The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the burial of his body, and the discovery of his empty tomb. It portrays Jesus as a teacher, an exorcist, a healer, and a miracle worker, though it does not mention a miraculous birth or divine pre-existence.

 Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. He is called the Son of God but keeps his messianic nature secret; even his disciples fail to understand him. All this is in keeping with the Christian interpretation of prophecy, which is believed to foretell the fate of the messiah as a suffering servant.

Most scholars date Mark to closely after AD 70. They reject the traditional ascription to Mark the Evangelist, the companion of the Apostle Peter, which probably arose from the desire of early Christians to link the work to an authoritative figure, and believe it to be the work of an author working with various sources including collections of miracle stories, controversy stories, parables, and a passion narrative.

 It was traditionally placed second, and sometimes fourth, in the Christian canon, as an inferior abridgement of what was regarded as the most important gospel, Matthew. The Church has consequently derived its view of Jesus primarily from Matthew, secondarily from John, and only distantly from Mark.

 It was only in the 19th century that Mark came to be seen as the earliest of the four gospels, and as a source used by both Matthew and Luke. The hypothesis of Marcan priority (that Mark was written first) continues to be held by the majority of scholars today, and there is a new recognition of the author as an artist and theologian using a range of literary devices to convey his conception of Jesus as the authoritative yet suffering Son of God.

Movie Watch Below after skipping Ad: The Gospel of Mark

Matthew 4:23-25: Jesus Heals the Sick:

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Matthew 4:23-25.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17)

Note: The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Matthew 4:18-23: Jesus Calls His First Disciples.

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

Note: Peter and Andrew left everything and did not worry about anything, and they followed Jesus. Do not worry about a Job or food. Trust in God.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Note: James and John left their father to follow and did not worry about anything.

Note:  We must depend on God and nothing else.

 Matthew 4:12-17: Jesus Begins to Preach

12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,

Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Note: Gentile means a person who is not Jewish. The word stems from the Hebrew term goy, which means nations of the world that are not Hebrew.

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Explanation:

Saturnalia was a Roman festival that celebrated the winter solstice and the Roman god Saturn.

The festival began on December 17th and lasted up to seven days.

The festival included food, drink, song, dancing, and games.

The festival was a public holiday and had a carnival-like atmosphere.

During Saturnalia, people gave each other gifts and ate and drank lots.

The festival derived from older farming-related rituals.

The festival included offering gifts or sacrifices to the gods during the winter sowing season.

Related celebrations:

The Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun", was celebrated on December 25th in the later Roman Empire.

As the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, 25 December became a holy day.

Christ's birthday was commemorated on January 6th from AD 336 until AD 354–60.

Christmas Day emerged from a combination of parts of these different winter festivals.

In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in a state of innocence. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age. The Greek equivalent was the Kronia, which was celebrated on the twelfth day of the month of Hekatombaion, which occurred from around mid-July to mid-August on the Attic calendar.

The Greek writer Athenaeus cites numerous other examples of similar festivals celebrated throughout the Greco-Roman world, including the Cretan festival of Hermaia in honor of Hermes, an unnamed festival from Troezen in honor of Poseidon, the Thessalian festival of Peloria in honor of Zeus Pelorios, and an unnamed festival from Babylon. He also mentions that the custom of masters dining with their slaves was associated with the Athenian festival of Anthesteria and the Spartan festival of Hyacinthia. The Argive festival of Hybristica, though not directly related to the Saturnalia, involved a similar reversal of roles in which women would dress as men and men would dress as women.

The ancient Roman historian Justinus credits Saturn with being a historical king of the pre-Roman inhabitants of Italy:

"The first inhabitants of Italy were the Aborigines, whose king, Saturnus, is said to have been a man of such extraordinary justice, that no one was a slave in his reign, or had any private property, but all things were common to all, and undivided, as one estate for the use of every one; in memory of which way of life, it has been ordered that at the Saturnalia slaves should everywhere sit down with their masters at the entertainments, the rank of all being made equal."

Although probably the best-known Roman holiday, Saturnalia as a whole is not described from beginning to end in any single ancient source. Modern understanding of the festival is pieced together from several accounts dealing with various aspects. The Saturnalia was the dramatic setting of the multivolume work of that name by Macrobius, a Latin writer from late antiquity who is the major source for information about the holiday.

 Macrobius describes the reign of Justinus's "king Saturn" as "a time of great happiness, both on account of the universal plenty that prevailed and because as yet there was no division into bond and free – as one may gather from the complete license enjoyed by slaves at the Saturnalia." In Lucian's Saturnalia it is Chronos himself who proclaims a "festive season, when 'tis lawful to be drunken, and slaves have license to revile their lords".

In one of the interpretations in Macrobius's work, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading to the winter solstice, with the abundant presence of candles symbolizing the quest for knowledge and truth. The renewal of light and the coming of the new year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun", on 25 December.

