Yet I would like to accomplish something more in the pages that follow. When I refer to the narrative and the reader of Mark I am, as I say above, primarily interested in an interpretation of Mark that locates the creation and reception of the narrative within the experience of a reality largely created by early Christian ritual practice. And to be honest such a reading, as all attempted readings of Mark, must perforce rely on a good bit of hypothetical reconstruction. But I also want to include
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