In the Gospel of Mark, the narrator often connects events together using “and.”
The impression you are supposed to get is that GOD is causing the entire chain of events to occur at once. The use of only “and” turns what we think of as links into a sword. Even the first event may start with “and.” This is on purpose.
In European thinking, causality is like a chain of separated dominoes sitting side by side, with each falling and knocking over its neighbor until you reach the end of the table. In Hebrew thinking, there is no separation: It is like dominoes with no space between them sitting on a table from one end to the other. When GOD pushes on the first, all of the others move at once, and the last domino immediately falls off the table.
The narrator is always the person who starts speaking with “and.” If you look at the first word that the narrator says when he starts talking, “and” begins his statement 75 percent of the time in Mark. This is a not an accident. The narrator is marking causality and time Hebrew style.
Image: Saint Mark writing his Gospel, a winged lion at the right | Giulio Bonasone, c. 1560.
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.