THE MESSIAH OF PEACE

The telling of Marks story of Jesus as the Messiah of peace in the decades following the Roman-Judean war announced a third way forward for Diaspora Judeans other than warfare against or separation from the nations. Marks Gospel was the story of the victory of a nonviolent Messiah who taught and practiced the ways of a new age of peace and reconciliation in contrast to the ancient and modern myth of redemptive violence. The Messiah of Peace is a performance-criticism commentary exploring a new paradigm of biblical scholarship that takes seriously the original experience of the Gospel of Mark as a lively story told to audiences rather than as a text read by readers. The commentary is correlated with the Messiah of Peace website, which features video recordings of the story in both English and Greek. Critical investigation of the sounds of the Markan passion-resurrection narrative reveals the identity of its original audiences as predominantly Judean with a minority of Gentile nonbelievers. Hearing the passion-resurrection story was an experience of involvement in the forces that led to the rejection and death of Jesus--an experience that brought on the challenges inherent in becoming a disciple of the Messiah of peace. Boomershines new book marks a significant step forward in the emerging field of performance criticism. Combining decades of research in both Mark and ancient media culture, the author demonstrates the utility of orality research by addressing a number of well-established critical problems in the framework of a careful reading of Marks passion account. This book offers significant new insights not only into Marks gospel, but also new ways of thinking about exegesis of the New Testament. --Tom Thatcher, Professor of New Testament, Cincinnati Christian University, Cincinnati, OH Tom Boomershine in The Messiah of Peace has truly shown light into the understanding of Mark as story, an approach that is relevant for students of the Bible and lovers of