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The Gospel according to Mark

Jesus of Nazareth

The shortest and oldest of the canonical gospels. It begins without an infancy narrative, with the baptism in the Jordan, and moves swiftly through the Galilean activity—healings, exorcisms, parables of the kingdom—to the passion in Jerusalem, which takes up almost a third of the text. Its Jesus is a man of action who imposes silence about his identity (the "messianic secret"), and his disciples often fail to understand him. The original ending (16:8) closes with the women fleeing the empty tomb "for they were afraid"; verses 16:9–20 are a later addition.