In attempting to understand Mark's Gospel it would be helpful to approach it as being divided into two sections: from the beginning to chapter eight, and from chapter eight to the conclusion of the Gospel. It is in chapter eight that Jesus begins to speak of his having to suffer, die, and then rise again. Up until that point (chapter eight) Jesus is portrayed as misconstrued at every turn, in spite of all the good he has done and taught.
Mark seems most concerned to have his reader understand Jesus' peerless teachings and his mighty deeds in light of his victory on the cross and in his resurrection. These latter -- his death and resurrection -- cast a long shadow backwards over Jesus' life and work.
Mark's Gospel is not without a certain elegance of composition. Not seldom the reader is captivated by the fashion in which Mark narrates an incident. As an example, into the account of the cure of Jairus' daughter there is dovetailed the incident of the woman troubled with the issue of blood. Not seldom this is the way it materializes in life -- a happening within a happening. Then too, take note of the way in which Mark reproduces Jesus' words in the original Aramaic: talitha koum ("little girl, I say to you, arise"). This helps to engender a "you are there" sense.
Another instance of Mark's gift for vivid description and narration would be the narrative of the Gerasene demoniac (Mk 5: 1-20). Mark recounts how the man could not be restrained even with a chain. He would rip off the manacles with ferocious energy.
One peculiarity of style in Mark that English-speaking people must make an effort to adjust to is a stylistic feature quite foreign to us -- the use of "and" to join a sequence of sentences. Each new sentence begins with "and." There are some eighty sentences in Mark that begin this way. When all is said and done, the challenge Mark's style of writing presents to the determined reader is small -- "the book is worth the candle."
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