A Date in the Sixties
A Date in the Sixties
The majority of contemporary scholars date Mark in the sixties, for three reasons. First, the earliest traditions favor a date for Mark after the death of Peter. 34Second, and perhaps more important for most, the internal evidence of Mark is said to favor a date during, or shortly after, the onset of persecution in Rome. Mark has much to say about the importance of disciples’ following the "road to the cross” walked by our Lord. This emphasis best fits a situation when Christians were facing the grim prospect of martyrdom, a setting that would have obtained in Rome at the time of, or after, Nero’s famous persecution of Christians in A.D. 65. 35Third, Mark 13 is said to reflect the situation in Palestine during the Jewish revolt and just before the Roman entrance into the city, and thus it must be dated between 67 and 69. 36