We may identify the aims of the gospel of Mark as follows:

(i)                        to put into an organized, written form the recollections of Jesus Christ and the interpretations of his person and work with which the Church supported the preaching of the Good News;

(ii)                   to encourage Christians who were suffering (very probably the Christians of Rome), by emphasizing in the gospel the hostility and suffering which Jesus endured 'to redeem many people' (Mark 10:45);

(iii)                to show that the work of Jesus was a fight against and a victory over evil; it was through his sufferings that he won his victory;

(iv)     to interpret to Gentile Christians what was meant by calling Jesus 'the Christ' and to show what it did not mean;

(v)      to show that Jesus Christ was both God's Son and a real human being; it has been suggested that Docetism or the teaching that Jesus was not really human but only seemed to be, had become a problem.

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