7.6

Bibliography: Gospel of Mark

Overview

Broadhead, Edwin K. Mark. Readings. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.

Dowd, Sharyn E. Reading Mark. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2001.

———. Reading Mark: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Second Gospel. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2000.

Hare, Douglas R. A. Mark. WBC. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996.

Harrington, Daniel J. What Are They Saying about Mark? Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005.

———. Mark. ACNT. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990.

Moloney, Francis J. Mark: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004.

Painter, John. Mark’s Gospel. NTR. London: Routledge, 1997.

Telford, W. R. The Theology of the Gospel of Mark. NTT. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Williamson, Lamar. Mark. IBC. Atlanta: John Knox, 1983.

Wright, Tom. Mark for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004.

Critical Commentaries

Boring, Eugene M. Mark: A Commentary. NTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. Mark. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.

Culpepper, R. Alan. Mark. SHBC. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2007.

Donahue, John R., and Daniel J. Harrington. The Gospel of Mark. SP. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Edwards, James R. The Gospel according to Mark. PNTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Evans, Craig A. Mark 8:27–16:20. WBC 34B. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001.

France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Guelich, Robert A. Mark 1–8:26. WBC 34A. Dallas: Word, 1989.

Gundry, Robert H. Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Juel, Donald H. The Gospel of Mark. IBT. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.

Lane, William L. The Gospel of Mark. NICNT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Marcus, Joel. Mark 1–8. AB 27A. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

———. Mark 8­–16. AB 27A. New York: Doubleday, 2009.

Moloney, Francis J. The Gospel of Mark. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.

Witherington, Ben, III. The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.

Academic Studies

Achtemeier, Paul J. Mark. 2nd ed. PC. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986. Redaction-critical approach that surveys literary-critical studies in a chapter on Mark as literature; served as the standard introduction to Mark for more than a decade.

Ambrozic, Aloysius M. The Hidden Kingdom: A Redaction-Critical Study of the References to the Kingdom in Mark’s Gospel. CBQMS 2. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1972. The kingdom of God in Mark is future, yet already present; hidden, yet inevitably to be revealed at the end of time. A careful redaction-critical study of this important Markan theme.

Anderson, Janice Capel, and Stephen D. Moore. Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007. Illustrates different critical approaches to Mark’s Gospel: narrative, reader-response, deconstructive, feminist, social, postcolonial, cultural, and orality.

Aus, Roger David. My Name Is Legion: Palestinian Judaic Traditions in Mark 5:1–20 and Other Gospel Texts. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003.

Barta, Karen A. The Gospel of Mark. MBS 9. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1988. Examines selected themes in Mark, including prayer, kingdom, power, healing, blindness, and discipleship.

Barton, Stephen. Discipleship and Family Ties in Mark and Matthew. SNTSMS 80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Beck, Robert R. Nonviolent Story: Narrative Conflict Resolution in the Gospel of Mark. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000.

Best, Ernest. Disciples and Discipleship. Studies in the Gospel according to Mark. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1986. A collection of articles and essays focusing on Mark 8:27–10:45. Supports the thesis that Mark’s portrayal of the disciples is intended to build up his community in their faith rather than defend it from heresy.

———. Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark. JSNTSup 4. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1981. A study in redaction-criticism that explores the theme of discipleship under three main headings: the disciple and the cross, the disciple and the world, the disciple in the community.

———. Mark: The Gospel as Story. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1983. Redaction-critical in character, despite the reference to “story” in the subtitle. Views Mark’s Gospel as a sum of layers of traditions and ably discusses on this basis its unity, nature, purpose, audience, and theology.

———. Temptation and the Passion: The Markan Soteriology. SNTSMS 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965. Attempts to show, through a redactional study of these two sections of Mark’s Gospel, that Mark construes Jesus’s accomplishment primarily as the redemption of humanity from sin rather than, as is sometimes thought, as a cosmic defeat of Satan.

Bilezikian, Gilbert. The Liberated Gospel: A Comparison of the Gospel of Mark and Greek Tragedy. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1977. Tries to show that Mark’s Gospel contains the essential elements for tragedy as outlined by Aristotle in his Poetics.

Black, C. Clifton. Mark: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994. A comprehensive study of the figure of John Mark in the New Testament and of the tradition associating him with the authorship of Mark’s Gospel.

