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Robinson analyzes the eschatological foundation of Mark's portrayal of Jesus.  He provides comparative references to the Jewish pseudepigrapha and Gnostic writings to determine the dissimilarity in Mark.  Robinson determines that Mark maintains the historical reality of the life and meaning of Jesus, in contrast to the Gnostics, while clearly presenting the yet-to-come character of the new age.

Mark's perspective portrays a supra-historical character of Jesus and the church.  But the write of the Gospel avoids the reductive extreme of the Gnostics.  Mark does not withdraw from the physical, social reality of the current "evil aeon," but rather the view of the Kingdom of God engages the challenges of this era, realm, aeon or moment in history.

Thus this portrait of Jesus and the Kingdom of God avoid the Gnostic apocalyptic denial of this world and the reality of its history.  In Mark, Jesus, in fact, shows God's concern for and activity in current history, to which Jesus brings meaning and a purpose.

The transcendent reality exists in parallel as the redemptive stream of activity, which develops in the ministry of Jesus.  The role of faith is the crowning emphasis in Robinson's analysis of Mark's view of the history, expressed in his telling of the faith-events in Jesus' life.

See related reviews and articles on this site:
The Gospel of Judas — Is this Really Good News?
A Gnostic View of Jesus
A History of God
Jesus and the Jewish Resurrection
A New Testament Window into First Century Jewish Literature
A Phenomenology of Jesus
Semi-Gnostic, Semi-Christian, Semi-Islamic Gospel

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OBJ

First reading notes written 11 December 2004
Finalized as an article and posted on Thoughts and Resources 27 December 2007

Orville Boyd Jenkins, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © 2007 Orville Boyd Jenkins
Permission granted for free download and transmission for personal or educational use.  Other rights reserved.

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