OT references in Mark

[Justin Panzer]

It's often said that certain parts of Mark show parallels with the OT.

My question is how much OT references does Mark have?
Is there any available analysis on this topic?

[Ben C. Smith]

It's often said that certain parts of Mark show parallels with the OT.

My question is how much OT references does Mark have?
Is there any available analysis on this topic?

That depends on how strict or lenient you are with the concept of a reference. Explicit references to the Hebrew scriptures are rare in Mark, and can be found with a quick skim of its contents. But there are references and allusions to, echoes of, and parallels with those scriptures which are implicit or even perhaps hidden behind a veneer of narrative.

I would recommend the following maximalist treatments of the parallels, at least, and I know I am missing a few. Please note that many of these treat all of the gospels, not just Mark, but most of the authors also think that Mark wrote first, so they do not ignore Mark like the Christian church used to do:

• John Dominic Crossan, The Cross That Spoke (mainly the passion narratives).
• Thomas L. Brodie, The Birthing of the New Testament and The Crucial Bridge (lots to do with the Elijah-Elisha cycle as used in the gospels).
• Robert M. Price, "New Testament Narrative as Old Testament Midrash," in The Christ Myth and Its Problems, pages 59-263 (focuses on the entire gospel of Mark).
• Randel Helms, Gospel Fictions (light reading).
• Almost anything by Roger David Aus (focuses on individual gospel pericopes based upon Jewish interpretations of the Hebrew scriptures).

Here are two books that I have not read, but which I am given to understand treat the same topic:

• J. Duncan M. Derrett, The Making of Mark.
• Dale and Patricia Miller, The Gospel of Mark as Midrash on Earlier Jewish and New Testament Literature.

And, finally, one book which does much the same thing with regard to the Homeric epics:

• Dennis R. MacDonald, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark.

Hope this helps. These are just off the top of my head, and I know there are more out there, some of them by the same authors already listed.

[Kunigunde Kreuzerin]

It's often said that certain parts of Mark show parallels with the OT.

My question is how much OT references does Mark have?
Is there any available analysis on this topic?

There is a good Wiki-Introduction to the topic with a few links
"Intertextual production of the Gospel of Mark"


Two of our forum colleagues have already written longer posts about it on their blogs.

Neil Godfrey: 160 Scriptural Quotations and Allusions in Mark 11-16
R.G. Price - The Gospel of Mark as Reaction and Allegory


In addition to Ben I would also recommend

Mark Goodacre: Scripturalization in Mark’s Crucifixion Narrative

That's a really good starter

[Justin Panzer]

Thanks, I'll read through them.

[MrMacSon]

Perhaps Adam Winn's Mark and the Elijah-Elisha Narrative: Considering the Practice of Greco-Roman Imitation in the Search for Markan Source Material,
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010 [link is to it in Google Books].