Greek verb is in the present tense: “They come into Capernaum.” The gospel is about past events and includes future predictions, but it addresses the reader in her or his own circumstances, blending past, present, and future into an immediate confrontation with Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Use of the historical present tense is one way the Gospel of Mark achieves this immediacy. Second, the place is important, but not for geographical reasons. Just as the second or third century ruins on