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Mark As Crafted Literary Masterpiece
- Mark is not a condensed nuts-and-bolts Gospel but a carefully crafted literary work full of subtleties and structure.
- Reading Mark closely reveals an agenda to redefine the Messiah by narrative design, not mere chronology.
Opening Line Frames A Radical Task
- The opening phrase 'the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ' frames Jesus explicitly as the Messiah, a provocative claim given his crucifixion.
- Mark sets himself the task of showing how a crucified criminal can be the Messiah by redefining messianic expectations.
Christ/Messiah Means Anointed King
- 'Christ' (Christos) translates Hebrew 'mashiach' and carried strong Jewish royal connotations of anointed king.
- Mark likely writes for Gentile Christians who understand both Jewish and Greco-Roman son-of-God imagery.