Observations on the Markan Passion

This collection of essays explores the last week of Jesus’s life as portrayed in Mark 14–16, examining key moments in Jesus’ final days. As the product of lively and collaborative debate among a diverse group of Markan scholars with varied perspectives and methods, including literary, sociological, historical, and theological approaches, these contributions are vital to the scholarship of the Markan Passion.After a summary of the volume's creation from the Mark Passion Narrative Seminar at SBL, the contributors follow Jesus throughout his last days; from the definitive moments of the Last Supper, the New Covenant, the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the betrayal and failure of the disciples, to discussion of the potential influence of Psalm 41 upon Mark's Gospel, the question of whether Jesus can be counted as a martyr, the misinterpretation of the witnesses to his death, and the suggestion that Jesus's death becomes the highest possible salvific category: unhindered, Edenic access to the divine.