Marking the End

J. Lee Magness offers a fresh literary analysis of the suspended ending to the second gospel. In the course of Mark's study, the author describes how open endings have been interpreted by modern literary theory and, secondly, how such endings have been used in ancient literary and biblical texts. A close rereading of Mark concludes the study, in which Magness offers the thesis that Mark's sense of absence encourages his readers to make sense of that absence for themselves in a positive and powerful way.