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Mark's Jesus: Characterization as Narrative Christology

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Elizabeth Struthers Malbon is a pioneer in the narrative critical approach to Mark's Gospel, who continues to write and edit influential articles and books in the field. She writes in dialogue with the finest current scholarship, but in a style that is accessible to non-specialists willing to make the effort to understand.

Here she challenges a belief long held and disseminated in Markan criticism that there is little or no difference between the implied reader and narrator (or the points of view of the narrator and Jesus) in Mark. She examines Mark's narrative christology, i.e. the way the portrait of Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Son of David, and Son of Man is presented in and as story, by sifting and sorting what Jesus says and does in contrast and comparison to what others say or have said about him.

In the course of this examination, she shows that the viewpoint of Jesus and the narrator are quite distinct and different, and that this means that the implied author and the narrator are clearly distinguished also. She thus contradicts some of the standard introductory works to Markan narrative criticism (including her own). She also challenges the belief that the so-called Messianic Secrecy motif is a result of different historical layers, demonstrating rather that it is a result of interwoven literary strands.

This book allows us to look over the shoulder of--for my money--the most perceptive Markan narrative critic around as she does her work. She has broken new ground here in the discussion of narrative christology, and in revealing more of Mark's breathtakingly humane portrait of Jesus. A must read for all students and teachers of Mark's Gospel!