life-pictures in rapid succession. He takes no time to explain and to reveal the inside. He dwells on
the outward aspect of that wonderful personality as it struck the multitude. Compared with Matthew
and especially with John, he is superficial, but not on that account incorrect or less useful and
necessary. He takes the theocratic view of Christ, like Matthew; while Luke and John take the
universal view; but while Matthew for his Jewish readers begins with the descent of Christ from
David the King and often directs attention to the fulfilment of prophecy, Mark, writing for Gentiles,
begins with "the Son of God" in his independent personality.^958 He rarely quotes prophecy; but, on
the other hand, he translates for his Roman readers Aramaic words and Jewish customs and
opinions.^959 He exhibits the Son of God in his mighty power and expects the reader to submit to his
authority.
Two miracles are peculiar to him, the healing of the deaf and dumb man in Decapolis, which
astonished the people "beyond measure" and made them exclaim: "He hath done all things well:
he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak" (Mark 7:31–37). The other miracle is a
remarkable specimen of a gradual cure, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, who upon the
first touch of Christ saw the men around him walking, but indistinctly as trees, and then after the
second laying on of hands upon his eyes "saw all things clearly" (8:22–26). He omits important
parables, but alone gives the interesting parable of the seed growing secretly and bearing first the
blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear (4:26–29).
It is an interesting feature to which Dr. Lange first has directed attention, that Mark lays
emphasis on the periods of pause and rest which "rhythmically intervene between the several great
victories achieved by Christ." He came out from his obscure abode in Nazareth; each fresh advance
in his public life is preceded by a retirement, and each retirement is followed by a new and greater
victory. The contrast between the contemplative rest and the vigorous action is striking and explains
the overpowering effect by revealing its secret spring in the communion with God and with himself.
Thus we have after his baptism a retirement to the wilderness in Judaea before he preached in
Galilee (1:12); a retirement to the ship (3:7); to the desert on the eastern shore of the lake of Galilee
(6:31); to a mountain (6:46); to the border land of Tyre and Sidon (7:24); to Decapolis (7:31); to a
high mountain (9:2); to Bethany (11:1); to Gethsemane (14:34); his rest in the grave before the
resurrection; and his withdrawal from the world and his reappearance in the victories of the gospel
preached by his disciples. "The ascension of the Lord forms his last withdrawal, which is to be
followed by his final onset and absolute victory."^960
Doctrinal Position.
Mark has no distinct doctrinal type, but is catholic, irenic, unsectarian, and neutral as regards
the party questions within the apostolic church. But this is not the result of calculation or of a
tendency to obliterate and conciliate existing differences.^961 Mark simply represents the primitive(^958) The reading of the textus rec. υἱοῦ (τοῦ) θεοῦ in Mark 1:1 is sustained by אABDL, nearly all the cursives, and retained by
Lachmann and Tregelles in the text, by Westcott and Hort in the margin. Tischendorf omitted it in his 8th ed. on the strength of
his favorite א*(in its original form), and Origen. Irenaeus has both readings. The term occurs seven times in Mark,
and is especially appropriate at the beginning of his Gospel and a part of its very title.
(^959) Mark 3:17; 5:41; 7:1-4; 12:18; 15:6, 35.
(^960) See Lange’s Analysis of Mark, Com., pp. 12-14; also his Bibelkunde, pp. 185-187. Lange discovered many characteristic
features of the Gospels, which have passed without acknowledgment into many other books.
(^961) As asserted by Baur, Schwegler, Köstlin, and quite recently again by Dr. Davidson, who says (I. 505): "The colorless
neutrality of the Gospel was an important factor in conciliating antagonistic parties." Dr. Morison (p. xlvi) well remarks against
A.D. 1-100.