First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

THE BESURAS HAGEULAH ACCORDING TO MARKOS

Whereas Mattityahu slanted his Besuras Hageulah to make it

especially appealing to Jewish people (presenting Yehoshua as the

royal Jewish Moshiach), Markos (Mark) is obviously talking to a

non-Jewish audience unfamiliar with Mark's own Jewish religious

background (see 7:3-4; 14:12; 15:42).

Mark wrote his Besuras Hageulah and published it in its final

form probably not much later than the Neronian persecution in

Rome in C.E. 64-65,and possibly much earlier, perhaps as early as

C.E. 55. Mark 13:14 (also II Thes. 2:3-12) seems to have Caligula

in recent memory. This mad Roman Caesar commanded his statue to

be set up in the Jerusalem Beis Hamikdash in C.E. 40, but was

assassinated before the order was carried out. All this happened

around 10 years after Moshiach Yehoshua concluded his ministry in

Israel around C.E. 30. Undoubtedly the writing of this Besuras

Hageulah is one of the things that prompted Shliach Sha'ul to say

of Mark, "He is helpful to me in my ministry" (II Tim. 4:11).

Certainly Mark's authorship of this Besuras Hageulah helps to

account for the frequent mention of Mark's name in the rest of

the Brit Chadasha Scriptures, since without such authorship his

importance in the early Brit Chadasha kehillah would not be

easily explained.

There is a possibility (though the evidence is divided) that the

fleeing young man in Mark 14:51-52 is Mark himself, humbly not

mentioning his own name along with the eleven Shluchim. If so,

then Mark was an eye witness of the events in Gethsemane. We do

know that Mark could have been because the disciples used as a

meeting place "the house of Miryam the mother of Yochanan Mark"

(Acts 12:12), and there is a tradition that the Last Supper was

celebrated there (close by Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives--see

Mark 14:26).

It is also possible that the reason Mark went on the first

emissary journey of Moshiach's shlichus (mission) (C.E. 46-48) may have

been because he possessed an early version of his Besuras

Hageulah or was an eye-witness of some of the key incidents he

writes about in his Besuras Hageulah, and that Luke, with a

working draft of his Besuras Hageulah, in effect took Mark's

place in Rav Sha'ul's team of emissaries of Moshiach's shlichus (mission).

Mark dropped out from Rav Sha'ul's mission team around C.E. 46

and Luke came onboard with Shliach Sha'ul around C.E. 49 (Acts

16:10). It appears that both Matthew and Luke used Mark in

writing their Besuras Hageulah. If one asks why there is more

than one Besuras Hageulah in the Brit Chadasha, one reason is

that everything must be established as true by two or three

witnesses (Deut. 19:15). Behind each Besuras Hageulah stands a

different Shliach of Moshiach, Kefa behind Markos, Sha'ul behind

Lukas, Yochanan behind Yochanan, and Mattityahu behind Mattityah,

all eye-witnesses of the Moshiach's Techiyas HaMesim.

Mark's Besuras Hageulah seems to be slanted from Shliach Kefa's

point of view, giving Shliach Kefa's direct eye witness account

(see 1:40; 3:5; 5:4-6) such as only a maggid and navi like

Shliach Kefa could have provided. Also, significant portion of

the narrative is structured around Shliach Kefa's personal

testimony, which shows that under pressure of persecution (such

as in the Neronian persecution, perhaps) a disciple might deny

the L-rd and still be forgiven later, since fear is not the

unforgivable sin. Some scholars believe the events of Nero's

persecution of the Brit Chadasha kehillah may have helped to

shape the emphasis of Mark's material as it was finally published

around the time of Nero's persecution (64 C.E.) A crisis

occurred in Rome in the reign of Nero. Shliach Kefa and others

died al kiddush ha-Shem. (Compare Matthean and Lucan parallels to

Mark 10:30 and you will see that this Besuras Hageulah alone adds

the words "with persecutions"). Denying oneself and taking up the

Moshiach's Etz was no metaphor but an all-consuming reality, "no

strange thing" but "like Master, like disciple." And just as the

Moshiach's death made the deity of the Moshiach apparent to the

Roman centurion at the Etz (Mark 15:39), so too the brave, even

joyful (Ya'akov 1:2) suffering of believers made their holy

election manifest to many (Phil. 1:28). Our testimony is not

only in words; it may be in a martyr's deeds. Mark's Besuras

Hageulah preaches that in view of the imminent tribulation

overtaking the Moshiach and his people, the Son of Man must

suffer and so also must his kedoshim.

