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Mark vs Matthew
While the Gospel of Matthew seems focused on Jesus' credentials as Messiah, Mark's Gospel is of the person of Jesus and what he is by what he does. Where Matthew was looking for the fulfillments of the prophetic scripture, Mark was watching the servant of all. Mark's Gospel is written in the 'historical present tense'. Marks uses the word eutheos over forty times, while Matthew uses it only seven times. Eutheos, is usually translated as immediately or straightway. The use of this word is indicative of the action oriented nature of Mark's narrative, which has been referred to as being like a shooting script for a teleplay. Matthew listens to what Jesus said, Mark watches what Jesus does. There are more miracles recorded in Mark than in the other Gospels. If the discourses were removed from Matthew's Gospel it would be shorter than Mark's. If Matthew wrote for the Jew first, then Mark wrote primarily for the action oriented Roman. Matthew's account ends at the resurrection. Mark's account ends at the Ascension.
While it seems universally accepted that Matthew the publican is the author of the Gospel of that name, a certain amount of controversy surrounds the question of who Mark was. One school of thought follows that Mark was but "the interpreter of Peter", who at the close of his first Epistle speaks of him as "Marcus my son." Some have gone as far to say that the "certain young man" of Mark 14:51 could have been Mark himself. Others have asserted that Mark may have been the one with "great possessions" of chapter 10, verse 21-22.
"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions."
Of the four Gospels...
"Mark alone mentions this glance of affection, ingressive aorist participle and verb. Jesus fell in love with this charming youth... Luke 18:22 has it: "One thing thou lackest yet". Possibly two translations of the same Aramaic phrase. Mt 19:20 represents the youth as asking "What lack I yet?" The answer of Jesus meets that inquiry after more than mere outward obedience to laws and regulations. The verb usterw is from the adjective usterov (behind) and means to be too late, to come short, to fail of, to lack." (Word Pictures in the New Testament, by A.T. Robertson)
Could these references to these unnamed young men both be to Mark? Whatever the case may be Mark's Gospel seems hinged on the 'servant - hero' Jesus. "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
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