1:21).27 Such a provenance would fit well with the Gospel’s predominantly rural character (4:3–9, 26–29; 12:1–9), though the latter could simply be determined by the setting of the story itself. Most scholars agree that Mark’s Gospel was written around the time of the Jewish War with Rome (66–70 CE).28 The strongest evidence for this may once again be the words addressed to the reader in 13:14 (see the last paragraph of the preceding section). Scholars usually assume that the “desolating sacrilege