An account of the life of Jesus from his baptism to the discovery of his empty tomb. Often held to be the earliest gospel, written by John Mark, and using Peter as a primary source.

##Mark, Gospel Of##

The Gospel According to Mark (Greek: κατὰ Μᾶρκον εὐαγγέλιον) is the book traditionally placed second in the New Testament canon. It is one of four canonical gospels describing the life and teaching of Jesus. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels.

Along with Matthew and Luke, Mark is one of the three synoptic gospels. These three gospels share similar structure, content, and wording. This has given rise to many theories as to the relationship between these gospels, the order in which they were written, and their use of sources.

Mark tends to be the most action-oriented of the Gospels, focusing heavily on what people were doing, provides a wealth of details (Mark is often the most verbose in telling a story), but skipping over long sermons--Mark includes none of the long sermons found in Matthew & John.

Mark does not contain an infancy narrative and begins with the preaching of John the Baptist.

Both Papias of Hieropolis & Clement of Alexandria indicated that Mark was written based upon the preaching of the apostle Peter. The patristic evidence attests that it was written by John Mark, the son of the Mary in Acts 12, a relative of Barnabas, and a missionary companion of Peter & Paul.

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