By publication in those days was meant the copying and distribution of a book.
(^956) Acts 10:38. The sermon of Peter to Cornelius is the Gospel of Mark in a nutshell.
(^957) Lange (Com., p. 2): "Mark delineates Christ as, from first to last, preeminently the victorious conqueror of all Satanic
powers. He has left us a record of the manifestation of Christ’s power when that great Lion seized upon the ancient world, and
of his brief but decisive victory, after which only the ruins of the ancient world are left, which in turn furnish the materials for
the new one." Thomson (Speaker’s Com., Introd. to Gospels, p. xxxv): "The wonder-working son of God sweeps over his
kingdom, swiftly and meteor-like: and men are to wonder and adore. His course is sometimes represented as abrupt, mysterious,
awful to the disciples: He leaves them at night; conceals himself from them on a journey. The disciples are amazed and afraid
(Mark 10:24, 32). And the Evangelist means the same impression of awe to be imparted to the reader."
A.D. 1-100.