The Markan community, Myth or Maze? Bauckham's the Gospel for all christians revisited

Abstract

This study is a follow-up to Richard Bauckham's thesis that the canonical Gospels were composed for Christians in general and not for isolated communities. The study focuses on Mark's Gospel and argues that scepticism is warranted against any postulation of a so-called 'Markan community' because no link between the Gospel of Mark and a particular community can be firmly established and that even if a Markan community did exist it is impossible to identify its situation and location with any degree of certainty.