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.