Expert: Brenda Martin - 3/29/2004

Question
What disciple probably influenced the writing of he Gospel of Mark? Was Israel and Syria one time ruled by the Greeks?

Answer
WHAT DISCIPLE PROBABLY INFLUENCED THE WRITING OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK?

The composition of this shortest of the Gospels is credited to Mark. He was a coworker with Jesus' apostles and one who placed his own life in the service of the good news. But Mark was not one of the 12 apostles, and he was not an immediate companion of Jesus. Where did he get the intimate details that make his account of Jesus' ministry really live from beginning to end? According to the earliest tradition of Papias, Origen, and Tertullian, this source was PETER, with whom Mark was closely associated. Did not Peter call him “my son”?
(1 Pet. 5:13)

Peter was an eyewitness of practically all that Mark recorded, so he could have learned from Peter many descriptive points that are lacking in the other Gospels. For example, Mark speaks of “the hired men” that worked for Zebedee, the leper entreating Jesus “on bended knee,” the demonized man “slashing himself with stones,” and Jesus' giving his prophecy about the ‘coming of the Son of man with great power and glory' while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives “with the temple in view.”—Mark 1:20, 40; 5:5; 13:3, 26.

Peter himself was a man of deep emotions and so could appreciate and describe to Mark the feelings and emotions of Jesus. So it is that Mark frequently records how Jesus felt and reacted; for example, that he looked “around upon them with indignation, being thoroughly grieved,” that he “sighed deeply,” and that he “groaned deeply with his spirit.” (3:5; 7:34; 8:12) It is Mark who tells us of Jesus' sentiments toward the rich young ruler, saying that he “felt love for him.” (10:21) And what warmth we find in the account that Jesus not only stood a young child in the midst of his disciples but also “put his arms around it,” and that on another occasion “he took the children into his arms”!—9:36; 10:13-16.

Some of Peter's characteristics are to be seen in Mark's style, which is impulsive, living, vigorous, vital, and descriptive. It seems he can hardly relate events fast enough. For example, the word “immediately” occurs again and again, carrying the story along in dramatic style.

Although Mark had access to the Gospel of Matthew and his record contains only 7 percent that is not contained in the other Gospels, it would be a mistake to believe that Mark simply condensed Matthew's Gospel and added a few special details as some have suggested however.

WAS ISRAEL AND SYRIA ONE TIME RULED BY THE GREEKS?

Yes, both were, the Javanites of Greece early became a seafaring people. The heel of Italy's “boot” lay only about 160 km (100 mi) across the Strait of Otranto from NW Greece. To the E, archipelagoes (chains of islands formed by submerged mountains with their tops rising above the water's surface) served as giant stepping-stones across the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor. At the NE corner of the Aegean a narrow passage, the Hellespont (also called the Dardanelles), led into the Sea of Marmara and then through the Bosporus strait into the Black Sea. Also, by sailing along the southern coast of Asia Minor, Greek ships early traveled to the shores of Syria and Palestine.

Greece Under Alexander the Great. Back in the sixth century B.C.E., Daniel had received a prophetic vision foretelling the overthrow of the Medo-Persian Empire by Greece. Philip's son Alexander had been educated by Aristotle and, after Philip's assassination, became the champion of the Greek-speaking peoples. In 334 B.C.E., Alexander set out to avenge Persian attacks on Greek cities on the W coast of Asia Minor. His lightning conquest of not only all Asia Minor but also Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the entire Medo-Persian Empire as far as India fulfilled the prophetic picture at Daniel 8:5-7, 20, 21. (Compare Da 7:6.) By taking over control of Judah in 332 B.C.E., Greece now became the fifth successive world power insofar as the nation of Israel was concerned—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia having been the previous four. By 328 B.C.E., Alexander's conquest was complete, and now the remaining portion of Daniel's vision saw fulfillment. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 B.C.E., and as foretold, his empire was subsequently split up into four dominions, none equaling the original empire in strength.—Da 8:8, 21, 22; 11:3, 4;
History relates attempts at replacing the Jewish system of things completely by process of Hellenization, that is, by converting it to the Grecian way of worship. But this ultimately failed.

Effect of Hellenization on the Jews. When Greece was divided among Alexander's generals, Judah became a border state between the Ptolemaic regime of Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty of Syria. First controlled by Egypt, the land was seized by the Seleucids in 198 B.C.E. In an effort to unite Judah with Syria in a Hellenic culture, Greek religion, language, literature, and attire were all promoted in Judah.

Greek colonies were founded throughout Jewish territory, including those at Samaria (thereafter called Sebaste), Acco (Ptolemais), and Beth-shean (Scythopolis), as well as some set up on previously unsettled sites E of the Jordan River. A gymnasium was established in Jerusalem and attracted Jewish youths. Since Greek games were linked with Greek religion, the gymnasium served to corrupt Jewish adherence to Scriptural principles. Even the priesthood suffered considerable infiltration by Hellenism during this period. By this means, beliefs previously foreign to the Jews gradually began to take root; these included the pagan teaching of the immortality of the human soul and the idea of an underworld place of torment after death.

Antiochus Epiphanes' desecration of the temple at Jerusalem (168 B.C.E.) by introducing the worship of Zeus there marked the extreme point of Hellenization of the Jews and led to the Maccabean Wars.

In Alexandria, Egypt, where the Jewish sector occupied a considerable portion of the city, Hellenizing influence was also strong. Some Alexandrian Jews allowed the popularity of Grecian philosophy to sway them. Certain Jewish writers felt obligated to try to accommodate Jewish beliefs to what was then the “modern trend.” They tried to demonstrate that the current Grecian philosophical ideas were actually preceded by similar ideas in the Hebrew Scriptures or were even derived from them.

All the best Brenda