Over the last several decades, the Jewishness of Jesus has been at the forefront of scholarship and students of the New Testament are more than ever aware of the importance of understanding Jesus and the Gospels in their Jewish context. Reading Mark in Context helps students see the contour and texture of Jesus' engagement with his Jewish environment. It brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast viewpoints, theologies, and hermeneutical practices of Mark and his various Jewish contemporaries.
Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the context of Mark's theology and the nuances of his thinking. Following the narrative progression of Mark's Gospel, each chapter in this textbook (1) pairs a major unit of the Gospel with one or more sections of a thematically-related Jewish text, (2) introduces and explores the historical and theological nuances of the comparative text, and (3) shows how the ideas in the comparative text illuminate those expressed in Mark.
For several decades, the Jewishness of Jesus has been at the forefront of scholarship. Students of the New Testament are more than ever aware of the importance of understanding Jesus and the Gospels in their Jewish context. In Reading Mark in Context, a team of Gospel scholars explore the Gospel of Mark in light of Second Temple Jewish literature.
'While the Judaic context of the Gospel of Mark has given rise to interminable speculations regarding sources, the fruitful task of comparative analysis is a rarity in scholarly discourse. Now, in Reading Mark in Context the novice reader is presented with the fruit of a comparative inquiry at its finest. The Jewish writings function like a light upon the narrative, making visible to the attentive reader the profundity of the Markan account of Jesus of Nazareth and illustrating the riches therein with contextual clarity. This is a unique and valuable collection that balances competent usage of the Jewish texts with judicious insights into the Gospel of Mark.'
