Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths

What Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths covers

Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths is examined in Paper 2, Thematic studies. It covers the parables of the Kingdom, entering the Kingdom: children, wealth and the greatest commandment, Jesus and those his society rejected, faith, giving and devotion, the call and mission of the disciples, the cost of discipleship and failure, and the commission and the authority of Jesus' teaching today.

The 7 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The parables of the KingdomThe subtopic covers what a parable is and why Jesus used them according to Mark 4, the sower and its interpretation, the growing seed and the mustard seed, and whether the Kingdom of God is inward or communal.Open →
• Entering the Kingdom: children, wealth and the greatest commandmentThese questions explain receiving the Kingdom like a child, the rich man and what Jesus told him, Jesus' teaching on wealth and the disciples' reaction, and the scribe's question answered by the greatest commandment.Open →
• Jesus and those his society rejectedStudents learn about the man with leprosy and why Jesus' touch matters, Levi and the offence of eating with tax collectors, the Greek woman of Mark 7 and why the passage troubles Christians, and what the three encounters share.Open →
• Faith, giving and devotionThe subtopic covers the epileptic boy and his father's cry of belief and unbelief, the woman with a haemorrhage, the widow's offering and the anointing at Bethany, and what faith means in Mark, with differing Christian views of its nature and importance.Open →
• The call and mission of the disciplesThese questions explain the call of the first disciples and what a disciple is, why Jesus chose twelve, the mission of the Twelve with what they took and how they met rejection, and how Mark presents the disciples overall.Open →
• The cost of discipleship, and failureStudents learn Jesus' teaching on taking up the cross, saving and losing life and being ashamed of him, the rewards and persecutions of discipleship, Peter's three denials and Mark 16:7, and views on what discipleship costs today.Open →
• The commission, and the authority of Jesus' teaching todayThe subtopic covers the commission in Mark 16:15 and the signs promised, the disputed longer ending, what the authority of Jesus' teaching means, and the secular challenges to that authority with Christian answers.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Disciple vs Apostle

  Disciple: a follower and learner. Apostle: one sent out, which is what the Twelve become on the mission.

• Parable of the sower vs Parable of the growing seed

  Parable of the sower: a parable about how the word is received. Parable of the growing seed: a parable about growth happening by God's power while the farmer sleeps.

• Kingdom as present reality vs Kingdom as future hope

  Kingdom as present reality: God's rule already breaking in. Kingdom as future hope: God's rule fully arriving only at the end of time.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a parable?

   Model answer

   A parable is a short story that uses everyday life to teach a religious or moral truth. Jesus uses parables throughout Mark's gospel.

2. 2

   Why did Jesus teach in parables, according to Mark 4?

   Model answer

   Jesus told the disciples that the secret of the kingdom had been given to them, but to outsiders everything came in parables. Mark presents the parables as both revealing and concealing.

3. 3

   Tell the parable of the sower.

   Model answer

   A farmer scatters seed, and some falls on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns and some on good soil. Only the seed on good soil produces a crop, thirty, sixty or a hundred times over.

4. 4

   What does the seed stand for in Jesus' explanation?

   Model answer

   Jesus says the farmer sows the word. The four soils stand for four ways people receive it.

5. 5

   What do the path and the rocky ground represent?

   Model answer

   The path is people from whom Satan takes the word away at once. The rocky ground is people who receive it with joy but fall away when trouble or persecution comes.

6. 6

   What do the thorns and the good soil represent?

   Model answer

   The thorns are the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and other desires, which choke the word. The good soil is people who hear the word, accept it and produce a crop.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths revision questions

What does Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths cover in AQA GCSE Religious Studies A?

7 subtopics: the parables of the kingdom, entering the kingdom: children, wealth and the greatest commandment, jesus and those his society rejected, faith, giving and devotion, the call and mission of the disciples, the cost of discipleship, and failure and the commission, and the authority of jesus' teaching today. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Theme H: St Mark’s Gospel as a Source of Religious, Moral and Spiritual Truths organised?

By the AQA 8062 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.