My interest in the Gospel of Mark began when in 1972 I embarked on doctoral work at Cambridge (England) under the expert supervision of Dr Ernst Bammel, whose recent death has brought great sadness to all those who knew him and benefited from his immense erudition and scholarship. My fascination with the Gospel has further developed during my time of teaching and research in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Newcastle. My thanks, in the first instance, therefore, go to those students of mine whose diligence and enthusiasm has always made the business of teaching such a pleasant and stimulating one for me. This book was written over a period of two years, and for the most part in a number of concentrated sessions spent in Cambridge and in Ha-warden. I should also like to thank, therefore, the Staff of the Cambridge University Library (that venerable institution within whose redoubtable walls I have spent so many productive hours!), the Bursar and Staff of Westcott House, Cambridge, and the Trustees, Warden, and Staff of St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden (this unique institution which offers such a welcome and such a service to all those engaged in the pursuit of what Gladstone himself described as ‘divine learning’). All of these have given me in my limited periods of research the facilities and the incentive to finish the book. Particular thanks go to the Trustees of St Deiniol's for awarding me a Murray McGregor Fellowship, and to Dr Peter Jagger, and his worthy successor as Warden, Revd Peter Francis, for their friendship and encouragement.