Date of the Gospel of Mark

The Date of the Gospel of Mark is unjustifiably pegged to the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, based very loosely on the eschatological, end-of-the-world talk in Mark 13 .

In fact, three considerations point to a date soon after the Resurrection:

• the Gospel of Mark omits subsequent events after the Resurrection;
• the Gospel of Mark contains remarkable detail that would fade if written long afterwards;
• the Gospel of Mark is concise and to-the-point, while a later work would be less terse; and
• the Gospel of Mark is by an eyewitness, many of who were killed or scattered by years later.