I had never formed a particularly independent impression of Mark’s Gospel before now, I have always thought of it in terms of how it matches up to my impressions of the other Gospels: Mark is more brusque than Matthew’s warmly engaging narrative, not as accurately descriptive as Luke’s science-minded account, nowhere near a match for John’s eloquent Christology. So for me it certainly has been “the overlooked Gospel”.
However, I am beginning to realise that Mark is worth much closer inspection than I have given it to date. New and surprising for me is the understanding that Mark structured his Gospel very carefully, and quite skilfully. The text is far more complex than it appears to be on the surface, and a great deal of information is communicated through Mark’s choice of words, his inclusion of particular content, and the ordering of the content in effective rhetorical style (using chiastic patterns and sandwich layers). Mark’s read-between-the-lines material calls for an active engagement with, and interpretation of, the text. And all of this is attributable to Mark’s intention to elicit a response from the community for whom the Gospel was written: fearful souls who were not quite sure that a humble, suffering Messiah was what they wanted in the face of extreme opposition and cruel oppression.
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