Mk 1:1a ... A beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ...

gematria value of the words in red = 4,774 units

This book is a Geometry Play. The first verse contains it's title "The Gospel of Jesus Christ." The stage is the raised Jesus (8880) graph. Using just a compass and a straightedge, anything mentioned in this or any other verse can be constructed as a reusable "sign."

The diagram shows that the gospel (the good-news) is the large white rectangle that looks like a placard carried high across a stage to inform the audience of prophecies contained in the writings of the Old Testament. The large yellow circle in the center of the graph with a circumference of 2368 units represents Jesus Christ (2368) because that is the gematria value of his name. The white square enclosing him looks like part of a page out of a book which represents "the beginning of his Gospel."

The four red diagonal lines converging on Jesus Christ (2368) and the four vertical lines that bracket his name and the "beginning of the book" is a double gematria sign. The eight red lines form the Greek letters “I” and “X” that stand for the first initials of the name Jesus Christ. Now to tie it all together. The lengths of the eight red lines are equal to 4,774 units, the same number as the gematria value of the verse! (Note: This image is not the one in the book)

Mk 1:1b ... the son of God.

This diagram shows how the names Jesus and Christ are Sons of God. (I will upload this diagram shortly before I release this book).

Most gospel manuscripts in existence today read “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” The problem with this verse is that the ending phrase, “the Son of God,” is lacking in all the earliest manuscripts. The phrase is missing from the earliest and most important manuscripts such as codex Sinaiticus. It is also missing from the earliest Palestinian, Armenian, and Georgian texts.

The explanation possibly goes back to the year 313 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine issued his declaration of religious tolerance which made Christianity a legitimate religion. Different wings of the early church immediately vied for control over the money Constantine showered on the new religion. In the early fourth century, the Arianist wing of the Church, named for bishop Arius of Alexandria, claimed Jesus was only the Son of God in a spiritual sense after God created him and he became flesh on earth. The orthodox wing said Jesus coexisted as the Son with the Father from the beginning of time. In 325 AD, Constantine decided to convene a council to ensure that Christians all over the empire would agree on an official set of beliefs to prevent dissension over the nature of Jesus. The council decided to suppress the Arianist heresy and the added phrase “son of god” started to appear in verse 1 of almost all the new copies of Mark that were made. This controversy actually helped to preserve the Gospel of Mark because the Church could now point to the first line of scripture in the earliest gospel to stamp out any future flare-ups of the Arianist heresy.

The earliest church father to quote Mark 1:1 was Origen. He used the first verse of Mark minus the ending phrase in his treatise “Against Celsus.” Critics of the faith think these early manuscripts over such a large geographical area agreeing with each other is seemingly powerful evidence that the phrase, “the Son of God” may have been deliberately added by the early Church.

I believe the phrase hiou theou meaning "a son of God" or "the son of God" is original to the gospel. My further commentary and the accompning diagram can be seen when I publish the book. If you want to be notifed when this book is ready for publication read this link ... < Notification Information >

Mk 1:1 < Verse > Mk 1:2-3