1) A well-known phrase was mentioned in the Gospel of
Mark: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
This statement helps us to understand the Lord’s idea that a person’s need can
be more important than formal religious rules and rites.
2) Only in the Gospel of Mark we can find and read the
parable about a growing seed: “And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man
should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day,
and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the
earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the
full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the
sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).
3) Apostle Mark was the only evangelist who told in
his Gospel about the large number of pigs, into which the demons entered –
there were more then two thousands of them: “Then the unclean spirits went out
and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran
violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea” (Mark
5:13).
4) Telling about the healings performed by the Lord,
only Evangelist Mark states the words of Christ in the very language He Spoke,
which was Aramaic: “Talitha, cumi,” which
is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41) and “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened” (Mark
7:34).
5) Mark’s Gospel is the only book of the New Testament
in which Jesus is called “the Son of Mary” (Mark 6:3).
6) The Gospel of Mark is the only Book of Gospel in which the
Lord is called a “carpenter” (Mark 6:3), while the Gospel of Matthew states that
He was “the son of a carpenter” (Matthew 13:55).
7) Mark writes that it was permitted to take a stick
and a pair of simple shoes when going to preach for other peoples. “He
commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread,
no copper in their money belts — but to wear sandals, and not to put on two
tunics” (Mark 6:8-9). At the same time, other evangelists state that sticks and
sandals were not allowed (ref. Matthew 10:10, Luke 9:3).
8) The longest and the most full story about the dance
of Herodias’ daughter and the beheading of John the Baptist is represented in
the Gospel of Mark (ref. Mark 6:14-29).
9) In his Gospel, Apostle Mark explains some ancient
Hebrew traditions since his book was addressed to the Christians who were
former pagans (ref. Mark 7:3-4).
10) In the episode of the arrest of Jesus Christ, only
Evangelist Mark mentions a young man, who was almost captured by the soldiers but managed to
escape, leaving his tunic: “Now a certain young man followed Him, having a
linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and
he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked” (Mark 14:51-52). According to
the Tradition, that young man was Apostle and Evangelist Mark himself – a loyal
disciple of Christ and tireless follower of apostles Peter and Paul.
By John Nichiporuk,
a Bachelor of Theology, a student of
the Minsk Theological Academy .
The Catalog Of Good Deeds
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