Mark

Book Written:   60 A.D.  

Time Period/Setting:  Written for Gentile Christians, perhaps after the persecution of Christians by Nero (64 A.D.) or the Jewish revolt against Rome. 

Title:  Mark was not an apostle. Both Baker and HC say there was a John Mark who was an interpreter or companion of St. Peter while he was in Rome.

The gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels, the earliest of the four (except for Baker's confusing comment that evidence exists for Matthew being the earliest) and it is considered to have served as the basis for the other gospels.  I think of Mark as the 'bare bones' account of Jesus and his ministry, having learned somewhere along the way that Mark's account is rudimentary, giving just the essentials with few details.  HC more or less confirms this describing Mark as "cruder and wordier" than Matthew or Luke.(Not sure what he might mean by wordier.) 

The gospel of Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus.  There are two endings (a feature I'll have to explore later).  Baker comments that a theme of this gospel is the coming Kingdom of  God as well as the notion that Jesus is the suffering Messiah who seeks to hide his identity.  HC concurs on the last point. 

Baker notes that each evangelist portrays Jesus differently (e.g. he says that Mark stresses Jesus' human side more than the others), but the differences are not really apparent to me upon a first reading of the gospels.