In the final nine chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus increasingly struggles with his disciples' incomprehension of his unique concept of suffering messiahship and with the opposition of the religious leaders of his day. The Gospel recounts the events that led to Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion by the Roman authorities, concluding with an enigmatic ending in which Jesus' resurrection is announced but not displayed. In this volume New Testament scholar Joel Marcus offers a new translation of Mark 8-16 as well as extensive commentary and notes. He situates the narrative within the context of first-century Palestine and the larger Greco-Roman world; within the political context of the Jewish revolt against the Romans (66-73 C.E.); and within the religious context of the early church's sometimes rancorous engagement with Judaism, pagan religion, and its own internal problems. For religious scholars, pastors, and interested lay people alike, the book provides an accessible and enlightening window on the second of the canonical Gospels.

This scholarly work includes a review of the Markan narratives about Jesus' baptism, his transfiguration, and his suffering and death, as well as the discussion of his relation to Elijah, his identity as "the stone which the builder rejected," and the question of whether or not he is David's son. Joel Marcus discusses what each of these passages meant for the early church and suggests their relevance for Christians today.

An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Marcus contends that biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveals a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts-including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities-the book concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.

Poignant meditations occasioned by a unique convergence of commemorative events. On Good Friday, April 14, 1995, Christians remembered the crucifixion of Jesus, Jews reenacted the Passover, and the world at large observed the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust. That unusual juxtaposition formed the backdrop as Joel Marcus-a Jew by birth, a Christian by choice-took the pulpit at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland. This book presents Marcus's stirring meditations that day on the relationship between the deaths of six million innocent Jews in the Holocaust and the death of one innocent Jew on the cross. Through reflection on Bible passages in light of stories and poems about the Holocaust, Marcus shows how the hope that Christians have always found hidden in the darkest hour of their liturgical year can shed light on the most tragic moment of our recent history-and vice versa.

Although it appears second in the New Testament, Mark is generally recognized as the first Gospel to be written. Captivating nonstop narrative characterizes this earliest account of the life and teachings of Jesus. In the first installment of his two-volume commentary on Mark, New Testament scholar Joel Marcus recaptures the power of Mark's enigmatic narrative and capitalizes on its lively pace to lead readers through familiar and not-so-familiar episodes from the ministry of Jesus.
As Marcus points out, the Gospel of Mark can be understood only against the backdrop of the apocalyptic atmosphere of the Jewish rebellions of 66-73 c.e., during which the Roman army destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem (70 c.e.). While the Jewish revolutionaries believed that the war was "the beginning of the end" and that a messianic redeemer would soon appear to lead his people to victory over their human enemies (the Romans) and cosmic foes (the demons), for Mark the redeemer had already come in the person of Jesus. Paradoxically, however, Jesus had won the decisive holy-war victory when he was rejected by his own people and executed on a Roman cross.
The student of two of this generation's most respected Bible scholars and Anchor Bible authors, Raymond E. Brown and J. Louis Martyn, Marcus helps readers understand the history, social customs, economic realities, religious movements, and spiritual and personal circumstances that made Jesus who he was. The result is a Bible commentary of the quality and originality readers have come to expect of the renowned Anchor Bible series. Challenging to scholars and enlightening to laypeople, "Mark 1-8" is an invaluable tool for anyone reading the Gospelstory.

A rich collection of essays exploring the meaning of 'apocalyptic' in the New Testament, by a variety of important scholars in the field.