Miracles in Mark's Gospel

"Peace, Be Still" (Mark 4:35-41)



There is an interesting parallel between this account of Jesus' stilling of the waters and Jonah 1. In both cases a sleeping prophet in a ship in a storm is awakened by frightened sailors who ask him to still the water, which he does.

Decapolis News (Mark 5:1-20)



There is a repeated motif in Mark's Gospel in which Jesus' warns those who witness his miracles not to spread the news. This is usually explained as (a) Jesus not wanting people to follow him for the wrong reasons or (b) his concern that too early a revelation of his divine nature would arouse opposition from the Jewish religious authorities before Jesus had accomplished all that he came to do.  Interestingly, this "Markan Secret" is reversed in the story of demoniac's healing--the man is told to spread the news, perhaps because the miracle took place in mainly Gentile territory (note the raising of pigs by those in the area).

Downcast (Mark 11:12-24)

Another term used to describe a literary technique often employed by Mark is a "Markan sandwich."  Basically, it consists of telling half of a story, interruption with another story, and then a resumption of the original story. Both stories are usually related to one another thematically. The account pictured above is one such example, containing the accounts of Jesus cursing the unproductive fig tree (representing Jewish traditions) and overturning the tables of the temple money changers.