As William Lane has shown in his New International Commentary on

Mark (Eerdmans, 1974), a point of climax to the first half of

Mark's Besuras Hageulah is reached at Caesarea Philippi with the

confession of Shliach Kefa that Yehoshua is the Moshiach (see

8:29). Mark's aim is to get the reader/listener to make the same

recognition as Shliach Kefa and the Roman centurion at the Etz

(15:39). Because Nero made the followers of our Moshiach his

scapegoats for setting fire to Rome, the Followers of our

Moshiach were subjected to the Moshiach's temptations "with the

wild beasts" (1:12-13) in the gladiatorial arena and found

themselves being betrayed to the authorities by many "Judases"

(3:19). The believers in Rome carried the same Etz with the

Moshiach of being misrepresented and falsely labelled (3:21-30).

Mark's Besuras Hageulah shows how the Etz of persecution sifts

the true believers from the pseudo-believers and apostates and

betrayers (4:17-23), since following Moshiach may cost a disciple

all that he possesses, even his life (10:17-30).

Notice how Moshiach Yehoshua's own disciples flee in 14:41-52,

66-72 and Shliach Kefa denies the L-rd as well. The message to

the Romans who had fled to save their lives was that, if they

repented, G-d would forgive the cowardly and give them another

chance to make their confession, if need be with their own blood

in martyrdom. The Roman persecution becomes a paradigm for the

"great tribulation" existential situation of the believer who

must confess Moshiach Yehoshua openly in a dangerous, evil

anti-Moshiach world. For the believer is promised "persecutions"

(10:30) as the response of the world to his witness to Moshiach

Yehoshua. Yet the believer is commanded to make a radical

abandonment of life in this world as his response to the Besuras

Hageulah (8:34-38).

Shliach Kefa says, "Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased

from sin" (I Shimon Kefa 4:1)and Mark says similarly of the

believer's sacrifice for the L-rd in the midst of persecution and

trial, "everyone will be salted by fire" (9:49-50). Apparently,

the reason for the writing of Mark's Besuras Hageulah was both to

preserve the witness of Shliach Kefa after his death and also to

sustain "tribulation saints" exposed to Messianic sufferings and

martyrdom (see 8:36; 10:29-31,39; 13:9,13).

Just as Mattityahu emphasizes that Moshiach is Adoneinu (see how

Moshiach Yehoshua is born as the fulfilment of the Immanuel or

G-d-with-us prophecy in the first chapter of Matthew and then has

all authority in heaven and earth in the last chapter), so this

same Moshiach Adoneinu theme is preached in Mark. The authority

of G-d is seen in Moshiach Yehoshua in the way he commands demons

to be quiet, the storm at sea to be still, disease to be healed,

the ocean surface to hold his weight, loaves and fishes to

multiply, blind eyes to see, deaf ears to hear, a fig tree to

wither, and his own body to be anointed for burial--all with the

divine grace that only G-d in human form could manifest.

At this time there were mystery religions and various sects with

"in-the-know" initiates interested in secret religious knowledge,

divination or fortunetelling, exorcism, magic, demon-wonhip, and

other occult practices. Mark's Besuras Hageulah appeals to the

curiosity of such an audience with a bigger divine mystery,

namely the identity of the Moshiach, an undisclosed yet open

secret which only the redeemed are privy to (8:18; 1:25,34; 3:12;

8:30; 1:43-45; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26; 9:9). Mark's Besuras Hageulah

constitutes one long charismatic power encounter where Moshiach

Yehoshua and those he authorizes (3:15; 6:7) totally storm

Satan's kingdom (1:13; 3:26-27) and strike a lethal blow for G-d

and for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see the true

identity of Moshiach Yehoshua as the Son of G-d. (Note Mark 15:39

is not "Truly this man was a Son of G-d" but "the Son of G-d"

because predicate nouns that are definite nevertheless often lack

the definite article "the" when they precede the verb.) Also, the

title Bar Nosh Son of Man could mean both the Messianic figure in

Dn. 7:13-14 or a circumlocution for the first person singular

pronoun "I." Therefore, this added to the enigmatic aspect of

some of the L-rd's sayings in Mark, since it is only in the Son

of Man sayings after Mark 8:38 that the messianic secret" is

clearly revealed in Mark's Besuras Hageulah that Y'shua is the

Dn. 7:13 apocalyptic Judge appointed by the Father (see Mark

13:26).

