an interpretation which of course implies that there was an understanding of these rituals that Mark opposed. Thus I come to the heart of the argument of the book you are about to read: one reading of the Gospel of Mark is that it is fundamentally a presentation in narrative form of a theological rationale, in a time of communal crisis evoked by persecution,8 for Gentile and female inclusion in the defined ritual space of the Lord’s Supper of the house churches. Thus the narrative presents a theological