Markan Typology - my book! Now available to buy

Blog fans, I know you have been feeling neglected. I'm sorry, but at least a part of that has been because I was working to get this little beauty ready for publication! You can now buy it from here on the Bloomsbury website

This is the blurb, written by my very kind reviewer:

Responding to the suggestion that scriptural typology was a later development of the early church, and not applicable to the earliest canonical Gospel, Jonathan Rivett Robinson stresses that typology has deep Jewish roots, and that typological modes of thought were a significant part of the Gospel’s historical and cultural background. He brings this insight to bear on four of the most dramatic miracles in Mark’s Gospel, discovering a surprisingly consistent typological approach.

Essential to Robinson’s argument is the discovery of distinctive words and phrases taken from the Septuagint, that serve as unique indicators of Mark’s intent to refer back to miracles from the Jewish scriptures, pointing to influence from the scriptural narratives of Jonah, David, Elisha and Moses. These references in turn provide insight into Mark’s Christology, revealing that Mark presents Jesus as the fulfilment of scriptural human types and yet also in the narrative form of Israel’s God. Robinson argues that rather than imposing categories constructed from early Jewish literature, like “divine identity” and “exalted human figures”, the Gospel of Mark should be allowed to speak with its own unique voice.

Jonathan Rivett Robinson is a Teaching Fellow for the Theology Programme of the University of Otago and an Adjunct Lecturer for Carey Baptist College, New Zealand.