The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, and as the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, many of its customs were recast into or at least influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding Christmas and the New Year.

Note: It is written. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!… Galatians 4:9-10

Note: Colossians 2:20-23 says. If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: / “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”? / These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. Hebrews 13:17

Guarding your heart means protecting what goes into your mind. It also means making your heart a dwelling place for God. But if your heart deceives you, we have God our Father in heaven, which is greater than our heart.

How to Guard Your Heart?

Practice 1: Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23.

Proverbs 3:5-6.

Luke 6:45.

Proverbs 7:25. Note: Do not be like the world's ways but follow Jesus' ways.

Compromising with Politicians: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

They deceive the whole world. Now listen.

So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;  but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For God does not show favoritism.

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Romans 2: 3-16.

From Chris Mato Nunoa: In the language of the first Minnesotans, this is a greeting, which means, "Hello my relatives, with a good heart, I greet all of you with a handshake." 

I would like to begin my presentation with this quotation by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Our nation was born in genocide. ... We are perhaps the only nation who has tried, as a matter of national policy, to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today, we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode."

We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday on Monday, January 17, 2022. This man is a hero to me. His philosophy included me, a dark skinned Dakota man. Some of the white men who were presented as heroes and good men here at the Granite Falls Public Schools despised Native peoples. In fact, most of them were haters of, or fighters against, or killers of, First Nations Peoples. Many were all three: haters, fighters and killers. Dr. King's quotation could readily apply to the inception of Minnesota as a state. One can say, and Dakota people can also say, our state was born in genocide.

I think of Governor Alexander Ramsey's statement which he said many times in public, "Extermination or removal," referring to the Dakota people. Ramsey even said this to the Minnesota State Legislature. Ramsey was a genocider, a perpetrator of genocide. Or consider Jane Swisshelm's comments, editor of the St. Cloud Visitor, regarding the Dakota people: "Exterminate the wild beasts and kill the lazy vermin." Her comment regarding vermin foreshadowed Hitler and Himmler by 70 years plus in the Nazi's genocidal attitude toward the Jews, characterizing them as vermin. Also, her description of the Dakota people as wild beasts dehumanized the Dakota people, my people. When one dehumanizes a group it is then easy to say and do bad things to them. Lastly, General John Pope, who was stationed in St. Paul, said he would utterly exterminate the Dakota people, even if it took a year.

These statements advocate genocide and, as a result, many genocidal acts were perpetrated, which included but not limited to the forced marches, the two concentration camps at Fort Snelling and at Mankato, the mass executions, the forcible removals, the bounties placed on Dakota scalps, residential boarding schools, and dozens upon dozens of crimes against humanity advocated and perpetrated by the governor, the state of Minnesota and the Euro Minnesotan citizenry.

I would like to make a few comments on the Dakota presence in the Yellow Medicine area and about the state. First of all, the name of our ancient homelands, which includes the state of Minnesota, is Mni Sota Makoce, "land where the waters reflect the skies," translation by me, a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. The name Mni Sota Makoce is a reference to the thousands upon thousands of lakes which are located in the north central region of what is now called the United States of America. Hence, on the Minnesota car license plates we see written, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." The name of our state Minnesota is derived from our ancient Dakota name for this region.

Pioneer PBS, the Granite Falls Public Schools and the town of Granite Falls, Minnesota are all located on traditional Dakota homelands upon which the Dakota lived for millennia. These lands upon which we all now are located were involved in the two treaties of 1851; lands which basically have not been paid for. The ancient and traditional name for this area is Pezihuta Zizi K'api Makoce, "land where the yellow medicine as dug." Whoever was in the business of naming counties chose to use our ancient name for this place, Yellow Medicine County.

An incidental comment, the treaty of 1851 mentioned above reminds me of one of my favorite quotations from Roy W. Meyer, a white man, who wrote, "History of the Santee Sioux: United States Indian Policy on Trial": "Many observers have noted the moral obliquity that seemingly afflicted white men in their dealings with Indians. Men justly respected for integrity and fairness in their relations with other white men saw nothing reprehensible about resorting to all manner of chicanery and equivocation when dealing with the Dakota people." By the way, my great-great-grandfather was the first signatory on the Treaty of 1851 signed at Traverse de Sioux and his name was Eyangmani, or "Running Walker."

Back to place names containing the Dakota word for water, "mni." There is a lake near the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We, the Dakota people, call it Mní iá Tháŋka, or literally big or large lake. In English, it is called Lake Minnetonka. Then there, then there's Minneapolis. It consists of the Dakota word for water "mni" and the Greek word "polis" which means city. So literally, Minneapolis means water city or city of water. However, in chamber of commerce style, Minneapolis is the City of Lakes.

