The first of the Gospels and a literary influence on Matthew and Luke, Marks Gospel is significant in many ways. It is a witness document, a proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ, which received its creative impulse from the early apostolic preaching. Mark bears witness to the word of revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark's task in writing to the believers being persecuted by Nero was the projection of Christian faith in the context of suffering and martyrdom. William Lane shows that Mark was a theologian whose primary intention was the strengthening of the people of God in a time of fiery ordeal.