This widely praised commentary by William Lane shows Mark to be a theologian whose primary aim was to strengthen the people of God in a time of fiery persecution by Nero. Using redaction criticism as a hermeneutical approach for understanding the text and the intention of the evangelist, Lane considers the Gospel of Mark as a total literary work and describes Mark's creative role in shaping the Gospel tradition and in exercising a conscious theological purpose.

Both indicating how the text was heard by Mark's contemporaries and studying Mark within the frame of reference of modern Gospel research, Lane's thoroughgoing work is at once useful to scholars and intelligible to nonspecialists.