In this series of articles, I am responding to the claim that the story of Jesus is merely a recapitulation from a different ancient myth. All that I am doing in these is giving a report on the traits and narrative of these myths with very little comment. I leave it to the reader to determine if, in fact, these stories are mirrored in the account of Jesus Christ.  If you are unfamiliar with the account of Jesus Christ, I recommend any or all of the 4 gospels accounts – Matthew, Mark, Luke and/or John.

One common candidate for this idea is the position that the gospel of Mark is little more than a mirror of Homer’s The Odyssey.

So, what I am doing in this article is giving a play-by-play rundown of the entire book of Mark. In this link, here, you can compare the play-by-play of The Odyssey and see how they compare!

Mark Opens with:
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
       “Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
³    the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie^[1]

Mark starts with the story of John the Baptist – and starting with a prophecy from Isaiah about him.

Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist and the voice from heaven proclaims Him “My beloved Son.”

Jesus is driven into the wilderness by the Spirit for 40 days and is tempted by Satan.

John is arrested and Jesus comes to Galilee with his main message: repent, believe in the good news, the kingdom of God is at hand.

He calls His disciples – some fishermen first and then a tax collector. In the meantime, he travels around the Galilee region, walking from place to place teaching and healing people.

He starts being questioned by religious leaders – the first one is about fasting, then Sabbath – including healing on the Sabbath. And He begins to draw crowds and create a local following…

From these crowds, he chooses 12 to follow Him in particular.

He begins to mention the Holy Spirit in preaching and the devil. His mother and brothers come to see Him.

He begins to teach in parables. (the purpose of which is to make sure that many people who should not understand don’t understand) Mark 4:10-12.

He calms a storm in the medium sized lake called the “Sea of Galilee”
As he travels around, and expands His range, He heals a man in the Decapolis.

Back home, he heals two daughters… then He goes home to Nazareth…
And is rejected by his hometown people. He then sends out disciples for their first shot at ministering without Him right there with them.

In an aside/sidebar, we discover that John the Baptist is executed by Herod.
The disciples return to Jesus and debrief their experiences. They go away to rest and talk, but the crowds follow. This creates the tension the ends up leading to Jesus feeding 5000 plus people with 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Jesus walks on water, but his disciples do not understand what all is going

on.   Jesus goes back to the area around Magdala and people recognize Him and come to be healed… even touching the fringe of His prayer shawl to be healed.

Pharisees show back up and begin to criticize the way His disciples ignore certain rules – like washing. Jesus corrects them, but with other Old Covenant passages… while explaining misunderstandings and issues with the law. In the process, apparently, he declares food clean.

Jesus returns to the Decapolis and there are a couple of confrontations with healing situations again – the demon possessed child and a deaf man. He does a miracle similar here to what He had done in Galilee – feeding another 4,000 with only a few items.

He heads back home and is confronted by the Pharisees again.

He heals a blind man in Bethsaida.

In Caesarea Philippi, Peter proclaims Jesus the Christ.

He tells them about the impending death He faces.

Jesus then takes James, Peter and John and they experience the transfiguration

Jesus heals a demon possessed boy with seizures.

Jesus then tries to explain his death and resurrection again. The disciples argue about their own greatness and Jesus uses a child to teach them about living out His teachings… and the disciples are faced with someone doing good things in Jesus’ name who is not one of them. Jesus tells them to allow it.

He goes back to talking about the children and about having a mindset of heaven – whatever Holy life on Earth costs is worth it since Hell is to be avoided at any Earthly cost.

Pharisees again – this time about divorce and marriage.

Then another situation with children being brought to Him – and again the Disciples do not understand.

He meets the infamous “Rich Young Ruler”.

After this, while they are walking to Jerusalem, Jesus tells them again about His eventual death.

James and John ask about being on His right and left.

In Jericho, he heals a man born blind.

In Jerusalem, He experiences the triumphal entry.

During this last week, He and His disciples walk back and forth to Bethany each day. During these daily visits to Jerusalem, Jesus curses a fig tree, cleanses the teample, faces down the chief priests, scribes, and elders.

In the temple, he teaches in parables again mostly about the failure of the religious leaders of Israel to really listen to God. In an amazing “strange bedfellows moment” the Pharisees and Herodians confront Him together… then the Sadducees take a shot. Jesus famously answers one of the Scribes with the greatest commandment. Jesus warns the crowds against the religious leaders’ teaching.

Sitting in the temple area, He comments on a widow’s offering, foretells the destruction of The Temple and of His body.

He spends some time teaching about the future while on the Mount of Olives..

With only a couple of days left, the leaders begin to seriously plot to have Him killed.

Jesus is anointed in Bethany, betrayed by Judas, eats Passover, prays in an Olive grove /press, is arrested (and a young man flees in his underclothes), and tried in a legal court.

In the court, He finally declares “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”^[2]

The priests accept this as blasphemy and the beatings start.

Meanwhile, Peter denies Jesus.

Jesus is taken over to Pilate. Jesus barely speaks.

Barabbas is freed, and the crowd demands the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus is scourged, led away to be crucified. He is crucified at about 9am, darkness descended at noon, Jesus cries out a quote from the 22^nd Psalm… be yells out one more thing and then “breathed His last”.

A Centurion makes the claim “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”

Some women were watching from a distance – among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, Joses and another woman named Salome.

Jesus is buried. Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body and buried Jesus in his tomb and rolled the stone over the entrance. The women saw the location.

When Sabbath had passed, those women went early to anoint the body. They were worried about who would roll away the stone for them. They find a young man dressed in a white robe who tells them that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, is risen and is not there. He tells them to go tell Peter and the other disciples that Jesus is going before them to Galilee… and that they would see Him there.

They saw that the body was gone and then fled, and were so afraid they didn’t tell anyone on the way.

The rest of what most Bibles have as the end of Mark is not reliable and not likely to be original… so I will not comment on it here.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Mk 1:1–7). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
^[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Mk 14:62). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.