The eclipse of the Markan narrative : on the (re)cognition of a coherent story and implications for genre

Abstract

I argue that the Gospel of Mark is recognizable as a coherent narrative according to textual and contextual cues. I ground my argument with a definition of “narrative” and a culturally informed cognitive model of textual production and reception. Then, I perform an analysis of Mark’s textual cues for narrative coherence. Finally, I argue that the coherence of the narrative facilitates Mark’s communication of genre. Though different social and cultural frames inevitably generate variety in audience recognition and reception of Mark’s gospel, textual cues suggest that the evangelist narrates a biblical apocalyptic-eschatological history framed as the εὐαγγέλιον.