The Gospel of Mark

It is neither commentary nor literary or historical criticism in the ordinary sense, yet it critically challenges long-held (mis)conceptions which have blindly overlooked the literary and cultural milieus that were the essence of Mediterranean, particularly Palestinian, life in the first century of the Common Era. Specifically, Bryan's intent is to prove his hypothesis that, contrary to the long- and widely-held perspective, the Gospel of Mark is not a unique genre (sui generis) of literature--"creating a totally new genre is akin to the notion of a writer choosing to write in an unknown language" (p. 12)--but a perfect example of a form of Hellenistic (or, Greek) writing known as a "life." By comparing and contrasting the text as we have it today in its extant Greek manuscripts and English translations with other Hellenist works of the period (plus or minus several decades), Bryan demonstrates quite convincingly that the Gospel was written in a form that would have been easily understood, and at once recognized, b

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to works of the period. Bryan challenges his reader to join him in the effort to look for the signs which would indicate that Mark was intended to be similar to written forms that were commonly known in the first century, as well as those which distinguish whether Mark was intended for oral performance or private use. The first five chapters serve to acquaint the reader with the first century and its literature, particularly the Hellenistic "life." Bryan demonstrates that in order to truly comprehend literature we need to develop a "trained sensibility." Quoting the novelist Saul Bellow, he writes that it is impossible to develop that sensibility "unless you take certain masterpieces into yourself, as if you were swallowing a communion wafer. If masterpieces don't have a decisive part of your existence, all you have is a show of culture. It has no reality" (pp. 9-10). Bryan has done this with a variety of works and exposes them to us. Bryan convincingly shows Mark to be highly consistent with secular works that would reasonably have been familiar to most Mediterranean inhabitants in the latter half of the first century. His lengthy fifth chapter intricately examines Marks literary style in comparison with the biogr
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1332
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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