Unlocking the Puzzle

A shorter, simpler first draft of the Gospel of Mark has been theorized by New Testament scholars for almost two hundred years. Using literary tools, David Oliver Smith strips away interpolation and redaction from the canonical Gospel to reveal that long-sought first draft--the Original Gospel of Mark. Original Mark, shorter than the canonical version and with several large blocks of text replaced in their original locations, reveals a coherent structure and a different picture of who Jesus is. But it is anything other than simple. The Original Gospel also presents puzzles for the curious reader of Mark to solve, and Smith has found the keys to their solution. Analysis of the text that was interpolated into Mark reveals who that redactor might have been. Evidence is presented that it was the author of the Gospel of Luke who redacted the first-written Gospel, jumbled its structure, and changed its Christology. Follow the analysis of literary structures created by the genius who wrote Mark's Gospel and discover the astounding design of the Original Gospel of Mark.

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David Oliver Smith (JD, Duke University) is a retired lawyer who began his study of the Gospel of Mark after his retirement in 2006. He is the author of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul (2011). He lives in La Quinta, California.