Void of Ethics No More: The Gospel of Mark and New Testament Ethics

Abstract

The following article offers an overview of studies on the ethics of Mark in the last four decades. A longstanding tradition in biblical studies has been to render the second Evangelist void or nearly void of all ethical interest. Such disparaging conclusions in regard to the apparently ethically vacuous Gospel are representative in the comment by James Leslie Houlden: ‘For [Mark], as for John, it appears that facing and settling moral problems, in the everyday sense, was not a primary concern’ (Houlden, J.L. 1973 Ethics and the New Testament [Harmondsworth: Penguin]: 45). Scholarship on the Gospel of Mark has since turned a corner: a foray of studies has overturned the conclusion by James Houlden and countless others. The following article offers a summary of ethically sensitive studies of the Gospel of Mark with suggestions for further inquiry.