This Besuras Hageulah shows the impotence of mere ritualistic

religion to remove the defilement of the unregenerate nature (see

7:1-23) and contains teaching which calls for total war against

one's sinful nature, a summons to nothing short of "a suicide of

the flesh" as far as the cowardly, selfish, proud, unregenerate

nature is concerned (see 9:42-50 where the salt that was used in

the preparation of some sacrifices is used to point to the

self-sacrifice in the face of persecution necessary to preserve

new life and kingdom holiness). The old evil nature must be

nailed to death in order that the new life in G-d can arise (Mark

8:35).

The importance of children's ministry is underlined in 10:13-16.

People in the Messianic community have the disciples' tendency to

hinder children's work, treating children as somehow less

important than adults. Moshiach Yehoshua, on the other hand,

sees them as closer to the kingdom and is all the more on the

alert that they not be lost. Any new congregation that has no

vision or time for children is itself immature.

The Romans were accustomed to authoritarian models for their

leadership,but Mark uses a story about the disciples (10:35-45)

to show that gentle servanthood is the better way. This message

is needed in many cultures today where leaders tend to assert

themselves with a high hand both in and out of a religious

situation.

A key idea in Mark is the reprehensibility of unbelief. Even the

demons believe (and shutter) that in Moshiach Yehoshua G-d is

powerfully among them, yet the religious authorities were

"delighted" (14:11) to hear that Moshiach Yehoshua could be

betrayed into their hands so that they could reassert their own

religious authority by killing him. Here we see a more-than-

demonic reprehensibility in unregenerate religious man" and we

understand why G-d's fury burns forever in hellish reprisal

against those in government or religion who assert their own

authority against G-d and defiantly refuse, even in the face of

overwhelming evidence, to believe that Yehoshua is the Ben

HaElohim.

Those involved in the deliverance of the demonized should study

the Besuras Hageulah of Mark and pray so that they will be able

to drive out evil spirits (see 9:17-29). Demons are angels who

have left their place of integrity, their proper domain in

heaven, and have placed themselves under the rule of the prince

of the demonic spirits (Matt. 12:24), Hasatan. Hasatan opposes

the work of the Moshiach by sending demons into people who for

their part open themselves to the rule of the Devil and become

demonized. In this Besuras Hageulah, Hasatan is using people to

make a last-ditch stand against the manifest in-breaking of the

Messianic Kingdom; however, those who are delivered from evil

spirits by the L-rd enter into the Kingdom with spiritual

violence (see Luke 16:16; Mt 11:12).

In the Besuras Hageulah, we see Hasatan try to annul Moshiach's

ministry by his temptations in the wilderness, the region where

demons prowled (Dt. 32:l7). After three unsuccessful

attempts, Hasatan then waits for an "opportune moment" (Luke

4:13) and sifts Shliach Kefa (Luke 22:31) and tries to tempt

Moshiach Yehoshua again, using Shliach Kefa (Matt. 16:23).

Finally Hasatan finds the opportunity he is looking for in the

person of Judas (Luke 22:3; Yochanan 6:70; 13:2). Hasatan puts

things into people's hearts, but we are not ignorant of his

devices and are alerted by a word of knowledge (Luke 22:21) or

other gifts of the Spirit. Satan can hinder us, however. He can

snatch the word(Luke 8:12) from the hearts of those who don't

belong to the L-rd, those who are ensnared by the Devil (II Tim.

2:25-26) because they don't resist his wiles (Eph. 6:11; 4:27; I

Shimon Kefa 5:8-9) or stand firm against his schemes (Eph.6:11).

A demoniac is a person controlled by demonic powers. When the

demonic spirits are cast out at the authority of the name of

Moshiach Yehoshua, this proves that the Satanic dominion will be

destroyed and is already in principle defeated (Luke 10:18;

11:20; Yochanan 12:31) and is being conquered by the Kingdom of

G-d.

