Introduction to the New Testament

Excerpts from the Paper

Introduction to the New Testament
1. Mark contains few of Jesus' teachings; what is his focus and why? Mark’s scriptures focus on the many miracles that occurred as a result of Jesus living on earth (Smith 323). In addition, Mark deals with Jesus’ death and the symbolic meaning and interpretations of Jesus death prior to his resurrection. It appears that Mark may have felt that there was already much written about Jesus and because Jesus was humble and did not speak of his miracles himself, he wanted them to be known to the world (Smith 324). In this way, Mark presents the miracles of Jesus as a series of apocalyptic events (Harris 110), although it is interesting to note that Mark may never have met Jesus personally (Niswonger 104) which...

.....hat cannot be proven, but can only be predicted. In addition, there is always a lot of symbolic content in apocalyptic literature where, for example, numbers or specific dates are repeated in the literature to give the literature more significance, or at least make it appear to be so. There is also frequently struggle (Niswonger 71) and it is the opposite of utopian literature (Smith 298) which presents a world where everything turns out perfect.
Works Cited
Harris, Stephen R. The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction. 6th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
Niswonger, Richard L. New Testament History. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992. Print.
Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions. 50th anniversary ed. New York: HarperOne, 2009. Print.