(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
183
A Theology of Mark’s Gospel: Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. By David
E. Garland. Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Edited by Andreas Köstenberger.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015. 656 pages. Hardcover, $44.99.
David E. Garland is William B. Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures and dean for
academic affairs at George W. Truett Seminary, Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Previously,
he taught for twenty-one years at his alma mater, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Kentucky. Garland is a prolific author. He has written, co-written, or edited
twenty books, including fourteen commentaries. Three previous studies of the Gospel of
Mark 1 paved the way for his twenty-first book, A Theology of Mark’s Gospel: Good News about
Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
The book itself, having a hardcover, is durable yet lightweight in spite of its great length.
The left and right margins are 1 5/8 inches wide, ideal for jotting down notes. The text has
no color or graphics (i.e., maps, figures, pictures) except an occasional chart. The material
unfolds in a highly ordered manner beyond the two parts and fourteen chapters. As proof, a
“detailed” table of contents spans fourteen pages.
A Theology of Mark’s Gospel is one of eight planned volumes in Zondervan’s Biblical Theology
of the New Testament series; an ambitious project, in part, because biblical theology has
been difficult to define. 2 General Editor Andreas J. Kostenberger asserts, “Biblical Theology
engages in the study of the biblical texts while giving careful consideration to the historical
setting in which a given piece of writing originated. It seeks to locate and relate the contributions
of the respective biblical documents along the lines of the continuum of God’s
salvation-historical program centered in the coming and salvific work of Christ” (23).
In Part 1, Garland tackles the text of Mark. “Introductory Matters” consists of two
chapters. Chapter 1 addresses the following historical-critical issues:
1. Authorship: John Mark organizes unrelated stories from Simon Peter, his source.
2. Audience: Gentile-Christians acquainted with Neronian persecution
3. Place of Writing: Rome, not Galilee or Syria
¹Mark. The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996); Mark. Zondervan Illustrated
Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002);
with Karen Lee-Thorp, Mark: Gospel of the Servant King. Bringing the Bible to Life, ed. Karen H. Jobes
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
²Childs concedes, “The term ‘Biblical Theology’ is ambiguous. It can either denote a theology
contained within the Bible, or a theology which accords with the Bible. . . . From one perspective the
entire modern history of the discipline of Biblical Theology can be interpreted as the effort to distinguish
between these two definitions and to explore the important implications of the distinction.”
Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian
Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 3.