Interpreting Mark

[Malachi151]

http://users2.ev1.net/~turton/GMark/GMark_intro.html#place

Interpretations of Mark are like noses: everyone has one. I won't bore you with mine. Scholars have long struggled to explain many of the enigmas of Mark. Why are the disciples so strongly criticized? Why is Jesus pictured as constantly suppressing attempts to reveal his identity, but at the same time being followed around by crowds? What is the role of women in the Gospel? Why does Jesus take his mission to social outcasts and low status individuals such as lepers and women? Why did the writer wait until Mark 15 to introduce female followers? What is the meaning of all the irony? Who is the young man of Mark 14:51-2? Why do demons recognize Jesus when his disciples do not? Why does Jesus have two trials? Why does the Gospel end at 16:8? What is the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist? What are the larger structures of Mark? What is the function of geography and place in Mark? What is the writer's attitude toward Judaism? What are the major themes of the Gospel? What is the writer's attitude toward Roman rule? What, if any, are the political issues the Gospel portrays? What is the attitude of the writer toward the Christianity of his time? What is the meaning of Jesus' death in the Gospel of Mark? How does the writer see Jesus in relation to God? What do phrases like "Son of Man" and "Kingdom of God" mean? How does Jesus see his own death? What is the writer's idea of Jesus' messiahship? What is the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the Crucifixion?

I'd like to see other people's interpretations of Mark. I'll post mine later. Anyone care to take a crack at the questions above, or others of their own?

[robto]

I'll take a crack at this one, because it lets me bring up my favorite theory about Mark:
Why do demons recognize Jesus when his disciples do not?

To Mark, Jesus was possessed by the Holy Spirit. It came upon him at his baptism and left at the crucifixion "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"

The demons that possess people recognize a similar being - another possessed person.

[Roland]

I believe that both the naked man and the man in the tomb are the author himself. It is his way of explaining why the story has not been heard before (the disciples and the women at the tomb having been coerced into silence throughout the text).

Just a theory, but it seems to make sense to me.

[yalla]

I believe that both the naked man and the man in the tomb are the author himself. It is his way of explaining why the story has not been heard before (the disciples and the women at the tomb having been coerced into silence throughout the text).

Just a theory, but it seems to make sense to me.

From a post in a previous thread:

I call him Amos.

"And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked" "Mark" 14.51

Cos the above is a prophecy fulfillment of:

" and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day"
Amos 2.16

cheers
yalla