What sources were used for Mark's Gospel?

Answer 1

John Mark accompanied the Apostle Peter and listened to his preaching. He most likely based his Gospel on the eyewitness account and spoken ministry of Peter. Mark did not write his Gospel in strict orderly sequence, but he recorded what Peter remembered of Jesus' words and deeds. The AntiMarcionite Prologue to Mark (A.D. 160-180) supports this:

"Mark recorded, who was called Colobodactylus, because he had fingers that were too small for the height of the rest of his body. He himself was the interpreter of Peter. After the death of Peter himself, the same man wrote this gospel in the parts of Italy".

There are many statements of the early church fathers that identify the "John Mark" who

is frequently mentioned in the New Testament as the writer. The earliest reference of this type is in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (ca. A.D. 326). Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 180-185), another early church father,

noted that Mark wrote after Peter and Paul had died. There would be no good reason for the early church fathers to say a non-apostle wrote the book of Mark if he did not

Answer 2

The Gospel of Mark was originally written anonymously and only attributed by the Church Fathers to the apostle whose name it now bears later in the second century.

There is no good reason to believe that the author was the apostle Mark, but if this was the author, there is circumstantial evidence that he could have learnt the gospel from Peter. The pseudepigraphical epistle, 1 Peter, says that Mark was the son of Peter. Papias is reported to have said that Mark was Peter's secretary, although this claim actually only occurs in the writings of Eusebius, who is notorious for reporting (if not creating) forgeries. It is likely that Papias or Eusebius was influenced by 1 Peter, which they would both have believed to have been written by Peter himself. Evidence in the Gospel itself suggests that it came from someone at least three or four steps removed from Jesus.

The highly artificial structure of the narrative in Mark's Gospel makes it most unlikely that it is a true and chronological record of the life of Jesus. It consists of a chiastic structure - a circular sequence in which an opening set of events is contrasted with another set of events that mirrors the first. The opening set begins with John explaining the coming of Jesus, followed by the baptism and the voice of God from heaven, and ends with Jesus predicting his death. The contrasting structure begins with the Transfiguration of Jesus and the voice of God from heaven, and ends with the crucifixion, followed by the young man explaining the departure of Jesus. Mark begins to look like a well designed novel rather than a record of events as they happened, so when looking for sources we should not simply assume a chain of sources back to a Jesus of Nazareth.

Textual evidence is that the author of Mark used Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and 1 Corinthians as sources. From these, he would have read the names of some key characters, including Peter, James and John, and have sufficient key points to weave a story that would then seem to be confirmed by the epistles. Dennis R MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) finds compelling evidence that he used Homer's epics, Iliad and The Odyssey, as a principal source.