A variety of external and internal features of Mark’s Gospel point us toward it being a biography of some sort. Firstly, it is the right length, and in fact is clearly much shorter than Luke or Matthew (Mark has 11,242 words, Luke 19,428, Matthew 18,305).17 Matthew and Luke are actually at the upper limits for a biography (Luke being at the upper limits for what a single scroll could contain), but Mark is closely similar to the average length of one of Plutarch’s Lives. Secondly, even at a glance
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