A review of selected narrative-critical conventions in Mark's use of miracle material

The impetus for this paper arose from an extended redactional analysis of the Markan miracles in juxtaposition with parallel miracles found in the other synoptists.1 While a redactional investigation yielded pro table fruit, it became obvious that a literary-narrative study of the same material might well lend tremendous insight into how Mark, not primarily as a theologian or redactor but as a writer, crafted the story he has given to us. The purpose here is to examine the Markan miracle narratives through the lens of a recent literary-critical approach. The value and legitimacy of redactional analysis has been su ciently demonstrated by others, and the abiding place of redaction-critical studies seems to me to be a secure one.2 The last two decades of Biblical scholarship, however, have witnessed an upheaval both in approach and methodology toward NT studies. The dominant approach to Biblical studies for more than a century was the historical-critical method with its emphasis on historical concerns, grammar, and microlevel syntax. The problem that scholars had with this old method was voiced by H. Frei: “The major limitation to all these approaches is that they fail to take seriously the narrative character of the Gospels.”3 M. Powell agreed: