volume 15, issue 1, 2023, pages 70-85

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsBBJM4296
Published online: 2023-06-01
Published in print: 2023-06-30

Abstract: The article provides a presentation of the ‘Gentile mission’ in the Gospel of Mark, focusing on the non-Jews characters who appear in several episodes of the Gospel. For this purpose, the article employs narrative analysis, which is useful to describe the narrative function of each character (such as the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5:1-20, the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-31 and the deaf man in Mark 7:31-37), but also to discover the overall strategy of the evangelist. Specifically, the analysis aims to highlight the link between the presence of the gentile characters to whom Jesus favorably addresses, and the important scene described in Mark 15:39, when another gentile character, the centurion, confesses the divinity of Jesus with the words: “Truly this man was God’s Son!”