St Mark's Gospel is among the earliest records about Jesus of Nazareth. This commentary focuses primarily on the problem of understanding what Mark himself intended to convey to his readers when he set out to write 'the good news of Jesus Christ'. There is an examination of information in the gospel about the historical Jesus, about the early Christian community and about Mark's theological concerns. There is, also, consideration of the sources for the Gospel, of the tradition behind it and of interventions by editors. Professor Hooker's new commentary takes account of the many lasted twentieth-century Markan studies and comes with her own translation of the Gospel. References to Greek sources are included but do not require a knowledge of Greek.