The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, this book is co-authored by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan.
Borg and Crossan are careful to emphasize that their book is a commentary on the story of Jesus’s life and death according to Mark. Mark’s story is not a documentary. It is a weaving of early traditions, history remembered and “prophecy historicized.” It reflects the response of the early community to Jesus’s death and the meaning of it for a continuing community that has been rocked by a devastating loss at the hands of a violent and oppressive Empire.
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest of the canonical Gospel accounts. Marcus and Dom have focused on Mark’s Gospel since the other Gospel writers drew upon Mark for their passion narratives. There are earlier non-canonical passion accounts. But this book deals with Mark’s telling of the story.
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