What sets The Theological Intentions of Mark's Literary Devices apart from other books? What niche does it fill that makes its publication important? This volume will interest all those who value a literary approach to the Gospel of Mark. Dean Deppe introduces some new literary devices in the research of the Gospel of Mark as well as demonstrates the theological intentions of Mark when he employs these literary devices. Deppe argues that Mark employs the literary devices of intercalation, framework, allusionary repetitions, narrative surprises, and three types of mirroring to indicate where he speaks symbolically and metaphorically at two levels. Mark employs these literary devices not just for dramatic tension and irony, but also for theological reasons to apply the Jesus tradition to specific problems in his own day.

What sets The Theological Intentions of Mark's Literary Devices apart from other books? What niche does it fill that makes its publication important? This volume will interest all those who value a literary approach to the Gospel of Mark. Dean Deppe introduces some new literary devices in the research of the Gospel of Mark as well as demonstrates the theological intentions of Mark when he employs these literary devices. Deppe argues that Mark employs the literary devices of intercalation, framework, allusionary repetitions, narrative surprises, and three types of mirroring to indicate where he speaks symbolically and metaphorically at two levels. Mark employs these literary devices not just for dramatic tension and irony, but also for theological reasons to apply the Jesus tradition to specific problems in his own day.

The thesis of the book may be stated simply: it is an argument based upon the four prophetic texts of Jer 23:5; Zech 3:8; 6:12; and Isa 4:2 as a foundational pattern for the four Gospels. These four prophetic texts, it will be argued, mention a King Branch, a Servant Branch, a Man/Priest Branch, and a Lord God Branch. This study seeks to show how Matthew presents Jesus as the King Branch, Mark as the Servant Branch, Luke as the Priest/Man Branch, and John as the Lord God Branch. Consideration will also be given to explore the ramification of the four living Beings as described in Rev 4:6–7. Given the sum total of this sequence of literary facts, the conclusion of this book will raise a number of possible implications. One of these implications will offer the conclusion that the four evangelists could not have written their four Gospels solely on their own human unaided efforts.

In Mark's Gospel, the Shema language of Deut 6.4 is not merely reiterated in a traditional sense but reinterpreted in a striking way that links Jesus directly and inseparably with Israel's unique God. Such an innovative rereading of the Shema must be understood in light of (a) various elements involved in and surrounding each of the three monotheistic references (Mark 2.7; 10.18; 12.29) relating to their respective literary contexts, and (b) Mark's nuanced, complex, and even paradoxical portrait of Jesus' relationship to God throughout his gospel. John J.R. Lee shows that Mark's use of the one-God language implies that his Jesus is not merely one who, as a Shema-observant Jew, speaks on behalf of God but also one whose status and significance fundamentally correspond to those of Israel's unique deity.

Young and Strickland analyze the four largest discourses of Jesus in Mark in the context of Greco-Roman rhetoric in an attempt to hear them as a first-century audience would have heard them. The authors demonstrate that, contrary to what some historical critics have suggested, first-century audiences of Mark would have found the discourses of Jesus unified, well-integrated, and persuasive. They also show how these speeches of the Markan Jesus contribute to Mark‘s overall narrative accomplishments.

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.

James M. Neumann proposes that there is far more at work in Mark's portrayal of Jesus as Son of God, and what it means for Mark to depict him as such, than past scholarship has recognized. He argues that Mark presents Jesus's life from beginning to end as the actualization of Psalm 2: a coronation hymn describing the Davidic king as God's “son,” which was interpreted messianically in early Judaism and christologically in early Christianity. Rather than a simple title, the designation of Jesus as God's “Son” in Mark contains and encapsulates an entire story of its own. Beginning with an analysis of why this most important identity of Jesus in the Gospel has been under-studied, Neumann retraces the interpretive traditions surrounding Psalm 2 in early Judaism and Christianity alike. Pointing to Mark's first introduction of Jesus as God's Son into the narrative via an allusion to Ps 2:7 and portraying his baptism as a royal anointing, he demonstrates how Jesus begins to realize the implications of his anointment through his disestablishment of Satan's kingdom. Focusing on the repetition of the allusion to Ps 2:7 at Jesus's transfiguration and exploring how the Parable of the Vineyard uniquely encapsulates the Gospel as a whole, Neumann traces the use of the psalm throughout the Markan passion narrative, contending that, in Mark's vision, the hope envisaged by the psalm has been realized: the Son begins to inherit (the worship of) the nations. He concludes that Mark paradoxically portrays the accomplishment of the Messiah's victory through Jesus's crucifixion.