The Problem of History in Mark
James M. Robinson
SCM Press Ltd., London
Mr Robinson begins with a compact survey of recent Marcan studies with special reference to Mark's conception of history, and rightly remarks that it is only when we have defined Mark's understanding of history that a centre of interpretation can be located which does justice both to Mark's history of Jesus and to Mark's religious experience. Until this understanding of history is clarified, Marcan interpretation must fluctuate between the dissolution of the Marcan history of Jesus into Mark's religious experience, and the petrifaction of the Marcan Kerygma into objective historiography.