Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Mark - by John R Donahue & Daniel J Harrington (Paperback)

About the Book

This intratextual and intertextual reading of Mark's Gospel helps readers to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology. (Biblical Studies)

Book Synopsis

In The Gospel of Mark Fathers Donahue and Harrington use an approach that can be expressed by two terms currently used in literary criticism: intratextuality and intertextuality. This intratextual and intertextual reading of Mark's Gospel helps us to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology.

"Intratextuality" means we read Mark as Mark and by Mark. Such a reading expresses interest in the final form of the Gospel (not its source or literary history) and in its words and images, literary devices, literary forms, structures, characterization, and plot. Reading Mark by Mark gives particular attention to the distinctive vocabulary and themes that run throughout the Gospel and serve to hold it together as a unified literary production.

"Intertextuality" comprises the relation between texts and a textual tradition, and also referring to contextual materials not usually classified as texts (e.g., archaeological data). "Intertextuality" is used to note the links of the text of Mark's Gospel to other texts (especially the Old Testament) and to the life of the Markan community and of the Christian community today.

Review Quotes

The whole series is together the finest available in English today, and the current volume on Mark is no exception. . . . A MUST for every library."Catholic Library Journal

Donahue and Harrington, well-known scholars who have made numerous contributions to Markan studies in monographs and journal articles, have provided us with a helpful and reasonably sized commentary. It is large enough to deal with the majority of issues involved in the study of Mark without overwhelming us with more information than the average pastor or theological student can handle or wants. It is written succinctly and is very readable. It provides in its Introduction a brief and excellent overview of the major issues involved in the study of Mark.Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

The commentary is highly recommended for the target audiences of the series - biblical scholars, students, theologians, clergy, religious educators, and interested non-specialists - and the authors are to be commended for producing a work that is both scholarly and genuinely useful and accessible to a wide variety of readers.Toronto Journal of Theology

. . . deserves to be widely used at both the scholarly level and that of the serious reader.Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association

. . . sets the standard for a comprehensive one-volume treatment of Mark for this generation.The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

This volume is well up to the standard, steady and reliable, full of wise and sober judgments.Scripture Bulletin