The eye-witness evidence for Jesus
The things that Jesus said and did weren't done in secret - they were done in public, and many people saw them.
And people who witnessed what Jesus said and did recorded them so that other might know the truth about what happens. One of these people was a man called Mark who wrote down eye-witnesses' testimonies.
'Mark’s Gospel' is an eyewitness account of Jesus’ life which forms part of the Bible, the best source of information about Jesus. We can trust Mark's Gospel.
In Jesus’ three years of public life, as recorded in this short book, he encountered many different people - from academics to fishermen, from prostitutes to priests. Not one of those people was able to simply ignore Jesus and carry on as before – he demanded an active response from everyone he met. “Who do you say I am?” was a question Jesus asked with his words and actions.
People responded in many different ways to Jesus. Thousands flocked to hear him speak and were amazed at his teaching. Many received miraculous healing at his hands. Some hated him and plotted to kill him. Mark records how many were blind to Jesus’ true identity: they couldn’t – or wouldn’t – understand who he really is. But they couldn’t just ignore him.
Why not take this opportunity to see for yourself who Jesus really is? You might be surprised.
You can read Mark's Gospel online, or if you like we will happily send you a copy to read - just email.
Can We Trust Mark’s Gospel?
Can we trust what was written?
Mark’s Gospel was written by John-Mark of Jerusalem, a companion of the early Christian Peter.1 Mark recorded events and sayings of Jesus’ life as preached by the Apostle Peter, an ex-fisherman who was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and a prominent figure in the early church.2
There is a strong scholarly consensus that Mark’s gospel was authored c.64AD.3 This early date places the writing of Mark’s account within the living memory of those who personally witnessed what Jesus did and said.4
Mark writes his account in a straightforward and concise manner, and from the beginning he is upfront about his reason for writing – to present “the gospel (good news) about Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. Mark wants to convince his readers about the identity of Jesus as ‘the Christ’ (God’s anointed one), the Son of God. Evaluate Mark’s evidence for yourself, and see if you agree.
Mark’s account has some astonishing features. In stark contrast with modern day biographies he entirely misses the first 30 years of the subject’s life, and devotes almost half his account to Jesus’ death! Why?
Has Mark’s account been altered?
- Copies of New Testament documents, including Mark’s Gospel, are better preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writing.5 There are over 5000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in whole or in part.6 This is vastly more than of any classical author.7
- The copies we have were collected from around the world and were duplicated independently down the centuries. With so many manuscripts to compare, scholars are confident that we have over 99% of the text of the New Testament accurately preserved. There are some minor textual variants, most of which are obvious copying errors like spelling mistakes, and in any case they ‘affect no material question of historic fact or of Christian faith and practice.’8
- Many of the English translations of Mark’s Gospel, such as the English Standard Version, have been translated from the most reliable Greek manuscripts by a team of expert translators who aim to “capture the precise wording of the original text”.9 You can compare the English Standard Version with other English translations that have been done by a team of experts (e.g. New International Version) and see how similar they are – the differences are just a matter of style.
So you can have confidence that the text in this book communicates accurately what Mark originally wrote, and that the gospel accounts of Jesus in the Bible are by far the earliest and most reliable source of information about his life and teachings.
Resources for further investigation.
1 See the book of Acts 12:12; 12:25
2 As witnessed by the early historians Papias (in Eusebius’ EH 3.39), and Irenaeus (Adv. Her. 3.1.1).
3 Based on internal and external evidence. The account was certainly written before 70AD, since it is not aware of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans which occurred in that year. See New Bible Dictionary, ‘Gospel of Mark’, pp. 737-741; F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, p. 7
4 F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, p. 7
5 http://www.carm.org/evidence/textualevidence.htm
6 Bruce, New Testament, p. 10
7 For example, there are approx. 643 for Homer’s Iliad and 49 for Aristotle’s works. See http://www.carm.org/evidence/textualevidence.htm
8 Bruce, New Testament, p. 15
9 http://www.esv.org/translation/philosophy