Gospel Study of the Gospel of Mark

by John-Peter Gernaat

​The Gospel of Mark is the first Gospel of the four that are contained in the New Testament to have been written down. There are scripture scholars who think that there were earlier written Gospel passages, written by others, which Mark may have used. This is because Mark was not one of the twelve disciples who lived intimately with Jesus, thus what he has written was told to him by others or written by others. Tradition is that Mark was a nephew of Simon Peter and Andrew and may well have received his picture of Jesus and his life directly from Peter. Mark is the shortest of the Gospels. A lot of Matthew’s Gospel appears to have been written almost verbatim from Mark.

Mark decides what he considers to be gospel – good news or good word. Consider the Zarathustran ethic of Good Thought, Good Word and Good Deed; this is the Good Word. From a Buddhist perspective, this would be the Right Word (Correct Word or True Word). Mark has connected the idea of Gospel with “The Word”. If it is Good and True, then it can also be thought of as the Beautiful Word or the words that are composed beautifully. John begins his Gospel with “The Word” on a cosmic level. Mark confines himself to the period of “The Word” or “The Logos” in earthly incarnation. His Gospel, therefore, begins with the Baptism in the Jordan. He thus covers only the three years of the ministry of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. We must find in this Gospel each of the three years. As with the other Gospel writer, the three years are not linear, they are cyclical. Something is established in the first year that is expanded in the second year and expands further in the third year.

Therefore, in covering a year we cover the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Mark structures his Gospel thematically, as do the other Gospel writers. Therefore, there is no strict chronology to the stories in this Gospel. Mark is, nonetheless, it seems more historically accurate than the other Gospel writers. Luke, for example, is very clear that he has structured his Gospel to lay out a path, the eight-fold path, for the Friend of God: Theophilus. It is therefore necessary, in following the year as laid out by Mark, to know the constellation in which we begin. Mark has laid out his Gospel to cover eleven signs of the Zodiac and not twelve. One sign is not included in any of the three years. At the end Mark writes his conclusion in the light of the sign that he excluded from each year. It is the sign with which Mark’s Gospel is associated: the constellation of Leo, the winged lion.

There are four signs of the Zodiac that are associated with the four Gospels, that are also associated with the lamassu (sphinx), that make up the Cherubim and that make up the composite picture that is also reflected in the human being. They are the constellations of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. These signs are associated with the four Gospels, and the depictions always have wings because they represent the spiritual qualities of the constellations. Matthew is associated with Aquarius, Luke with Taurus (connected with the larynx and the word and speech) and John is associated with Scorpio that then still had a strong association with the eagle.

Michaël shared his insight into the structure of Mark’s Gospel in that Mark follows seven signs of the Zodiac in each year that gives us a full span of the time of the year. These seven signs bring us to Leo, which he excludes. That leaves four signs which Mark uses to cover the four states of being – the physical, the etheric, the astral and the “I”-constitution. This provides the impression that in the course of each year something lands for the human being: for Jesus, the human being bearing the Christ, and for the human community, the twelve and for all of us. This cycle is repeated in each of the three years.

There are many qualities connected with each constellation and also some dark forces. Mark captures only the qualities of light. An example is Gemini which represents ‘the other’, ‘where two or more are gathered’, ‘community’, that in every human being is the masculine and the feminine, but this can also represent the false picture of myself: me and my double, me and a mirror image that is not really me.

The starting point for Mark is in the constellation in which Matthew and Luke place the birth of the child. Although Cancer is the constellation of the one arriving from the spiritual world, this birth, the birth of Jesus, has to take place in the constellation of death, in Capricorn. This is the tradition for Christmas from the beginning of Christian festivals. The birth of Jesus can be strongly experienced as a death out of the spiritual world and a birth on earth. Mark therefore begins in Capricorn.

The translation provided by Jon Madsen from Emil Bock provides a very clear picture of what this scriptural writing is about: “The new word from the realms of the angels sounds forth through Jesus Christ.” This is a good transliteration of the Greek ‘Evangelium’ which contains ‘ev’ meaning beautiful, and ‘angel’ which is a messenger from the realm of the spirit-world, a word from the realms of the angels. We have lost the noun ‘evangel’ in English and replaced it with the Anglo-Saxon word ‘gospel’. We still speak of Gospel writers as Evangelists!