Our site of origin is where the Minnesota river meets the Mississippi river, near the present day Twin Cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis. Most Indigenous peoples have their own origin stories. And their sites of origin are not in Europe or in Africa or the Middle East or in Asia, but here in the Indigenous hemisphere now known as the Americas. And of course we, the Dakota people, like to say: "We were not only the first peoples here, but we were always here, from the beginning, from the mists of time."

The river which flows through granite falls is Wakpa Mni Sota, or river of whitish water. The Dakota word "sota" means clear, but not perfectly so, or slightly clouded. Reverend Riggs, who compiled the Dakota-English Dictionary had a mission church here, the Pejuhatazizi Presbyterian Church or the Yellow Medicine Presbyterian Church.

Now I will say some things about my book, "The Great Evil: Genocide, the Bible, and Indigenous Peoples," which describes how Bible verses were used to justify not only exterminating the Dakota, but also to rationalize the stealing of Dakota homelands and to forcibly remove the Dakota from their ancient homelands. I have three research interests, Indigenous nations and Dakota studies, genocide studies and biblical studies. These three research interests converged and the idea for a book was conceived and developed. The book, "Great Evil," was the result.

There were three factors contributing to my book. One factor was the early missionaries especially the Presbyterians from the 1850s and the Episcopalians and the Assemblies of God which sent missionaries to our pezihutazizi oyate, "yellow medicine community." From the Assemblies of God, I learned many Bible verses and memorized dozens of Bible verses, which I still know today. The third denomination was the Episcopal church. My father was an authorized lay leader by the Episcopal diocese of Minnesota to conduct the morning offices and evening offices of prayer. I also attended Seabury Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, an Episcopal seminary.

Another factor was my association with the International Association of Genocide Scholars, IAGS. I was associated with the IAGS for about seven years. I lectured in different parts of the world: Kaigali, Rwanda; Galway, Ireland; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mumbai, India; Sydney, Australia; etc., about the genocide of the Dakota people of Minnesota and the genocide of the Indigenous peoples in the United States. I learned many important aspects of genocide and what constitutes genocide. I learned that the actions taken by the United States against Native peoples and the actions taken by the state of Minnesota against the Dakota people were indeed acts of genocide.

Now, in the time and space I have remaining, I will provide an example of how Bible verses were used to justify killing Dakota people and to steal Dakota lands. I will use the state of Minnesota as my primary example for this presentation. One of the Bible verses used to justify vengeance upon and killing the Dakota people in Minnesota was Genesis 4:10: "... And God said, 'What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.'" From the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, we read: "Then he said, 'What have you done? Hark, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.'" The Bible verse Genesis 4:10, a reference to the incident of Cain killing Abel was used to justify the killing of Dakota people. Governor Alexander Ramsey used this phrase before the Minnesota State Legislature on September 9, 1862: "The blood of the murdered cries out to heaven for vengeance."

Apparently Governor Ramsey was using the phrase, "the blood of the murder," to refer to the Euro Minnesotans who were killed by the Dakota because these whites were stealing Dakota lands. The Dakota resisted this theft as any other human beings would, including white people. However, to Ramsey, the Dakota had no rights through their own land, lands that they had been living on for thousands upon thousands of years. Furthermore, Ramsey and other Euro Minnesotans, the Swedes, Norwegians, the Germans and others who thought of themselves as God's chosen people, believed they had a right to the promised land. So, Ramsey said to the Minnesota State Legislature that the blood of the Euro Minnesotans, the innocent, were calling out to God in heaven to reek vengeance upon the wild beast, "the savage Dakota," and Governor Ramsey and the Euro Minnesotans were going to be the Lord's instruments of vengeance.

Another Euro Minnesotan, who referred to the same verse which contained "blood crieth out" that Ramsey used in addressing the state legislature was the newspaper editor, Jane Swisshelm of St. Cloud, Minnesota, who despite being an abolitionist and an early feminist, thought the Dakota had no right to defend their own lands. Swisshelm, like Ramsey, thought that the Euro Minnesotan land steelers were innocent and that their blood was now calling for vengeance. She wrote, "Exterminate the wild beasts, ... these red-jawed tigers, whose fangs are dripping with the blood of the innocents! Get ready, ... shoot them and be sure they are shot dead, dead, dead, dead. If they have any souls, the Lord can have mercy on them if he pleases, but that is His business. Ours is to kill the lazy vermin and make sure of killing them."

Another Bible verse that was used to justify stealing Dakota homelands was Genesis 1:28: "... And God blessed them and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'" The "subdue the earth" notion help provide the rationale for stealing Dakota lands, for removing Dakota people from their ancient homelands. This idea was expounded on by white supremacist Charles Bryant who said of the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862 that it was "a conflict of knowledge with ignorance of right with wrong." Since the Dakota did not obey the injunction to subdue the earth, they were in the wrongful possession of a continent required by the superior right of the white man.

