Peter Bolt explores the impact of Mark's Gospel on early readers in the first-century Graeco-Roman world. Focusing upon the thirteen characters in Mark who come to Jesus for healing or exorcism, Bolt analyzes their crucial role in the communication of the Gospel. Enlisting a variety of ancient literary and non-literary sources, this book recreates the first-century world of illness, magic and Roman imperialism. This new approach to Mark combines reader-response criticism with social history.

The Lord Jesus Christ has won the victory: this is the objective reality that should inform Christian thinking about every aspect of human life. Even as we contemplate the presence of evil and the demonic in our world, the gospel whispers in our ears the greatest victory this world has ever seen, and ever will: 'Christ is risen!' However, the presence of evil, or our fear of the demonic, can stifle the gospel whisper. Throughout Christian history, the relationship between Christians and the forces of evil has been examined from a variety of perspectives; and recent missional studies and pastoral practices have stimulated further discussion. This volume, based on the 2008 Moore College School of Theology, seeks to listen below the present clamour drawing attention to the demonic, in order to hear the whisper of the gospel message more clearly, and to explore the power and victory it promises - even in the face of evil powers. The contributors are Tony Payne, Peter Bolt, Bill Salier, Matthew Jensen, Mark Thompson, Constantine Campbell, Greg Anderson, Jonathan Lilley and Donald West.

Peter Bolt explores the impact of Mark's Gospel on its early readers in the first-century Graeco-Roman world. His book focuses upon the thirteen characters in Mark who come to Jesus for healing or exorcism and, using analytical tools of narrative and reader-response criticism, explores their crucial role in the communication of the Gospel. Bolt suggests that early readers of Mark would be persuaded that Jesus' dealings with the suppliants show him casting back the shadow of death and that this in itself is preparatory for Jesus' final defeat of death in resurrection. Enlisting a variety of ancient literary and non-literary sources in an attempt to illuminate this first-century world, this book gives special attention to illness, magic and the Roman imperial system. This is a different approach to Mark, which attempts to break the impasse between narrative and historical studies and will appeal to scholars and students alike.

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha ... And they crucified him ... Some women were watching from a distance' (Mark 15:22, 24, 40). At the climax of Mark's Gospel, Jesus of Nazareth is put to death on a Roman cross. The text tells us that, in that lonely hour, a group of women were watching the crucifixion 'from a distance'. In a sense, they are given a stance towards the cross that we can share. It is an event that occurred so long ago, in a world that in many ways seems so foreign to our own. In this exploration of Mark's Gospel, Peter Bolt looks at why the cross is so prominent in the narrative; asks what contribution Mark's teaching can make to our understanding of the atonement; and shows how this teaching can inform, correct and enrich our own preaching of the gospel in the contemporary world. He helps us to stand in wonder before the God who has come close to us in the cross of Jesus Christ, and to live in hope of the better things to come.