The African Memory of Mark: Reassesing Early Church Tradition

A delightful little volume arrived in the mail last week thanks to the kindness of IVP Academic titled The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition.

The back cover asserts

We often regard the author of the Gospel of Mark as an obscure figure about whom we know little. Many would be surprised to learn how much fuller a picture of Mark exists within widespread African tradition, tradition that holds that Mark himself was from North Africa, that he founded the church in Alexandria, that he was an eyewitness to the Last Supper and Pentecost, that he was related not only to Barnabas but to Peter as well and accompanied him on many of his travels.

The blurb, however, doesn’t do justice to the volume.   Nor does its table of contents (which you can see at the link above and which I shan’t here repeat).   It hardly expresses the importance of the work nor the fact that it is one of those rare books in the field of biblical studies or church history or theology that actually teaches readers something new and interesting.

Oden’s book is meticulously researched and his opinion that modern scholars are so taken with the mindset of the historical-critical method that they find it nearly impossible to trust even reliable sources is actually quite true.  Skepticism is the hallmark of much biblical research and I confess that it was with skepticism that I approached this volume.  After all, the very idea that we can know as much about the author of the Gospel of Mark as Oden purports is on the face of it absurd.  And from a non-Western, African point of view?  It seems very unlikely.

But here is precisely where the book becomes so important.  It broadens perspectives and opens vistas which many researchers hold to heart to their own harm.

Is Oden correct to take African tradition as seriously as he does?  I don’t think so.  But whether he’s right or wrong isn’t the treasure to be found in this pearl of great price, it’s the journey he takes readers on to a place they most likely have never been.

I for one am grateful.  Genuinely and authentically grateful for a book such as this.  Whatever your methodological perspective, this book has much to teach.  If you want to learn, you’ll read it.  I’m glad I did even though I was apprehensive and skeptical at the start and finish of it.