The fragmentation of Christians into three individual churches

is to be ended with the Gospel of Mark. The unified Christian church is to take its place, 9:6.

Mark divides the Gospel into two parts: 1. the triumph of Jesus chapters 1-12 and 2. the suffering of Jesus chapters 13-16,8. The verses 16,9-20 are not included in the oldest manuscripts, they were added to the Gospel later.

Characteristics of the structure are the superscription 1:1, which also applies to part 1 (gospel), and the subheading in 13:1-2 for part 2 (suffering), the key word arche (beginning, foundation) from 1:1 is repeated in 13:8.

Further formal characteristics are the four disciples Peter, Andrew, James, John in 1:16.19 and 13:3, the prophecy in 1:2-3 from the Old Testament and in 13 the prophecies of Jesus as well as the addressing of the themes of part 1 (gospel) and part 2 (suffering) at the beginning of the respective part.