Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of the Gospel of Mark – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide a bibliography of important works, written by scholars for non-scholars. You may find one or more of these useful if you choose to dig more deeply into the the Gospel. For each of the books in this this list I provide brief annotations to give you a sense of what it’s about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while.

I have divided the list into three sections:

  • Books that provide important discussion of Mark in general or with respect to a particularly key topic
  • Commentaries that give lengthy introductions to all matters of importance about the Gospel and then go passage by passage to provide more detailed interpretation (that’s where you can dig more deeply into “what does this particular word actually mean?”; “what is the real point of this passage”; how does this passage relate to
    what Matthew says elsewhere in his Gospel or to what we can find in other parts of the New Testament?”; “where do we find similar ideas expressed in other writings in the Greek and Roman worlds, whether pagan or Jewish?” and so on.
  • Online resources. Just a couple. If you turn to other materials online, caveat emptor. And since online there is no emptoring, you need to caveat with particular diligence.

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