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Mark is unavailable, but you can change that!

Mark, often eclipsed by the other Synoptic Gospels, is now considered by many biblical scholars to be the earliest written gospel. This conclusion would place Mark closest to the historical Jesus. In his book, Douglas Hare examines Mark for modern Christians who are in search of the Jesus portrayed in these earliest known writings. What emerges is a Jesus whose moral and religious teachings are...

attached saying about judgment by fire in the other Gospels, scholars suspect that the earliest form of the saying about the Messiah’s baptizing referred to fire only. (The metaphor of baptism by fire may underlie Mark 10:38 and Luke 12:49–50.) Perhaps the presence of “tongues of fire” in the story of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:3–4) explains the substitution. In any event, for Mark the coming of the Messiah means primarily grace rather than judgment. Just as John prepares the
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