The Gospel of Mark According to Me

I started a project today translating the Bible be more understandable for the contemporary audience, while also trying to portray more scientific accuracy and provide a more accurate meaning of certain passages.  I also provide some notes in passages I feel need some explanation.  I intend to do this with all of the Gospels at the very least, and will publish the four Gospels from my translation.  I do not pretend that my translation is in any way inspired by God or that my translation is intended to replace more authorized versions of the Gospels.  At best my translation is a paraphrase, intended for purposes of making the Gospels clearer to a contemporary audience.  I hope you enjoy.  Below is the first chapter of Mark according to the translation of Brandon Parks.

1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the chosen one, the Son of God; 

1:2 As it is written in the prophets, take notice, I send my messenger before you, and he will prepare the world for your arrival.

1:3 The voice of one calling out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

1:4 John baptized in the desert, and preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of our failings.

1:5 And everyone from the land of Judaea, and from Jerusalem, travelled to see John, and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their imperfections.

1:6 And John dressed in camel's hair, with underwear of animal skin; and he ate locusts and wild honey; 

1:7 And preached, saying, One is coming after me who is greater than me, whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with his own Spirit. (Meaning Jesus will fill you with his Spirit that will clean you any failings.  See Psalm 51:10-12.).

1:9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan River.

1:10 And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: 

1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, You are my beloved Son. I am very proud of You.

1:12 And immediately the Spirit led Jesus to pursue solitude in the desert. 

1:13 And he spent forty days in the desert, struggling with temptation; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels took care of him.

1:14 John was put in prison, and Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of God’s perfect government, 

1:15 And saying, The time has come, and God’s perfect government has arrived: turn to God, and believe the good news.

1:16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen.

1:17 And Jesus said to them, Come with me, and I will make you fish for men.

1:18 And immediately they abandoned their nets, and went with him.

1:19 And when he had gone a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship fixing their nets.

1:20 And immediately he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went with him.

1:21 And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the sabbath day he entered the synagogue, and taught.

1:22 And they were amazed at his teaching: for he taught them as one with authority and personal knowledge, and not as the teachers of the day.

1:23 And there was a man in their synagogue who was sick and misunderstood (likely someone with paranoid schizophrenia); and he cried out, 

1:24 Saying, Leave us alone; what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and leave him.

1:26 And when the illness hurt him, and the man cried with a loud voice, the man was cured of his illness.

1:27 And they were all amazed, and questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? what new doctrine is this? For with authority Jesus commands even sickness, and even ailments obey him.

1:28 And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.

1:29 And immediately after leaving the synagogue, they went into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

1:30 But Simon's mother-in-law lay sick of a fever, and soon they told Jesus of her.

1:31 And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she waited on them.

1:32 And in the evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Jesus everyone who was sick, (the original said “and those possessed of demons.” To reflect our knowledge today, I have removed that phrase as those “possessed with demons” likely had illnesses the people of the time were unfamiliar with).

1:33 And everyone from the city was crowding the door.

1:34 And Jesus healed many that were sick of diverse diseases; and asked that no one speak of him being the Son of God.

1:35 And in the morning, waking up before dawn, Jesus went out, and found a solitary place where he prayed.

1:36 And Simon and they that were with him followed him.

1:37 And when they had found him, they said, Everyone is looking for you.

1:38 And he said to them, Let us go into the next towns, so I may preach there also: for that is why I came here.

1:39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and Healed those who were sick.

1:40 And a leper came to him, begging him, and kneeling down to him, saying, If you want, you are able to heal me.

1:41 And Jesus, feeling immense compassion for this man, put forth his hand, and touched him, saying to him, I will; be clean.  (Note: at this time touching a leper made a person unclean.  This man likely had not experienced a loving human touch for many years.  Jesus showed that a person does not become unclean for touching someone, but that by touching someone who is unclean, we can make that person clean).

1:42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was clean.

1:43 And Jesus immediately charged him, and then sent him away; 

1:44 And said unto him, Make sure to say nothing to any man: but go right away and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

1:45 But he went out, and began to tell everyone who would listen, and to spread everywhere the details of his healing, so much so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside the city in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.

Threat of Punishment or Promise of Love as a Method of Evangelism

As I have been surfing the blogs and reading what people have been saying regarding Rob Bell's recent book, "Love Wins," I have been startled by the amount of gross condemnation that is clothed in the language of love. Many Christians are arguing that preaching hell and eternal punishment is done out of love for their fellow human being and that Jesus preached hell out of love. One poster made this claim: "Jesus demonstrated love in everything he did. Including preaching on hell." If one reads the verses where hell is preached, it sure doesn't seem to be out of love. It seems more to be out of anger for abusing the Scriptures and oppressing the people. But I have made my view on hell and Jesus' purpose for preaching it clear in "Rob Bell, 'Love Wins,' and the Universalist." I want to devote this post to discussing why preaching punishment is not done out of love, and why it is not an effective method for evangelism.

The same poster who I quoted above, also made this statement: "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom...(a), Psalm 111:10. I know I do things sometimes out of fear of the Lord. He's got the power, and I know it. It's a parent/child relationship. My children do things so they don't get punished by mom or dad. Same principle." And it is this mindset that guides much Christian evangelism today. We tell a person how bad they are, we convince them of their sin, we threaten them with eternal punishment, and then we present the solution of Jesus Christ. We therefore create good, God-fearing Christians who will go to heaven when they die. But does this foster the deepest possible relationship with Jesus? Let's look at the illustration our poster uses of a parent/child type relationship (after all, this is the model Jesus uses when illustrating our relationship with God). He makes the claim that when a parent threatens a child with punishment for certain behavior, let's say eating a cookie before dinner, and that child obeys the parent, then that parent has done a good job. But what has that parent really done? That parent has taught that child that the reason he should not eat the cookie before dinner is because if he does, that child will be punished. In other words, that child abstains from eating the cookie because he fears being caught. It is the threat of punishment that prevents that child from doing that behavior, or rather fear of getting caught, and not because of some intrinsic good. What this results in is that the child, when the fear of getting caught is removed, eats the cookie. It also fosters resentment in the child toward the father for being so cruel.

