Redactional Style in the Marcan Gospel

Abstract

St Mark's Gospel was put together from oral and perhaps written source material, which the redactor-editor edited and linked together by `seams' or joining phrases. The evangelist is thus regarded as a translator/editor of sources, and also as a creative artist in his shaping of the material and in his editorial writing which moulds the disparate sources into an integrated narrative. Dr Pryke tests some eighteen syntactically unusual features of 'Markan usage' statistically to see if they are mainly source material (S) or redactional (R). Objective criteria are provided for distinguishing redactional passages, and the linguistic method is used to see if residual S passages might be converted to R. Appendixes analyse the vocabulary for a list of the most frequently used words in R passages, annotate unusual syntax and special vocabulary of R verses, and provide a complete redactional Greek text. Dr Pryke's methods and conclusions will be of great value to those concerned with the analysis of St Mark's Gospel, and of interest to all concerned with linguistic studies of New Testament texts.