11:1–13:37 Review · Stories of conflict in the temple in Jerusalem: Mark 11–16 is commonly called the “passion narrative,” the account of Jesus’s suffering and death in Jerusalem. In devoting fully one-third of his narrative to the final week of Jesus’s life, Mark indicates its importance for understanding Jesus and the gospel. All the material in Mark 11–13—and most of 14–15—is oriented around the focal point of the temple. Mark does not present Jesus as either a preserver or reformer of the temple, however, but as its replacement. The locus Dei—the dwelling place of God in the world—is no longer (and will never again be) the Jerusalem temple, but Jesus himself.

11:1-11 · Jesus begins his final week by making his way to the temple in Jerusalem (11:1–11). Unlike the modern road to Jerusa…