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...

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...

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

Jesus was a Jew. Yet nineteen centuries after his death, hatred inspired in part by the long-standing tradition of Christian anti-Judaism played a significant role in the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

How are Christians and Jews to deal with this jarring historical incongruity?

In Jesus and the Holocaust Joel Marcus--a Jew by birth, a Christian by choice--offers stirring meditations on the relationship between the deaths of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the death of one innocent Jew on the cross. Basing his work on sermons he...