The Gospel of Mark pointedly opens with the statement, "the beginning of the gospel". This raises the question: What does 'the gospel' (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) mean to Mark? Traditionally, an explanation has been found in the so-called 'religious use' of the notion of the 'messenger on the mountain' in Isa 40:9 and 52:7, paving the way for an understanding of Jesus's death as a sin sacrifice connected to Isa 53. Under the influence of recent postcolonial and/or anti-imperial reading strategies, however, Mark's gospel notion has rather been understood as tailored to counter a Roman dressing of the emperor as 'gospels' to the world. Morten Horning Jensen re-investigates the entire concept of 'gospel' and concludes that Mark uses the concept to communicate the 'epoch-making victory' he finds to be the product of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
