When you read Mark’s Gospel much of the stories will sound familiar to you. In fact, about 90% of Mark’s Gospel can be found in the Gospel of Matthew that you have just finished reading. For example, in our reading for this week only two passages in Mark don’t have a parallel in Matthew. They are Mk. 3:19b-21 and Mk 4:26-29. Both passages are unique to Mark’s Gospel.
Mark is a gospel of action. One of his favorite words is an adverb that is translated by the CSB as ‘immediately’ 22 times, ‘at once’ 4 times and ‘as soon as’ 6 times, ‘right away’ 3 times, ‘just then,’ ‘quickly,’ and ‘instantly,’ 1 time each. Contrast this with Matthew who uses this adverb 5 times and Luke who uses it only once in his Gospel. So, take note of his style as you read his Gospel.
If you are reading in the KJV in addition to several of the words above you’ll find the adverb translated ‘straightway,’ ‘forthwith,’ and ‘anon’ in Marks Gospel. The NKJV and the ESV, NIV, NASB and other modern translations will translate the adverb using the same words found in the CSB.
When you are reading you may want to highlight or underline these words to notice how frequently Mark uses this word for action and notice where the action seems to slow down, and he doesn’t use this adverb at all.
Two unique types of books have been published to help with studying the Gospels. One is a ‘Harmony of the Gospels’ and the other is a ‘Synopsis of the Gospels.’ A harmony is helpful for studying the life of Christ and a synopsis is useful for doing a more serious study of the relationships between the Gospels.
Probably the most popular harmony with Baptists is that by A.T. Robertson. An updated CSB edition with study notes came out in 2022 by Kendell Easley and Stephen Cox titled the CSB Harmony of the Gospels. A harmony puts the parallel accounts found in the Gospels side by side on a page so that you can easily compare them with one another, and they are arranged in what the author believes to be the chronological order. The paperback unabridged edition of Robertson’s is about $14 while Easley and Cox’s is about $29 at Amazon. Our Church Library has a harmony by another Baptist author.
A synopsis also arranges the parallel accounts next to each other, but it keeps the accounts in their canonical order instead of rearranging them. Consequently, a synopsis can make it fairly easy to glean additional information that can’t be seen in a harmony. This additional ability also makes the synopsis a larger book and requires a little time to understand the conventions used to be able to glean the additional information. For example, in this week’s reading, looking at a synopsis, I notice that Mark 2:1-3:6 has parallels in both Matthew and Luke. In Luke 5:17-6:11 the accounts are placed in the same chronological location as Mark’s Gospel. However, in Matthew the parallels are found in Mt. 9:1-17 and 12:1-14. To be at the same place chronologically in Matthew as they are in Mark and Luke these stories would need to be placed between Mt. 4:23 and 4:24.
The standard synopsis is Synopsis of the Four Gospels by Kurt Aland. It comes in two editions, a Greek/English edition, and an English only edition. The English only addition is about $50 on Amazon. It also takes a bit of training to understand the conventions used in this volume. Less expensive is the NET Bible Synopsis of the Four Gospels. It sells on Amazon for about $20 and includes indices that make it easy to get the same chronological information found in Aland’s synopsis. Robertson’s harmony and Aland’s synopsis are available in some Bible software programs. Our Church Library has a copy of Aland’s Synopsis.
