Now fully revised to match the changes to AQA specification A, option 1c - The Christian Life and St Mark's Gospel.

This thorough manual for advanced students and their supervisors, and anyone researching or writing on the Gospel of Mark, is the opening volume in an important new series of Guides to Advanced Biblical Research. Together with an essay on the current state of research and a discussion of the future of Markan study, it provides a chrestomathy of samples of Markan research together with a review of recent dissertations and a full, annotated bibliography.

New Collegeville Bible Commentary The Gospel According to Mark Volume 2 The absence of stories of Jesus' birth and infancy, a minimum of Jesus' parables and a resurrection scene without sight or sound of the risen Jesus have tempted readers to shortchange Mark's Gospel. Thanks to the insightful analysis and inspiring reflections of Marie Noonan Sabin, anyone studying this premier Gospel with her guidance will recognize the genius of the original author. Sabin asserts that Mark's Gospel is not an eyewitness account or a work of biography or history. She writes, What Mark gives us is far richer. He interprets Jesus in the light of the Hebrew Bible, showing Jesus to be not only a teacher of Wisdom but Wisdom itself, calling his followers to an unconventional wisdom, a way of living (and a way of dying) that he himself exemplifies." The cover of this commentary from The Saint John's Bible highlights Sabin's thesis that the transfiguration of Jesus is pivotal to the Gospel: "The scene [9:2-8]overshadows both parts of the Gospel, emphasizing God's creative, transforming, transfiguring power to restore life." Sabin gives special attention to Mark's key words and phrases (e.g., "release," "rise up" or "be raised," "straightway," and "ecstasy") and his pattern of twos and threes. Especially helpful are the summaries at the end of each chapter. Here is a commentary that will restore Mark's prime place among the other two Synoptic Gospels. Marie Noonan Sabin, Ph.D., has taught the Gospel of Mark at Bangor Theological Seminary; an earlier book on Mark, Reopening the Word, was published by Oxford University Press in 2002.

This is a fascinating introductory book for studying the Gospels. It includes a simple presentation of contemporary scriptural interpretation of Mark's Gospel, resource notes, and compelling new insights for clergy, biblical readers, and study groups.

At the heart of this book is a verse-by-verse exposition of the New American Bible text of Mark's Gospel. Interspersed throughout the text are dozens of short essays giving the social, political, economic, and religious background, and questions for reflection.

John Keenan's 'The Gospel of Mark' is a radically new reading of this most intriguing of the Synoptic gospels - a remarkable feat in the face of the explosion of Markan scholarship over the last twenty years. Keenan accomplishes this by approaching Mark as no other scholar has done: through the lens of Mahayana-Buddhist philosophy. This view stresses the emptying of all preconceived notions of how to begin reading as well as reclamation of such notions in terms of dependent co-arising and Jesus' assault on the validity of conventional religiosity. 'The Gospel of Mark' displays an alternative hermeneutical procedure, one generated by the Mahayana understanding of the function of text and doctrine, and informed by Mahayana philosophy. Part One of 'The Gospel of Mark' provides an overview of different interpretive techniques in Markan scholarship. It describes and argues for the validity of a Buddhist approach to this charter document of the Christian Gospel. Here the author demonstrates a profound grasp not only of scriptural scholarship but of Mahayana philosophy. Keenan discusses themes such as Mark's elliptical style and the journeying that provides the impetus for the narrative, and explores them through the lens of emptiness and dependent co-arising which are the focal points of a Mahayana reading. In Part Two Keenan gives the reader truly fresh insights into the paradoxical world of Mark's Jesus. Through a Buddhist lens, the text offers startling and new perspectives on Jesus himself, the experience of the Kingdom, miracle stories and parables, the passion and death, the resurrection and return.

Characters in the Second Gospel are analysed and an in-depth look at different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods of analysis is provided. The first section consists of essays on method/theory, and the second consists of seven exegetical character studies using a literary or reader-oriented method. All contributors work from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology. The book summarizes the state of the discussion and examines obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of character in the Second Gospel. Specific contributions include analyses of the representation of women, God, Jesus, Satan, Gentiles, and the Roman authorities of Mark's Gospel. This work is both an exploration of theories of character, and a study in the application of those theories.

Timothy C. Gray analyzes one of the most striking elements of Mark's story: the vital role the temple plays from Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to the moment of his death. Mark brings a dramatic tension into his narrative by juxtaposing Jesus and the temple. The author's narrative analysis of Mark's use of the temple sheds light on the theological portrait Mark paints of Jesus' mission, teaching, and identity. This focus upon the temple serves to show how Jesus and his community will replace the temple. Mark also employs the temple as the backdrop for much of the passion narrative in order to portray the death of Jesus in an eschatological vision that is deeply linked to the temple. A careful examination of Mark's use of intertextuality, especially in the eschatological discourse (Mark 13), discloses a pattern of OT texts that cluster around prophetic oracles that relate to the destruction of the first temple and other prophetic texts that point to the restoration of Israel that would follow such a tribulation. Noting Mark's reliance on the prophetic eschatology of Israel opens up a new perspective on Mark's eschatology. The fate of the temple and Jesus are intertwined for Mark.

Lane's work on the Gospel of Mark is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Prepared by some of the world's leading scholars, the series provides an exposition of the New Testament books that is thorough and fully abreast of modern scholarship yet faithful to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God.

This commentary series is established on the presupposition that the theological character of the New Testament documents calls for exegesis that is sensitive to theological themes as well as to the details of the historical, linguistic, and textual context. Such thorough exegetical work lies at the heart of these volumes, which contain detailed verse-by-verse commentary preceded by general comments on each section and subsection of the text. An important aim of the NIGTC authors is to interact with the wealth of significant New Testament research published in recent articles and monographs. In this connection the authors make their own scholarly contributions to the ongoing study of the biblical text.