———. The Disciples according to Mark: Markan Redaction in Current Debate. JSNTSup 27. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989. Argues that the conflicting interpretations that redaction critics have offered for Mark’s treatment of the disciples derive from basic flaws inherent in the methodology of redaction criticism itself.

Blevins, James. The Messianic Secret in Markan Research, 1901–1976. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981. A historical survey of scholarship on this very important subject for Markan studies.

Blount, Brian K. Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000.

Bolt, Peter G. The Cross from a Distance: Atonement in Mark’s Gospel. NSBT 18. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

———. Jesus’s Defeat of Death: Persuading Mark’s Early Readers. SNTSMS 125. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Booth, Roger. Jesus and the Laws of Purity: Tradition History and Legal History in Mark 7. JSNTSup 13. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986. A historical study of the legal traditions involved in this passage, which concludes that Jesus did not deny the concept of cultic purity absolutely but only relativized that concept in comparison with ethical purity.

Boring, M. Eugene. Truly Human/ Truly Divine: Christological Language and the Gospel Form. St. Louis: CBP Press, 1984. Written for the nonspecialist; shows how the Gospel, as a literary form, incorporates within it a double image of Jesus: Jesus is (like us) weak, the crucified man from Nazareth; he is (not like us) strong, the powerful Son of God.

Boucher, Madeleine. The Mysterious Parable: A Literary Study. CBQMS 6. Washington DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1977. Appeals to understand parables as a class of literature, then deals with Mark’s theory of parables in particular and relates this to his theme of mystery.

Broadhead, Edwin K. Teaching with Authority: Miracles and Christology in the Gospel of Mark. JSNTSup 74. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1974.

Brock, Rita Nakashima. Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power. New York: Crossroad, 1988. Interprets stories of Christian origin in Mark’s Gospel from the perspective of feminist, relational theology; discovers in the miracle and passion stories a source of “erotic” (i.e., heart-based) power that is the basis of life and community.

Bryan, Christopher. A Preface to Mark: Notes on the Gospel in Its Literary and Cultural Settings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Burkett, Delbert. Rethinking the Gospel Sources: From Proto-Mark to Mark. New York: T&T Clark International, 2004.

Camery-Hogatt, Jerry. Irony in Mark’s Gospel: Text and Subtext. SNTSMS 72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Collins, Adela Yarbro. The Beginning of the Gospel: Probings of Mark in Context. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

Cook, Michael. Mark’s Treatment of the Jewish Leaders. NovTSup 51. Leiden: Brill, 1978. A redactional study of Jesus’s opponents in Mark that is primarily concerned with uncovering historical insights regarding the evangelist and his community.

Crossley, James G. The Date of Mark’s Gospel: Insight from the Law in Earliest Christianity. New York: T&T Clark International, 2004.

Croy, Clayton. The Mutilation of Mark’s Gospel. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003. A sustained argument in support of the thesis that the original ending of Mark’s Gospel has been lost, with an additional proposal that the beginning of the Gospel may have been lost as well.

Danove, Paul L. The Rhetoric of Characterization of God, Jesus, and Jesus’s Disciples in the Gospel of Mark. JSNTSup 290. London: T&T Clark, 2005.

Dart, John. Decoding Mark. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003.

Dewey, Joanna. Markan Public Debate: Literary Technique, Concentric Structure, and Theology in Mark 2:1–3:6. SBLDS 48. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980. A rhetorical-critical study that examines the overall structure of Mark 2:1–3:6 and the literary techniques according to which it was composed so as to understand both the interrelationships among the various parts of the section and its meaning as a whole.

Donahue, John R. Are You the Christ? The Trial Narrative in the Gospel of Mark. SBLDS 10. Missoula, MT: Society of Biblical Literature, 1973. A redactional analysis of this important section of Mark’s Gospel and its relationship to the work as a whole; special emphasis is given to the temple theme and to Christology.

———. The Theology and Setting of Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1981. A brief redactional study relating Mark’s portrayal of the disciples to concerns in the evangelist’s own community.

Dowd, Sharyn Echols. Prayer, Power, and the Problem of Suffering: Mark 11:23–25 in the Context of Markan Theology. SBLDS 105. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. An extensive analysis of Mark’s theology of prayer.

Driggers, Ira Brent. Following God through Mark: Theological Tension in the Second Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007. A study of the activity of God in Mark’s Gospel, including God’s work through Jesus and apart from Jesus.

