The third division of the Gospel (x. 46–xvi. 8) is concerned with the actual story of the Passion at Jerusalem. The Messiah enters the Holy City in a guise meant to recall the prophecy of Zech. ix. 9 sqq., and in the capacity of Zion's King (Mk. xi. I ). The Temple is cleansed (xi. 15-19), there are conflicts with chief priests and elders and scribes, Pharisees and Herodians and Sadducees (xi. 27–xii. 27). A brief christological section (xii. 35-37) suggests that the Messiah is a Greater than David, and that "Son of David" is an inadequate title. An apocalyptic dis course (Mk. 13) gives expression to the conviction that the grievous calamities and troubles which were tc, befall both the Church and the world (and which in part had already befallen the former) had been foreseen by the Lord—it is believed by many scholars that a brief Jewish-Christian apocalypse descrip tive of the denouement of world-history in three stages, viz.:— (I ) Signs of the End (xiii. 7-8), (2) Manifestation of Anti christ, Great Tribulation, Flight of Believers (xiii. 14-20) and (3) Dissolution of the existing World-order, Coming of the Son of Man, Gathering of the Elect (xiii. 24-27), has been here incor porated along with authentic sayings of Jesus.
The remainder of the Gospel (Mk. xiv. i–xvi. 8) comprises the story of the plot against Jesus' life, the Last Supper and Institution of the Eucharist, the disloyalty of Peter, the Agony and Arrest in the Garden, the examination before the Sanhedrin, the trial before Pilate, the Lord's Sufferings, Crucifixion and Death. The Burial of Jesus is seen by the women (Mk. xv. 4o sqq.) and the authentic text of the Gospel breaks off with the account of the Empty Tomb and the message of the Angel (xvi. 1-8).
—there is no non-supernatural Christianity in the New Testa ment—and his supernaturalism is of a naïve, popular kind. He believes both in demons and in miracles, and his Jesus is pre dominantly a Wonder-worker. For him Jesus is the Son of God (in the sense of a divine, supernatural Being), to whom witness is borne at His Baptism and Transfiguration by supernatural Voices from heaven, who is recognized by the demons (who are supposed to possess supernatural knowledge) as their destined destroyer and foe, and who is manifested in works of supernatural power. St. Mark's Jesus is clothed with authority from heaven (i. 27), knows the secrets of men's hearts (ii. 8, iii. 4, 5), is ranked higher than the angels (xiii. 32), and as the "Son of Man" is the Judge who shall come "with the clouds" (xiii. 26-27, xiv. 62), who al ready upon earth has the authority to forgive sins (ii. 1o), and who is Lord of the Sabbath (ii. 28). At the same time He is gen uinely man. He can be tired (iv. 36), angry (iii. 5) and grieved (iii. 5) ; He can sigh (vii. 34, viii. 12) and be moved with indig nation (x. 14) ; He can be "greatly amazed" and "sore troubled" (xiv. 33) ; He dislikes being called "good" (x. 18), and is not omniscient (xiii. 32). He is addressed by His disciples as "Teacher" or "Rabbi" (iv. 38, ix. 38, x. 35, xiii. 1; ix. 5, xi. 21, xiv. 45). He is the Servant of God, who gives His life as "a ransom for many" (x. 45). If the doctrine of the Incarnation is implicit rather than explicit in this Gospel, its fundamental mes sage is the setting forth of two themes : the conviction of primitive Christianity as to the supernatural power of the Lord Jesus, and (2) the great doctrine and fact of the Cross.