Editorial: Introducing this Issue and the Interpretation of Mark’s Gospel

Abstract

Mark, arguably the least read of the four New Testament Gospels throughout most of the history of Christianity, has been the subject of vigorous discussion and research in the last two centuries. With the emergence of the view that this was the earliest of the Gospels, historical interest in the life and mission of Jesus, apart from dogmatic-theological interpretations, gave this Gospel heightened significance. In more recent scholarship, though, it is especially Mark’s distinctive literary qualities that have drawn interest. In the wake of the pioneering narrative-critical study by Rhoads and Michie (1982), an entire generation of scholarship on Mark’s Gospel pursued synchronic literary analysis of the narrative as a whole.1