Hey fam, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge. But it's never too

late to start, and we're in this together. Thanks for journeying with us, and here's your host, Emma Daughter.

Thanks for joining. We're about to kick off our summer reading plan beginning tomorrow, June 13th

with the Book of Mark, which is a great time for new friends to join. But at the same time,

if we keep it real, most people are typically a few days behind, so whenever you listen to this

episode, I'm glad you're still prioritizing getting into God's word or are about to start.

And I hope you'll consider inviting some new friends or family members to read along with us

this summer, or whenever you're reading. And you may have noticed that our 2022 New Testament

reading plan is a little interesting. Sometimes it can be challenging to read all of the Gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John back to back with intentional focus as they can start to feel repetitive and all blur together.

So in light of that possibility, the reading plans spread the Gospels throughout the year.

We started with Matthew, and then we read all of the Pauline epistles, the letters that were written by Paul.

And now, we're about to start the book of Mark, which will be followed by the general epistles, letters that were written by Paul. And now, we're about to start the Book of Mark, which will be followed by the general

epistles, letters that were written by people other than Paul.

But today, we're talking all things Mark as we get ready to read through the book together.

The Book of Mark was written from Rome sometime between 85 to 65 to Gentile Roman Christians who faced Roman

persecution. So when we think about Mark's audience, we want to remember that he was writing to the

Romans. This is a helpful detail as it frames up the contents of the book for us. For example,

Matthew was written to the Jews, placing an emphasis on Jesus

had come to fulfill the law. In Matthew, we see a lot more, many more references to the Old

Testament laws compared to Mark. Matthew was written to the Jews, and Mark was written to the Romans.

In the author of the book of Mark, well, it's believed to be John Mark, who came to

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