...a brilliant and audacious investigation of the narrative strategy of Mark. Roth's mastery of Hebrew paradigms illuminates the second Gospel with compelling and at times breathtaking detail. The discovery of Mark's scriptural code in the Elijah/Elisha narrative will provoke many New Testament scholars to probe more deeply into the Hebraic roots of early Christianity. -- Robert J. Jewett, Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Garrett-Evangelical Seminary Wolfgang Roth's work on the Judaic literary tradition behind the gospels leads to stunning revelations of structure and meaning. -- Mary Douglas, author of Purity and Danger and Emeritus Professor in Humanities, Northwestern University I find this new achievement of Roth's remarkable and refreshing. His approach to the Gospel of Mark is a sound return to the foundations of gospel writing. Although some of the modern explorations into non-Jewish possible literary models for New Testament writings prove useful, Roth's book reminds us that the New Testament is a Jewish piece of literature whose reference is decisively the Hebrew Scripture. . . . The evidence that he brings to his thesis is, in my opinion, incontrovertible and irresistible. -- Andre LaCocque, Professor of Old Testament and Director, Center for Jewish/Christian Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary An important study. By showing an aspect of the intertextuality of Mark, it helps to break the impasse concerning the lack of predecessors to the gospel form. Also, it raises the issue of 'intertopicality' - the presence of common topi and type scenes in the gospels. -- Vernon Robbins, Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University