Farmer, William. The Last Twelve Verses of Mark. SNTSMS 25. London: Cambridge University Press, 1974. A study of the evidence for and against the genuineness of Mark 16:9–20; concludes that the verses should be considered part of Mark’s Gospel.

Fowler, Robert M. Let the Reader Understand: Reader-Response Criticism and the Gospel of Mark. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991. Examines the rhetoric of Mark’s Gospel with an emphasis on those features that allow interpretations that are intentionally ambiguous.

———. Loaves and Fishes: The Function of the Feeding Stories in the Gospel of Mark. SBLDS 54. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981. The major thesis of this investigation: the story of the feeding of the five thousand is a Markan composition. A literary-critical study; also contains a chapter on reader-response and on the implied reader of Mark.

Fullmer, Paul. Resurrection in Mark’s Literary-Historical Perspective. LNTS 360. London: T&T Clark, 2007.

Garrett, Susan R. The Temptation of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts, and Patrick D. Miller, eds. The Ending of Mark and the Ends of God: Essays in Memory of Donald Harrisville Juel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005.

Geddert, Timothy J. Watchwords: Mark 13 in Markan Eschatology. JSNTSup 26. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989. Interprets Mark’s eschatology from the standpoint of epistemology, arguing that Mark is more concerned to teach his readers how to know than what to know.

Geyer, Douglas W. Fear, Anomaly, and Uncertainty in the Gospel of Mark. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001.

Hamerton-Kelly, Robert. The Gospel and the Sacred: Poetics of Violence in Mark. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.

Hanson, James S. The Endangered Promises: Conflict in Mark. SBLDS 171. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000.

Hatina, Thomas. In Search of a Context: The Function of Scripture in Mark’s Narrative. JSNTSup 232. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

Henderson, Suzanne Watts. Christology and Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark. SNTSMS 135. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Hengel, Martin. Studies in the Gospel of Mark. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985. A collection of three essays. Concentrates in the main on the historical origins of Mark’s Gospel; argues for a reappropriation of the traditional views that the Gospel was written in Rome in 69 and contains materials handed down by Peter through John Mark, referred to in Acts 12.

Hooker, Morna D. The Message of Mark. London: Epworth, 1983. Attempts to delineate the unique perspective of Mark’s community concerning Christology and discipleship.

———. The Son of Man in Mark. Montreal: McGill University Press, 1967. Studies the use of the term “Son of Man” in the Old Testament and intertestamental literature and then examines all of the occurrences in Mark; argues for a coherent pattern in Mark’s use of the term.

Horsley, Richard A. Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark’s Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.

Horsley, Richard A., Jonathan Draper, and John Miles Foley, eds. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.

Incigneri, Brian J. The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark’s Gospel. BIS 65. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Iverson, Kelly R. Gentiles in the Gospel of Mark: “Even the Dogs under the Table Eat the Children’s Crumbs.” LNTS 339. London: T&T Clark, 2007.

Juel, Donald H. A Master of Surprise: Mark Interpreted. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.

———. Messiah and Temple: The Trial of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. SBLDS 31. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977. An analysis of the problem represented by the significant role played by Jesus’s prediction of the temple’s destruction in his trial, and the virtual insignificance of the temple in the rest of Mark’s narrative.

Kealy, Seán P. Mark’s Gospel: A History of Its Interpretation. New York: Paulist Press, 1982. A sweeping historical survey of Markan scholarship from the first centuries to the present; covers the modern era of form and redaction criticism. Its unique contribution: a review of little-known works from earlier periods.

Kee, Howard Clark. Community of the New Age: Studies in Mark’s Gospel. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977. Locates the origins of Mark’s Gospel in rural and small-town Syria, and then regards the Gospel as written in the late 60s on the model of Jewish apocalyptic writings.

Kelber, Werner H. The Kingdom in Mark: A New Place and a New Time. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974. Studies Mark’s concept of the “kingdom of God” in reference to a proposed reconstruction of Christian community following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. Dates the Gospel after this event and states that the event precipitated its production.

———. Mark’s Story of Jesus. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979. An interpretive retelling of Mark’s story of the life and death of Jesus, understood as a journey beginning in Galilee and ending in Jerusalem. Espouses the view, long debated by scholars, that Mark depicts the disciples at the close of his story as permanently alienated from Jesus.

———. The Oral and the Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983. Develops the thesis that Mark, by putting the Gospel into a written form, put an end to the creative development that had characterized it in the oral stage.

