The date of the writing of Mark was about 70 A.D. There is not even a hint of the existence of a sacred text in the book of Acts or any of Paul's epistles. The only scripture the church had was the Jewish sacred texts of the Old Testament. We must therefore conclude that, at its earliest, the first gospel appeared after the death of Paul. If it had been available, it surely would have been mentioned by Paul and read in the churches. The very fact that it is not mentioned, lends support to the late date of Mark's gospel. Mark was certainly written after the life of Paul, perhaps a decade after Paul or about the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem- As Mark's Gospel is the first written story of Jesus, it will most likely be the purest and least subject to interference. There are, however, different ancient versions of the Gospels which means that there have been alterations and additions even in Mark.

Mark starts his story with John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. There is no mention of a genealogy of Jesus; or the virgin birth: nor the visit of the wise men from the East: nothing recorded about the massacre of young children by Herod or the escape to Egypt and return by Joseph and his family. But all these stories are found in Matthew's gospel. In Luke we have a different set of early life stories of Jesus which have no relationship to Matthew's stories. Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit. Mary then visits her relative Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist; Zechariah, a local priest, prophesies about Jesus telling us that he would rescue the nation from their enemies;

the shepherds visit the child in the manger and the boy Jesus is delayed in the Temple.

Luke also gives a genealogy in which the father of Joseph is Heli, whereas Matthew tells us Jacob is the father of Joseph. Neither genealogy stands up to scrutiny. Why give a genealogy of Heli or Joseph if Jesus was divine and did not have a human father? Was the idea of a divine conception thought of after Mark's gospel was written? Mark did not seem to know anything about it.

We can however, learn a good deal by a careful examination of the New Testament itself.

Matthew follows Mark's stories in his own words and elaborates on them but does not contradict the main statements as presented by Mark. Matthew follows the first group of five stories from Mark in the same sequence. Mark chapter one equals Matthew three and four. Then Matthew records the Beatitudes and some of his own stories before continuing from Mark scattering in his own stories.