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The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary is unavailable, but you can change that!

Ben Witherington III applies to Mark the socio-rhetorical approach for which he is well known, opening a fresh new perspective on the earliest Gospel. Mark was written when the early Christians were experiencing a major crisis during the Jewish war. He provides us with the first window on how the life and teachings of Jesus were presented to a largely non-Jewish audience. According to...

V. 22 tells us that people were astonished or overwhelmed by Jesus’ teaching, and especially by the fact that it manifested an innate rather than a derived authority. Mark is placing an emphasis on the manner rather than the matter of Jesus’ teaching. The γραμματευς were not in the main scribes, but rather those who were literate, could read and write, and so could quite naturally become the authorities in the Law, responsible for its interpretation and application. There was indeed a vast array
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