At this point Michaël gave the breakdown of the Gospel of Mark into the eleven signs of the zodiac for each year, beginning in Capricorn.

Whenever we encounter John the Baptist, we are in the constellation of Aquarius. John the Baptist uses the Aquarian Mystery for the Baptism to happen. Pisces is always the constellation of the Christ. Aries is the ram and the Lamb and is about making whole or healings. Taurus is the healing power of the Word. Gemini is about community, brotherhood and the calling of the twelve. Cancer is family, family relationships and the home. Virgo is the establishment of the kingdom. Virgo is about receptivity and is connected with the physical. Libra is restoring order and true balance and is connected with the etheric. Scorpio is healing connected to the number twelve and blood. In Mark’s Gospel it is the constellation of the astral (passion and desire) and is connected with the Passion. Sagittarius is the conditions of discipleship seen in year one in the sending out of the disciples like an arrow from a bow and is connected with the Ego (“I”-constitution).

When we are dealing with the idea of transubstantiation, the idea of communion, receiving the transubstantiated bread, receiving the bread which is the bread of life, connected to the meal – note the terminology – we are dealing with the powerful qualities of two constellations at work together. These two constellations are connected because they are opposite each other. It is the constellation of Pisces (which is the Christ) and the constellation of Virgo. In the constellation of Virgo there are five stars known as the ‘bread baskets’ or the ‘loaves’. Pisces is the constellation of the two fish. Pisces is also the constellation that is active at sunrise – the Christ forces in the rising sun of Resurrection every day. Virgo is the constellation whose qualities govern the evening where we receive everything to carry it through the night, like a woman bearing a child. This is the Piscean-Virgoan axis, which is why we can meditate in the morning and in the evening, and why we should not meditate in the middle of the day. The feeding of the multitudes is always in the evening in the sign of Virgo. The story of the feeding of the five thousand occurs in the Gospel of Mark in the sign of Pisces because it is Christ who is feeding the multitude. However, the feeding of the four thousand has no fish present in the feeding, only the five loaves with one extra loaf on either side: so, seven loaves.

In the second year, when Mark places his Gospel in the sign of Taurus, the healing power of the Word, he includes the themes from two other constellations while remaining in Taurus, he incorporates Gemini and Cancer. He incorporates the new brotherhood and new relationships.

In the third year, there is again an incorporation of other themes into a sign, in this case in the sign of Pisces. The themes come first. They are the themes of Elijah who is representative of Capricorn – overcoming death without resurrection by being taking up into heaven – and Moses who is a representative of Aquarius (because he was placed in a reed basket – a metaphor for a coffin, which is the literal word used in Exodus - and set upon the Nile). This is where we read the Transfiguration of the Christ. In the beginning of the third year the Christ is becoming stronger, and the year begins in the sign of the Christ, in Pisces. Aries in the third year is the healing of the transfigured Lamb of God. Taurus in the third year is about new community in conversation. Gemini in the third year is about future brotherhood. Cancer, in the third year, is about new ways and includes the ‘little revelation’ in preparation for the entry into Jerusalem. Without the healing of sight, it is not possible to see the Little Revelation. The forces of the “I” must be strong in order for Jesus to face death. This is represented by Sagittarius.

The burial, the resurrection and the appearance of the Risen One occur in the constellation of Leo – the lion rises with forces of warmth and fearlessness. The whole Zodiac is illumined in the light of Leo; the whole Gospel illumined in the light of Resurrection.

When we study the evolution of plants and animals as illumined by Rudolf Steiner, the evolution begins in Cancer – the entry into the Zodiac – and follows the precession of the sun to end in Leo. Leo is the constellation of the fulfilment of the evolution of plants and animals.

The study of the Gospel of Mark in this fashion is largely the work of Hermann Beckh, one of the founding priests of The Christian Community. Michaël shared many of his additional insights from his many years of study and prayer to help the group along the way.