The miracle stories make it difficult to trust Mark's Gospel do you agree?

Answer 1

First of all, if Mark's gospel can not be trusted, then neither can the other gospels, as the are based, directly or indirectly, on Mark. Moreover, some of the miracles occur only in the later gospels, in many cases making them even more difficult to trust.

The miracle stories in Mark are simpler and somewhat more plausible than the miracle stories that first appeared in Matthew, Luke or John. Neverthess there are reasons not to trust even these stories. In most cases, whenever Mark tells of Jesus performing a miraculous cure, he commanded the beneficiary not to tell others. If no-one is to know that Jesus could perform miracles, this not only removes the theological justification for the miracles, but could arguably be seen as an attempted explanation as to why those who first read this Gospel could not have expected to have heard of these wonders.

Mark's Gospel is too well structured to be a true narrative of events as they happened. It is divided into two principal sections containing parallel events, the first beginning with the baptism of Jesus and the voice of God from heaven, while the second begins with the Transfiguration of Jesus and the voice of God from heaven. This artificial construction makes it clear that the voice from heaven and the miracle of the Transfiguration were literary inventions. The Transfiguration was important in Markbecause, in its original form, this Gospel had no appearances of the risen Jesus, so the Transfiguration was his most important proof of the relationship of Jesus to God.

Many of Mark's miracles occurred with no witnesses or in a context where the author of Mark could not be expected to have learnt of the miracle, yet they are described with impressive detail. For example, after the Transfiguration, Jesus commanded the disciples who were with him to tell no-one. Moreover, there are good grounds for believing that Moses and Elijah were not real, historical people, yet for some reason Jesus made sure to let the disciples see him speak to them at the Transfiguration.