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To hear, read, and interpret the Gospel of Mark is to become involved in the dynamic relationship between author (real or implied) and audience (implied or real). So we have learned from the “literary turn” in biblical interpretation. But there remains another dynamic relationship in which we are of necessity involved: that of the literary and the historical questions surrounding the text. Clearly, multiple approaches are called for by anyone who wishes to claim a place in the ongoing audience of the Gospel of Mark.

The first three essays in this volume move in different ways between real and implied Markan realities: from implied audience to real (ancient) audience, from real (contemporary, oral) narrator to implied (ancient, oral) narrator, and from implied audience to various real (or “unimplied”) audiences. The next three essays treat the central Markan reality of parable as it connects author, narrator, and audience in challenging ways. The final three essays concern the relation of Mark’s characters among themselves or the relation of narrator and character, recognizing the complexity of characterization in the Gospel as a form of communication between author and audience.

Elizabeth Struthers Malbon is Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.

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