Let's relate the above story to the popular method of evangelism in which threat of hell for bad behavior is so often employed. Perhaps a person is convinced of their great sin and their need for repentance. When that person first becomes a Christian, the honeymoon period begins and she willingly abstains from past sins because of the newfound joy she has encountered. But after some time, when the thrill has begun to wear off, temptation begins to set in again. She goes to a party which she has not been to for awhile and finds herself drinking too much. She goes home, mortified by the guilt she is feeling. She is horrified that she may receive harsh punishment for backsliding. She begs God for forgiveness, because she fears punishment. This woman, as she continues her Christian walk, finds temptation harder and harder to resist, and finds herself aware of more and more sin in her life. She continues to plead for forgiveness and ask for help from God to overcome the sin, but it does not seem to be working. All she knows is that if she continues in this sin, she will be punished. After awhile, she begins resenting God, seeing him no longer as a being which forgives, but which threatens punishment, even when it seems the sin is out of her control. Eventually she stops trying to resist temptation, because, as many Christians turned ex-Christians have said, "what's the use." Instead of being brought to Jesus because of his love and the healing he provides for our hurts, this woman was taught that Jesus was necessary because without him, she would be punished. What happened was, like the child in the above paragraph, this woman refrained from sin only because she feared being caught. Her motives were wrong which prevented her from really being able to overcome much of the sins in her life. As she continued to sin, she began to resent God who was always there, preventing her from ever "getting away" with the sin. The threat of punishment was always looming and weighed her down, which is not what Jesus wanted.

Let's contrast that with the child who raised to love, honor, and respect his parents. The father shows unconditional love for his son and even forgives the son when he is truly sorry for doing wrong. The father does punish his son occasionally, as it is necessary, but saves punishment for real serious issues, and doesn't make it the main reason for abstaining from bad behavior. Instead, the father fosters in his son the understanding that good behavior is to be done, and bad behavior avoided, because of the love he has for his father, not because of the threat of punishment. In this case, when there is no threat of being caught, the son nonetheless has the knowledge and understanding that he loves his father and his father loves him, and that grabbing the cookie before dinner will be disrespectful of his father and will make him feel ashamed for doing something that his father would not be pleased with. In the long run, this fosters a more stable morality in a person.

This goes the same when we approach people with Jesus. When method of evangelism is to bring the love of Jesus to people, by showing them his unconditional love, accepting them for who they are, bringing the promise of healing instead of the threat of punishment, this will do more to help people fall in love with Jesus, helping them to develop a genuine relationship with him, which will provide more stability and a stronger defense against temptation.

I understand that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But most people know that "fear" in this context means respect and love. When we have respect and love for the Lord, then we begin to have wisdom. Jesus came, as I showed in "Is the Christian God to be Feared," Jesus came to remove the fear people had when approaching God. He came so that we may no longer fear God. When Jesus approached people, it was out of love for them. He wanted to heal their hurts. We see this with the abundance of compassion Jesus showed to people as he was approached by them. In the story of the woman who had an issue that ran for 12 years (Mark 5:25-34), we see this kind of compassion and the removal of fear that Jesus promised. In this story, Jesus was surrounded by a crowd, so much so that people were running into him. A woman, who had been bleeding continuously for 12 years and had been seen by many physicians to no avail, was following Jesus in hopes of being healed by him. But the story implies she feared approaching him. We read, "after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, 'If I just touch His garments, I will get well'” (vv 27-28). She was afraid to approach him for fear he would reject her perhaps. Or maybe she felt she would be condemned by him as he might blame some sin for her health issues (a common belief back then). So she attempted to be healed without getting caught. But Jesus immediately knew what had happened, so he stopped and searched for the person who had taken power from him. The woman, I can imagine, came forward like a dog who cowers, knowing they have been found out. But instead of being reprimanded, the woman received a response she was not expecting: "And [Jesus] said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction'" (v 34). Instead of punishment, the woman received love and compassion.

Let me say that I know that there is a time for punishment. I am not so unrealistic that I deny the need for punishment, believing that all a child needs is love in order to behave well. At times punishment is necessary. But if punishment becomes the main focus of our parenting, what kind of child are we going to raise? Punishment has become the main focus of our message to unbelievers, which goes against the message of Jesus in Scripture. Another important thing to understand about punishment is that its purpose is corrective. Which means that punishment must end so that the corrected behavior can begin. This is the only kind of punishment that can be understood in the context of love. That is why I do not believe the message of hell coheres with the message of an all loving God. It cannot be corrective being that there is no end. It can only be masochistic which goes against everything I know about God. Therefore, for those who resist the love and grace of God, I must believe that when they die, they either cease to exist, or go to a temporary place of severe punishment in order to bring about the correction of one's behavior.

When our message is anything other love and compassion, if we teach that the reason we need Christ is because we are bad and will be punished without him, we divert from the true message of Scripture which is that Jesus provides us with the love, hope, and healing that we need in our lives. The message that Jesus preached was that there was no need to fear God, but that he loves us unconditionally: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
Blessings,
-Brandon