———, ed. The Passion in Mark: Studies on Mark 14–16. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976. A collection of redaction-critical essays; investigates each pericope in Mark’s passion account in terms both of the role that it plays within the passion account itself and of the thematic links that it exhibits to other parts of the narrative.

Kermode, Frank. The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979. An examination of Mark by a literary critic rather than a biblical scholar; questions whether it is possible to find any unity of coherence intended by the author of the Markan narrative. Written from the perspective that one can find no coherence to life itself, but contains scattered insights into Mark along the way.

Kingsbury, Jack Dean. The Christology of Mark’s Gospel. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983. Uses literary method to reappraise Mark’s portrait of Jesus. After brief chapters on the “messianic secret” and recent approaches to Mark’s understanding of Jesus, shows how Mark, in the course of his story, gradually unveils the identity of Jesus. A separate chapter deals with the special way in which “the Son of Man” is used.

———. Conflict in Mark: Jesus, Disciples, Authorities. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. A literary study of Mark as narrative; focuses on the story lines of the three most important characters in the narrative.

Kinukawa, Hisako. Women and Jesus in Mark: A Japanese Feminist Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994.

Levine, Amy-Jill, ed. A Feminist Companion to Mark. FCNTECW 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.

Mack, Burton. A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. A study of the social setting of Mark’s Gospel proposing that Mark exercised a considerable amount of creativity in his presentation of Jesus traditions in order to vindicate those followers of Jesus who had been expelled from the synagogues.

Magness, J. Lee. Sense and Absence: Structure and Suspension in the Ending of Mark’s Gospel. SBLSS. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986. A study of the literary significance and effect of the final verse of Mark’s Gospel in light of “suspended endings” elsewhere in the Bible and in other ancient literature.

Malbon, Elizabeth Struthers. Hearing Mark: A Listener’s Guide. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002.

———. In the Company of Jesus: Characters in Mark’s Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000.

———. Narrative Space and Mythic Meaning in Mark. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986. Illuminates Mark’s Gospel story by investigating the spatial references found in it: heaven versus earth, land versus sea, Jewish homeland versus foreign land, Galilee versus Judea, isolated areas versus inhabited areas, house versus synagogue, Mount of Olives versus temple, and tomb versus mountain.

Maloney, Elliott. Jesus’s Urgent Message for Today: The Kingdom of God in Mark’s Gospel. New York: Continuum, 2004.

Marcus, Joel. The Mystery of the Kingdom of God. SBLDS 90. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986. A redaction-critical analysis of Mark’s parable chapter whose thesis is that whereas the stress in 4:3–20 is on the hiddenness of the kingdom, in 4:21–32 it is on the kingdom’s moving from hiddenness to manifestation.

Martin, Ralph P. Mark: Evangelist and Theologian. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973. Deals with the origins of Mark’s Gospel so as to understand it in light of them. By telling of Jesus’s suffering messiahship, Mark gives encouragement to his own persecuted church in Rome and summons it to faithful discipleship.

Marxsen, Willi. Mark the Evangelist: Studies on the Redaction History of the Gospel. Translated by James Boyce et al. 1956. Reprint, Nashville: Abingdon, 1969. Generally credited with inaugurating the redaction-critical approach to Mark’s Gospel. The discussion of this approach in the introduction is classic.

Matera, Frank J. The Kingship of Jesus: Composition and Theology in Mark 15. SBLDS 66. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982. Shows how Mark has composed chapter 15 of his passion account in such fashion as to highlight a royal theology that comes to climactic expression in the centurion’s confession of Jesus as the Son of God.

———. What Are They Saying about Mark? New York: Paulist Press, 1987. Surveys twenty-five years of Markan research, discussed in easily understood language. The book has been replaced in the series by another, more up-to-date volume by Daniel Harrington, but it remains valuable for its treatment of works in the mid-twentieth century dealing with four major topics: the setting in which Mark’s Gospel arose, Mark’s understanding of Jesus and of discipleship, principles Mark used in composing his Gospel, and present-day literary approaches to Mark’s Gospel.

Meagher, John C. Clumsy Construction in Mark’s Gospel: A Critique of Form and Redaktionsgeschichte. TST 3. New York: Mellen, 1979. Proposes that Mark’s Gospel is so awkwardly written and ineptly edited that it is futile to look for overarching purpose in his redaction.

Miller, Susan. Women in Mark’s Gospel. JSNTSup 259. London: T&T Clark, 2004.

