With this study of the Gospel of Mark, Brendan Byrne completes his trilogy of works on the Synoptic Gospels. Mark, the "Cinderella gospel," as Byrne says, languished for millennia in the shadow of Matthew ("the first gospel") and Luke. Beginning in the nineteenth century, scholars uncovered what is now generally accepted as the more likely scenario: that Mark was the pioneer, creating a new literary genre ("gospel") in which to communicate the "Good News of Jesus Christ." This Good News according to Mark is essentially a message of freedom-a freedom, however, that does "not come about without cost: a cost to Jesus, a cost to the Father, and a cost to those called to associate themselves with his life and mission." Mark holds out to us both the price and the promise of freedom.

Brendan Byrne, SJ, is a professor of New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, within the United Faculty of Theology, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Romans (1996) in the Sacra Pagina series, Lifting the Burden: Reading Matthew's Gospel in the Church Today (2004), A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark's Gospel (2008), Life Abounding: A Reading of John's Gospel (2014), and The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke's Gospel (2015), published by Liturgical Press.