What was the first gospel of Mark?

Answer 1

A:From quite early times in Christian history it has been reported that the author of Mark's Gospel wrote another, secret gospel that taught what the first Christians really believed. This hypothetical gospel is called the Secret Gospel of Mark.

It was the custom of early Gnostic Christians to teach different versions of their gospel to people as the moved up through the ranks to the most elect status. It was suggested that the gospel we now know as Mark's Gospel was the gospel for novices, and that the teachers were dismayed when novices began to cease their study and went out to preach this gospel, without waiting to learn the truth yet to be revealed.

Be this as it may, the author of Mark did not even need a 'secret' gospel. With his considerable genius, he appears to have placed mimesis flags throughout his gospel, so that those who knew could determine what passages were to be believed and what passages were not to be believed. Mimesis flags were a device used in classical Greek writing, to identify to the reader the source on which a passage was based. A novice could be shown these flags, one at a time and with increasing obscurity or difficulty, and have their meanings explained. If a passage can be explained in this way, the novice would understand that it was not a literal record of the life or teachings of Jesus, or that it had a deeper meaning.