New Testament · The Gospels · World English Bible
Mark
"For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
— Mark 10:45 
The Reading LensEvery verse pulled to the top of a book is chosen by three questions: Where is God’s heart here? Who is He protecting? Who is being saved by the action? It marks the place where those answers come into clearest focus — a “look at this, in this book.”
About the Gospel
The shortest of the four and, on the usual scholarly reckoning, the earliest — with Matthew and Luke both drawing on it. It has no birth narrative and starts at full speed: John, the baptism, the wilderness and the first disciples inside twenty verses.
Its signature word is “immediately,” which sets the pace throughout. Its signature tension runs the other way — Jesus repeatedly telling people not to say who he is, while the disciples consistently fail to work it out.
The ending is a genuine textual question. The oldest manuscripts stop at 16:8 with the women fleeing the tomb and saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid. The verses that follow appear in later manuscripts, and most modern Bibles print them with a note.
16 Chapters
Immediately
John, the baptism, forty days compressed into two verses, and four fishermen. Then a single day in Capernaum that runs from the synagogue to the whole town gathered at the door after sunset.
Through the Roof
Four men dig through a roof to lower a friend. Levi called from the tax booth. The question about fasting, and the line about the sabbath being made for man.
The Withered Hand
A healing watched by people looking for a charge to bring. Then the twelve appointed — and his own family coming to take him home, saying he is out of his mind.
Parables by the Lake
The sower, the lamp, the seed growing secretly, and the mustard seed. Then the crossing, the squall, and the question “don’t you care that we’re dying?”
Three Impossible Cases
A man among the tombs no chain could hold. A woman bleeding twelve years who had spent everything on physicians and only grown worse. A girl of twelve already dead — and told to get up, in Aramaic.
Rejected at Home, and Five Thousand Fed
No honour in his own town. The twelve sent out two by two. John beheaded on a promise made at a party. Then the crowd he saw as sheep without a shepherd.
What Actually Defiles
The tradition of the elders, and the charge that they let a man dedicate to God what he owed his parents. Then the Syrophoenician woman — the only person in the Gospels to win an argument with him.
Half-Sighted
A second feeding, then a blind man at Bethsaida healed in two stages — trees walking — placed immediately before Peter’s confession, which sees and does not see.
The Transfiguration, and the Child
The mountain, then a father saying “I believe; help my unbelief.” The disciples arguing about who is greatest, and a child set in the middle of the argument.
The Road to Jerusalem
Divorce, children, and a rich man who went away sad. The third passion prediction, James and John asking for the best seats — and blind Bartimaeus, who will not be shushed.
The Entry, and the Fig Tree
The colt, the cloaks, the shouts. Then the fig tree cursed on the way in and found withered on the way out, with the temple cleared in between — the two events read through each other.
The Widow’s Two Coins
The tenants who kill the heir. Taxes, resurrection, and the greatest commandment. Then he sits opposite the treasury and watches — and she puts in everything she had to live on.
The Discourse on the End
Not one stone left on another. Wars, earthquakes, false messiahs. Watch — because no one knows the hour, not the angels, not the Son.
The Anointing, the Supper, the Garden
A woman breaks an alabaster jar and is scolded for waste. The bread and the cup. Gethsemane, the arrest, and a young man who runs away leaving his linen cloth behind.
The Crucifixion
Pilate, Barabbas, and the soldiers’ purple robe. Simon of Cyrene pressed into carrying the cross. The darkness, the cry, and a centurion who says what no disciple has managed to.
The Empty Tomb
The women bringing spices and wondering who will roll the stone. The young man in white, the message for Peter by name — and then an ending that stops mid-sentence in the oldest manuscripts.