The New Testament · The Gospels · Book 48 of 73
Prophecy in Mark
Mark is the shortest Gospel and moves fastest. It opens with a prophecy fulfilled and Jesus announcing that the time has come. Three times on the road to Jerusalem he foretells his death and resurrection, and his last long teaching ends with one word for everyone: “Watch!”
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The book at a glance
Tradition attributes the second Gospel to Mark, the companion of Peter. Papias, quoted by Eusebius, calls Mark “the interpreter of Peter,” who wrote down accurately what he remembered (Eusebius, Church History 3.39.15), and Irenaeus says the same (Against Heresies 3.1.1). Eusebius also records that Peter's hearers asked Mark to leave them a written record of his preaching (Church History 2.15.1). Most scholars today hold that Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels and that Matthew and Luke drew on it.
Mark has few fulfillment formulas and little apocalyptic imagery of its own. Its prophecy is concentrated in Jesus' own words: the kingdom at hand, the three predictions of the Passion, and the discourse on the Mount of Olives (chapter 13). That discourse is read at length on the Matthew page; the cards below are shorter and note what Mark alone stresses: the Gospel preached first to all nations, and the call to stay awake.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 1:2–3 | The messenger and the voice in the desert | Fulfilled |
| 1:14–15 | The time of fulfillment; the kingdom at hand | Fulfilled Unfolding |
| 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34 | The three predictions of the Passion | Fulfilled |
| 9:1 | The kingdom come in power | Fulfilled Mystery |
| 13:1–2 | Not one stone upon another | Fulfilled |
| 13:5–13 | Labor pains, trials, the Gospel to all nations | Unfolding |
| 13:14–23 | The desolating abomination | Fulfilled Mystery |
| 13:24–27 | The Son of Man coming in the clouds | Future |
| 13:32–37 | No one knows the day or hour: watch | Future |
| 14:61–62 | Seated at the right hand, coming with the clouds | Fulfilled Future |
The passages
“Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’”
- Reading
- The one time Mark himself quotes the prophets in his narrative is at the very start. It joins Malachi 3:1 and Exodus 23:20 to Isaiah 40:3 under Isaiah's name. The messenger is John the Baptist, the last of the prophets and the forerunner (CCC 523). In Isaiah the way is prepared for “the Lord”; Mark applies it to Jesus.
- See also
- Malachi 3:23–24 promises Elijah before the day of the Lord; Jesus says Elijah has come (Mark 9:13).
“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
- Reading
- Jesus' first words in Mark announce that the waiting of the prophets is over. The Catechism takes this verse as the opening of the kingdom's proclamation and teaches that the Church is “the seed and beginning” of that kingdom on earth (CCC 541).
- Why two labels
- The time is fulfilled in Christ's coming. The kingdom he announced keeps growing, hidden like seed in the ground (Mark 4:26–29), until it is complete at his return.
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.”
- Reading
- Mark's central section is built around three predictions, each more detailed than the last. The third names the chief priests and scribes, the Gentiles, the mocking, spitting and scourging, and ends: “but after three days he will rise” (10:34). Each time the disciples fail to understand, and each time Jesus teaches that following him means taking up the cross. The Catechism cites all three as signs that Jesus knew and freely went to meet his Passion (CCC 474, 557).
- See also
- “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), echoing the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
“Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power.”
- Reading
- Mark places the Transfiguration immediately after (9:2–8), and many Fathers read it as the fulfillment: Peter, James and John saw the kingdom's glory (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 56; Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon 51.2). The NABRE note mentions other readings, among them the kingdom established in power through the Church.
- Why two labels
- The Church has not fixed one reading. Mark's wording, “has come in power,” fits the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and Pentecost alike. It sets no date for the end (13:32). See the parallel at Matthew 16:28.
“There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down.”
- Reading
- A disciple marvels at the Temple's stones; Jesus foretells their fall, fulfilled in AD 70. At his trial false witnesses twisted his words about the Temple (14:58), and the Catechism links his prophecy of the Temple's destruction to the last days, which begin with his own Passover (CCC 585). See The Temple of His Body and the fuller reading on the Matthew page.
“But the gospel must first be preached to all nations.”
- Reading
- Wars, earthquakes and famines are “the beginnings of the labor pains” (13:8), and “it will not yet be the end” (13:7). Disciples will be handed over to councils and governors, and Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will speak for them (13:11). The heart of the passage is Mark's own short sentence: before the end, the Gospel goes to all nations.
- Why unfolding
- The mission is still under way, and so is the trial. The promise holds with it: “the one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (13:13). Compare Matthew 24:4–14.
“When you see the desolating abomination standing where he should not (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.”
- Reading
- Jesus takes up Daniel's image (Daniel 9:27; 12:11). Mark's aside, “let the reader understand,” is a nudge to those who know Daniel. The warning to flee fits the war of AD 66–70, and Luke makes the reference plain (Luke 21:20). Mark's grammar is unusual: “standing where he should not.” Some interpreters take this as pointing to a person, and many Fathers saw in the abomination a figure of the final Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.25.2; St. Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 62–63).
- Why two labels
- Fulfilled in the Temple's profanation and fall; whether it also points to a last trial is not settled by the Church. The full discussion is on the Matthew page. The comfort is Mark's too: for the sake of the elect, the Lord “did shorten the days” (13:20).
“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory.”
- Reading
- After the darkened sun and falling stars of prophetic language comes Daniel's Son of Man (Daniel 7:13). He sends the angels to gather his elect “from the end of the earth to the end of the sky” (13:27). The Church professes this coming in the Creed (CCC 668–682). See Matthew 24:29–31 for other readings of these verses.
“But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
- Reading
- Mark's discourse ends not with a timetable but with a short parable: a man goes on a journey and tells the gatekeeper to stay awake, since the master may come “in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning” (13:35). The Catechism cites this verse for the rule that the day belongs to the Father alone (CCC 673), and the call to watch for the present time of trial (CCC 672). On the Son's words about not knowing, see CCC 474.
- For now
- The last word is for everyone: “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (13:37). Watching is not fear; it is the readiness of a servant who loves the master.
“I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”
- Reading
- Asked whether he is the Messiah, Jesus answers plainly for the first time in Mark, joining Psalm 110:1 to Daniel 7:13. Throughout the Gospel he has kept his identity hidden; here, before the court that condemns him, he reveals it.
- Why two labels
- The reign at the right hand began with the Resurrection and Ascension, from which Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history (CCC 668). The coming with the clouds awaits his return in glory.
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: the parables of the seed (4:26–32), the coming of Elijah (9:11–13), the cup and the baptism (10:38–39), the parable of the tenants and the rejected stone (12:1–12), the fig tree and “this generation” (13:28–31), the anointing at Bethany “in memory of her” (14:9), and the longer ending's commission (16:15–20).
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