Mark for All Christians? The Theological Implications of Audience

This essay considers the theological implications of “audience criticism,” the widely held hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was written to address the needs of a specific audience, and not, as Richard Bauckham has argued, with a general audience of all “Christians” in mind. The “all-Christians” hypothesis has generally been embraced by evangelical scholars, but less so by non-evangelicals. In agreement with Adele Reinhartz, I find an unstated theological premise underlying Bauckham’s argument, which is that the focus on Gospel audiences detracts from their witness to Christ. After consideration of references to the Marcan audience within the text and scholarly reconstructions of the Marcan community in space and time, I consider the theological implications of audience in light of the ancient doctrine of the communion of saints, with particular reference to the so-called “minor characters” of the gospel, some of whom, I cautiously suggest, were modeled on members of the Marcan community/communion.