Mark — who's who

The Markan Jesus is the most urgent of the four gospel portraits — driven by the Spirit, moving from Capernaum to the lake to the surrounding villages, often touching the unclean, often impatient with incomprehension. He silences the demons who name him correctly and accepts the title Christ from Peter only with the immediate qualification that the Son of Man must suffer. His authority is unmistakable to the crowds and to the demons, hidden from the disciples, and finally legible at the cross to the centurion.

Simon, called Peter. First disciple called (1:16–18). He confesses Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi (8:29) and is immediately rebuked as Satan when he objects to the prediction of suffering. He swears in the upper room that he will not deny Jesus; in the courtyard during the trial he denies him three times; the cock crows the second time; he goes out and weeps. The young man at the empty tomb mentions him by name — tell his disciples and Peter.

Called in chapter 1, they leave their nets immediately. From there they fail to understand the parables, the loaves, who Jesus is, Gethsemane. At the arrest they all desert him and flee. Mark uses them as a structural device: every Passion prediction is followed by an episode revealing their incomprehension. The reader is being asked to recognise themselves in the failure.

One of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and ministered to him there. Named among those watching from afar at the cross (15:40). At dawn on the first day of the week she returns to the tomb with the others, finds it empty, hears the announcement of the resurrection, and flees in fear saying nothing to anyone. She is the figure of the faithful witness whose courage held at the cross when the male disciples had fled.

Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea from 26 to 36 CE. Mark's portrait is brief and tactical: Pilate recognises the chief priests have handed Jesus over out of envy (15:10), tries to release him via the Passover custom, and finally gives the crowd what they demand. He marvels at Jesus' silence (15:5) and hands him over to be crucified. He is the figure through whom the empire executes Jesus.

The Roman officer standing at the foot of the cross for three hours. When Jesus breathes his last, the centurion says: truly this man was the Son of God (15:39). He is the only human being in Mark's gospel to confess Jesus as Son of God. He has no name. He is the figure of the reader who has read the gospel through to the cross and is being asked to make the confession the gospel has been waiting for.