Minor, Mitzi. The Power of Mark’s Story. St. Louis: Chalice, 2001.

———. The Spirituality of Mark. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996.

Myers, Ched. Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989. Applies literary criticism, sociohistorical exegesis, and political hermeneutics to interpret the entire text of Mark’s Gospel as a “manifesto of radical discipleship.”

———. Who Will Roll Away the Stone? Discipleship Queries for First-World Christians. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000.

Neirynck, Frans. Duality in Mark: Contributions to the Study of the Markan Redaction. BETL 31. Louvain: Leuven University Press, 1972. A catalogue and description of “two-step expressions” in Mark, which the author takes to be one of the most characteristic features of Markan style.

Oyen, Geert van, and Tom Shepherd, eds. The Trial and Death of Jesus: Essays on the Passion Narrative in Mark. CBET 45. Leuven: Peeters, 2006.

Pallares, José Cárdenas. A Poor Man Called Jesus: Reflections on the Gospel of Mark. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986. Explores the liberating dimension of Jesus’s words and deeds, demonstrating how his identification of the poor and outcasts was seen as subversive by political and religious authorities.

Patella, Michael. Lord of the Cosmos: Mithras, Paul, and the Gospel of Mark. New York: T&T Clark International, 2006.

Patte, Daniel, and Aline Patte. Structural Exegesis: From Theory to Practice; Exegesis of Mark 15 and 16, Hermeneutical Implications. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978. An attempt to apply the secular literary theory of “structuralism” to a theological interpretation of Mark’s passion account.

Peabody, David Barrett. Mark as Composer. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987. A detailed analysis of the Greek text of Mark’s Gospel with the intention of isolating redactional features that come from the hand of the evangelist.

Perrin, Norman. A Modern Pilgrimage in New Testament Christology. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974. A collection of essays that focus on the Christology of Mark and especially on Mark’s use of “the Son of Man.”

Petersen, Norman R. Literary Criticism for New Testament Critics. GBS. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978. In chapter 3, the whole of Mark’s narrative is investigated to show that Mark locates his story’s resolution in the meeting that the young man in white, following Jesus’s own words, predicts Jesus will have with the disciples in Galilee. The reader is invited to project that, at this meeting, the disciples come out from under their cloud of ignorance.

Räisänen, Heikki. The “Messianic Secret” in Mark’s Gospel. SNTW. London: T&T Clark, 1990.

Reiser, William. Jesus in Solidarity with His People. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000.

Rhoads, David. Reading Mark: Engaging the Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004. A collection of essays.

Rhoads, David, with Joanna Dewey and Donald Michie. Mark as Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1999. Points the way, more than any other single work, to a literary (narrative-critical) study of Mark’s Gospel. Following an English translation, it treats, in turn, the rhetoric, settings, plot, and characters of Mark’s narrative.

Riley, Harold. The Making of Mark: An Exploration. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1989. Attempts to interpret Mark’s Gospel as a redaction of Matthew and Luke, with particular attention to his style, personal vocabulary, and reasons for inclusion or exclusion of material.

Robbins, Vernon K. Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984. A study of sociorhetorical criticism that understands Mark to have combined biblical-Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions and conventions. Mark’s Jesus is at once biblical prophet and Greco-Roman philosopher and teacher; he fulfills Jewish messianic expectations in a way that would capture the attention of non-Jews of Mediterranean society.

Robinson, James M. The Problem of History in Mark and Other Markan Studies. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982. A collection of three studies by a leading New Testament scholar: a comparison of the Gattung (genre) of Mark and John; a study of potential gnostic influences on Mark; and an analysis of the eschatological struggle in Mark 1:1–13 and its presence elsewhere in the Gospel and early Christianity.

Roscam, Hendrika N. The Purpose of the Gospel of Mark in Its Historical and Social Context. NovTSup 114. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

Roth, Wolfgang. Hebrew Gospel: Cracking the Code of Mark. Yorktown Heights, NY: Meyer-Stone Books, 1988. Examines the genre and function of Mark’s Gospel in light of ancient and modern Jewish literature. States that this Gospel is an example of Jewish storytelling that reflects an intra-Jewish conversation concerning Jesus.

Sabin, Marie Noonan. Reopening the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Samuel, Simon. A Postcolonial Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. LNTS 340. London: T&T Clark, 2007.

Santos, Narry. Slave of All: The Paradox of Authority and Servanthood in the Gospel of Mark. JSNTSup 237. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.

