So if you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may have noticed that about a year ago, things changed around here. The number of books I read was cut roughly in half and I pretty much only read fluff.
Well, there's a reason for that: I started working on a big project and so my leisure reading was drastically cut back (to, basically, a few minutes before bed, doctors' waiting rooms, swimming pools, etc.). That big project involves reading about two dozen commentaries on the Gospel of Mark. This is the first review that's going up for those commentaries and I know you are dying of anticipation for the other ones, but it will probably be a few years: you're only getting this one now because it's one of the rare two-volume ones.
So: Of the roughly two dozen commentaries that I am reading on Mark, this one is in the top three because of his careful attention to literary issues, particularly resonances from the Hebrew Bible. I do detest the Anchor Bible format (it's redundant and redundant), but the content makes up for it.