An exorcism is a healing miracle (Luke 9:42). People are to be

delivered of the demonic and to be restored to their right mind

(Mark 5:15) and these signs are to accompany the preaching of the

Besuras Hageulah (Mark 16:17,20) because authority to do

exorcisms is granted to the preachers of the Besuras Hageulah

(Matt. 10:1;Mark 6:7). A person who wants to be delivered, who

wants to resist Satan, and who makes full use of the means of

grace to stay delivered is released from demonic powers by the

anointing of the Ruach Hakodesh (Matt. 12:28).

The exorcist sometimes feels tremendous heat in his hands when he

lays them on the head of the demoniac. This is the anointing of

the Ruach Hakodesh. The demons sometimes manifest by a terrible

odor and also rigidity in the person's body and other phenomena,

including assuming the voice of the demoniac.

When the demon manifested in Acts 16:18, Shliach Sha'ul addressed

the demon in these words, "I command you, in the name of Moshiach

Yehoshua, to come out of her." When Moshiach Yehoshua demands to

know the demon's name (Mark 5:9), he is exposing its essence, the

essential character of its nature, in order to take authority

over that area of the demoniac's life that the demon is

dominating. Is it a lying demon? A deceiving demon? A demon

generating false doctrine (I Tim. 4:1)? How has its essential

character become a Satanic stronghold in the demoniac? Unless

the cleansed demoniac becomes fully occupied with the Lord's

authority and means of grace (see for example Acts 2:42), the

person may actually fall into greater demonic bondage later

(Matt.12:43-45).

Now let us look at the tevilah of teshuva in the Besuras Hageulah

of Mark. The Jewish people practiced self-immersion in

ritual-baths when a man or woman had become ritually defiled as

after a nocturnal emission, a menstrual period, handling a

corpse, etc. The water became a kind of living metaphor of

purification, and all proselytes to Judaism were required to

enter the mikveh. When the navi Yochanan (Yochanan of the tevilah

of teshuva) appeared in the wilderness announcing the dawn of

universal Brit Chadasha Apocalyptic Messianic [i.e. Orthodox]

Judaism, all Israelites were commanded to make teshuva and

prepare to receive the Moshiach, the Moshiach of Israel. Many of

the proud P'rushim (Pharisees) and Tz'dukim (Sadducees) and

soferim (scribes, rabbis) refused to heed the prophet's warning,

and so excluded themselves from becoming proselytes to Brit

Chadasha Judaism. They lacked the circumcision of the Ruach

Hakodesh, the Spirit of the G-d of Israel, and were heathen at

heart because they refused to repent and obey the Word of the

L-rd.

In the beginning Shliach Kefa could only preach the raw glorious

facts of what the Shluchim "had seen with their eyes and touched

with their hands" (I Yochanan 1:1). The so-called Logos

Christology of Yochanan, though equally primitive and true, did

not form the main subject of Shliach Kefa's preaching as it has

been recorded for us in Mark and in Acts. Nevertheless, it is

true that the Torah of G-d is His Wisdom (chochmah) that was at

His Side in the beginning (Prov. 8:30 and 30:4). The Torah

demanded death for those who go their own way and refuse to

repent and go G-d's way. Then the Torah enfleshed himself as the

Moshiach, the Moshiach Yehoshua, and the Wisdom of G-d dwelled

among us (Mt. 12:42; Yochanan 1:14). The Word of G-d who demanded

the justice of death for evil-doers mercifully offered his own

death for our sins (I Cor. 1:23-24,30) in order that we might

repent and let him write himself into our hearts (Jer. 31:31-34;

Rev. 3:20). However, the Moshiach warns, "Unless you repent, you

shall all alike perish" (Luke 13:3,5). So true saving faith turns

from evil to G-d (I Thes. 1:9) and involves repentance.

The first proof of our repentant obedience through faith is that

we obey the L-rd by taking the tevilah of Brit Chadasha Biblical

Judaism in the name of Elohim HaAv (Isa. 63:16), and his living

Torah, the Moshiach (his Wisdom, the Ben HaElohim--Prov. 30:4),

as well as the Spirit of the Holy One, praised be He. The

prophet Yochanan immersed Jewish people as a witness to their

repentance. The Shluchim did likewise, using Moshiach's tevilah

as a witness that the new believers had turned from going their

own way and were now going to steadfastly and faithfufly follow

the L-rd in his Seder, the Brit Chadasha chavurah (table

fellowship), the Brit Chadasha torah (teaching) of the Shluchim,

and the corporate prayers (tefillos). (See Acts 2:42).

