What's Mark About?

My long fascination with the Gospel of Mark has been met with delight at the new commentary by M. Eugene Boring. Although I've just opened the pages of this volume, it already looks to be rather good and helpful. Boring is a careful scholar and good writer and although I probably won't agree with all his conclusions, he'll still give me much to think and re-think. A stunning quote to entice your readership...

What is this story about? The obvious answer: it is about Jesus, who appears in almost every scene and is the subject of most of the verbs in Mark. One could also say: it is about the disciples, who are called in the first chapter and accompany Jesus and are taught by him throughout until they abandon him in chapters 14 and 15; they are the goal of the final revelation pointed to in 16:7. The real answer, however: the story is about God, who only rarely becomes an explicit character, but who is the hidden actor in the whole drama, whose reality spans its whole narrative world from creation to eschaton, and who is not an alternative or competitor to the view that regards Jesus as the principle subject. To tell the story of Jesus is to tell the self-defining story of God.

[M. E. Boring, Mark: A Commentary (WJK, 2006), pg. 3]