Schenke, Ludger. Glory and the Way of the Cross: The Gospel of Mark. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1982. Expounds the classic theory that Mark’s Gospel was written to combat a false “theology of glory” within his community.

Senior, Donald. The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1984. Offers a detailed but eminently readable analysis of the passion account of Mark. Analysis is preceded by a chapter on the material leading up to the passion account and is followed by a chapter emphasizing the theology of the account.

Shiner, Whitney. Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003.

Stock, Augustine. Call to Discipleship: A Literary Study of Mark’s Gospel. GNS 1. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1982. A study of Mark’s Gospel as a dramatic work bearing traces of contemporary Greek drama. Shows how Mark uses standard literary techniques to reach his reader with certain points related to discipleship.

Such, W. A. The Abomination of Desolation in the Gospel of Mark: Its Historical Reference in Mark 13:14 and Its Impact in the Gospel. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998.

Sweetland, Dennis. Our Journey with Jesus: Discipleship according to Mark. GNS 22. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987. Begins with a study of discipleship in Mark’s Gospel and leads into a discussion of Christian discipleship today. Highlighted themes: the life of Christian community and the relationship of discipleship to Christology.

Telford, William. The Barren Temple and the Withered Tree: A Redaction-Critical Analysis of the Cursing of the Fig-Tree Pericope in Mark’s Gospel and Its Relation to the Cleansing of the Temple Tradition. JSNTSup 1. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1980. A detailed exegetical study of Mark 11, including comparison of themes found here that are also in the Old Testament, in rabbinic literature, and in other New Testament books.

———, ed. The Interpretation of Mark. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985. Eight essays by scholars who have contributed to what the editor terms a “literary explosion” in the area of Markan studies. Any such collection necessarily gives an incomplete picture, but the essays included here add insights into Mark’s Gospel. The introductory essay contains a good review of issues currently debated by scholars.

Thompson, Mary R. The Role of Disbelief in Mark: A New Approach to the Second Gospel. New York: Paulist Press, 1989. Examines the negative realities, failures, and misunderstandings portrayed in Mark’s Gospel to explicate the evangelist’s theology as a realistic one in which faith and disbelief coexist.

Tolbert, Mary Ann. Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. Takes the parable of the sower as the key to understanding Mark’s Gospel as persuasive literature proclaiming the gospel within a particular social-historical setting.

Tuckett, Christopher, ed. The Messianic Secret. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983. A collection of several now classic studies on this important theme in Markan research.

Upton, Bridget Gilfillan. Hearing Mark’s Endings: Listening to Ancient Popular Texts through Speech Act Theory. BIS 79. Leiden: Brill, 2006. A study in orality, focusing on the audience impact of Mark 16:18, Mark 16:9–20, and the “shorter ending” of Mark 16:9.

Via, Dan O., Jr. The Ethics of Mark’s Gospel in the Middle of Time. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985. Immediate purpose: exploring the ethical teachings of Mark’s Gospel, especially chapter 10 within the context of the Markan narrative itself. The larger purpose: setting forth the implications the narrative holds for faith and conduct in today’s world.

Vines, Michael. The Problem of Markan Genre: The Gospel of Mark and the Jewish Novel. AcBib 3. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.

Waetjen, Herman. A Reordering of Power: A Sociopolitical Reading of Mark’s Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. An interpretation of Mark from the perspective of liberation theology that identifies Jesus as announcing new power structures in defiance of political domination by a ruling elite.

Waterman, Mark W. The Empty Tomb Tradition of Mark: Text, History, and Theological Struggles. Los Angeles: Agathos, 2006.

Weeden, Theodore. Mark: Traditions in Conflict. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971. A classic study that proposes the evangelist portrays the disciples negatively because they represent a segment of Christianity distinct from that of his community.

Williams, James G. Gospel against Parable: Mark’s Language of Mystery. BLS 12. Sheffield: Almond, 1985. Book’s contention is that Mark is a narrative gospel, the product of bringing together “biography” and “parable.” It sets forth the mystery of the kingdom as revealed in “the way” of Jesus, the suffering Son of Man.

Wrede, William. The Messianic Secret. Translated by J. C. G. Greig. 1901. Reprint, London: James Clarke, 1971. Presents the thesis that Mark utilizes a secrecy motif in his Gospel in order to reconcile his messianic portrayal of Jesus with the nonmessianic nature of Jesus’s actual life and ministry; a classic study.