Is. 53:3 says that the Moshiach would be despised, lowest of men,

one for whom the people would have no regard. Ps. 22:6-7 says

that the people would sneer at him and scorn him, jeer him as a

worm, not a man. Some said that no good thing could come from

Nazareth (Yochanan 1:46) and that no prophet comes out of the

Galilee (Yochanan 7:52).

The unusual circumstances of Yehoshua'a virgin birth is alluded

to in Mark 6:3. To be born of a woman who got pregnant and had

her baby in less time than she was actually married to a man

looked like an illegitimate birth. The Pharisees seem to throw

this up at Moshiach Yehoshua in Yochanan 8:41 as though the

scandal of it had followed him from Nazareth to Jerusalem, "We

are not illegitimate children." Also see Yochanan 9:29, "As for

this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from." He was

known pejoratively as "the son of Miryam" (Mark 6:3). It was

contrary to Jewish accepted custom to call a man the son of his

mother, even when she was a widow. Jephthah was mockingly known

as the son of a prostitute (Jdg. 11:1). So Moshiach Yehoshua was

insulted as a mamzer (illegitimate child).

His legal father was poor, a humble workman. His mother was a

virgin from Galilee. No Jewish person would tend to get excited

about someone with those lowly credentials. Thus Is. 53:2-3 was

fulfilled.

Mark 15:47 shows that two Miryams, Moshiach Yehoshua's mother and

Miryam Magdalene, saw the tomb where Moshiach Yehoshua was laid,

the tomb that was soon to be empty. There was no confusion

regarding where the tomb was. Since women's testimony was not

valued in Jewish culture at this time, it is obvious that this

fact was not invented. If invention had been resorted to, male

witnesses would have been claimed.

At the end of this Besuras Hageulah, the women see the empty tomb

and have it explained by an angelic interpreter. The women do

not tell the authorities but, as we learn from Luke's research,

they instead tell the disciples who listened to the words of the

women but considered them an "idle tale" (leros Luke 24:11).

However, Yochanan tells us that Shliach Kefa and apparently

Yochanan himself ran to the tomb to confirm what the women were

saying. Shortly afterwards, the L-rd appeared to both Shliach

Kefa and Yochanan.

To summarize, it is possible that the fleeing naked boy in Mark

14:51-52 is Mark himself. Mark was not one of the 12 but he seems

to have been in their company from a very early period, and

Mark's Mother's home was used by the disciples as the meeting

place of the Jerusalem congregation (see Acts 12:12-17). If Mark

were 15 years old when Moshiach Yehoshua was arrested, he would

be 31 in C.E. 46 when he went with Shliach Sha'ul and Bar-Nabba

on the first leg of the first journey of Moshiach's shlichus (mission), and

Mark would have been in his late forties when Shliach Kefa

mentions him at the end of I Shliach Kefa. Mark seems to be a

precocious child who was fortunate to be, from his earliest

years, in the very best company, knowing all the Shluchim and the

L-rd's brothers and Shliach Kefa, Shliach

Sha'ul, Luke, Timothy and most, if not all, of the other

principle people in the Brit Chadasha Jewish Scriptures. G-d

chose him to be Shliach Kefa's secretary, and to be a kiruv

outreach worker and a navi, and to make sure that Shliach Kefa's

Besuras Hageulah was properly recorded in writing. Certainly he

had an unusual anointing and a very privileged life experience to

fulfill his ministry, as Shliach Sha'ul later admitted (II Tim.

4:11). His failure during the first journey of Moshiach's

shlichus (mission) did not keep him from later acquitting his ministry in a

wonderful way.

On Yochanan Mark see Acts 12:25; 13:5,13; 15:37,39; Col. 4:10;

Philem. 24; II Tim. 4:11; I Shimon Kefa 5:13.

Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21) were famous believers known by

the original hearers of Mark's Besuras Hageulah. These two men

were famous because their very own father had actually helped

Moshiach Yehoshua carry his Etz. (see also Rom. 16:13).

Moshiach Yehoshua was probably denied by Shliach Kefa around 3

A.M., but that Moshiach Yehoshua forgave him is implied by Mark

16:7. The night was divided into 9 P.M., 12 P.M. 3 A.M. (this was

called "cockcrow"--see 13:35) and 6 A.M (dawn).

We sing the Shema because of Mark 12:29.

MARK 13:13

And you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who

endures to the end will be saved.