In a similar vein to that of Bryant, Senator Thomas Hart Benton said in 1846, "It would seem that the white race had alone received the divine commandment to subdue and replenish the earth and the indigenous peoples had no right to the land of the Americas because the land had been created for use by the white races according to the intentions of the creator for it is the only race that has obeyed it to subdue and replenish."

People like Charles Bryant and Senator Benton seemed to forget or were just plain ignorant of the fact that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, including North America, had been farming for millennia before the white man ever came to the Indigenous hemisphere. And that the Native peoples of the Americas gave the world 3/5 of the crops now in cultivation, like corn and the potato, etc., as well as medicinal plants — 200 of them — listed in the United States Pharmacopeia in 1820. They were also ignorant, or forgot, that the early towns and colonies would not have survived if they had not received agricultural technical assistance from the Native peoples living along the east coast.

Another verse from the King James Version, Genesis 12: 6, 7, that was used involves the notions of the promised land, chosen people and Canaan. Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh, and the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Probably the most powerful and influential Bible verses in teaching affecting both U.S. Euro Americans and Euro Minnesotans were and are those regarding the promised land, Canaan and chosen people. These notions, along with the genocidal commands of Yahweh, the Old Testament God, justified not only the massive land theft from Dakota Native peoples but also the mass murdering of them.

The promised land idea is found in a number of Old Testament verses, including Genesis 12: 6, 7. The New American Bible of Catholic translation also says, "The Canaanites were then in the land." Note, that these translations say that the Old Testament God was giving the land to Abram and the Israelites, or the Jews, while the Canaanites were still living in the land and had been there first. However, this fact did not stop Yahweh from giving the Canaanite homelands to the Israelites. This example from the Old Testament parallels the U.S. example where God is supposedly giving Indigenous lands to new chosen people: the Western Europeans, the U.S. Euro Americans and to the Euro Minnesotans, at least in their own arrogant thinking.

Now, let us look at how the notion of the promised land in Canaan, "Land of Milk and Honey," played out in Minnesota and other states in the north central United States and in the nation. To start, let's consider a paper written by George M. Stephenson from the University of Minnesota which was titled, "When America Was the Land of Canaan." It was read at the first Hutchinson session of the eighth state historical convention on June 14, 1929. In the paper, Stephenson talks of the thousands of letters that found their way from the USA back "to the small red cottages hidden among the pine clad rocky hills of Sweden." These letters talked about a new and ideal land, the wonderful country across the Atlantic, a land of milk and honey. A letter in November 1849 says, "I sincerely hope that nobody in Sweden will foolishly dissuade anyone from coming to this land of Canaan." A letter written on October 9, 1849 says, "My words are inadequate to describe with what joy we are permitted daily to draw water from the well of life and how we have come to the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey which the scriptures tell us the Lord has prepared for his people."

There are many more such letters talking about the promised land, land of Canaan, land of milk and honey. These Swedish immigrants truly believed that Yahweh, the Jewish God of the Old Testament, promised and prepared Minnesota, Mni Sota Makoce, the ancient homelands of the Dakota people of Minnesota, for them! They further believed that they were the chosen people and they were symbolic Israelites, as did the Germans, the Norwegians, and English, the Belgians, and the other criminal Western European immigrants who were to become the Euro Americans, since the white settlers or land Steelers identified themselves as God's chosen people and Dakota lands were the promised land given to them by Yahweh, the Old Testament God.

What was the Indigenous perspective? Let me quote Robert Warrior, an Osage man and an academic, who wrote this classic statement with whom the Native people's identify: "The obvious characters in the story for native peoples to identify with are the Canaanites, the people who already lived in the promised land. As a member of the Osage nation, who stands in solidarity with other Indigenous peoples around the world, I read the Exodus stories with Canaanite eyes and it is the Canaanite side of the story that has been overlooked. Especially ignored are those parts of the story that describe Yahweh's command to mercilessly annihilate the Indigenous populations."

In conclusion, it is as easy to see how powerful and persuasive the biblical notions of the chosen people, the promised land, Canaan and the genocidal commands of the Jewish God of the Old Testament were upon not only the Swedish immigrants to Minnesota but also upon other Western European immigrants. These biblical notions were also the basis for the racist white supremacists and evil doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Like the Israelites who exterminated, removed and stole from the Canaanites, the U.S. and its white citizenry exterminated, removed and stole from the Dakota people of Minnesota and from the Indigenous peoples of what is now known as the United States of America.

I would like to think that you have caught a small glimpse of how significant the Bible and some of its evil teachings were and were so instrumental in what was done to the Dakota people of Minnesota and to other Indigenous peoples of the US. Hopefully you have also gotten an idea of what my book, "The Great Evil," is about.