In The Gospel of Mark Fathers Donahue and Harrington use an approach that can be expressed by two terms currently used in literary criticism: intratextuality and intertextuality. Intratextuality involves reading Mark as Mark by Mark. It looks to the final form of the Gospel rather than its sources or literary history: its favored words, images,literary devices, forms structures, characterization, and plot. Intertextuality invites examination of the relationship between texts and a textual tradition. These intratextual and intertextual readings of Mark's Gospel helps us to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology. This commentary also includes an updated bibliography as an appendix.
