John’s Interpretation of Mark

William B. Bowes explores the possibility that Mark's Gospel is John's primary source, arguing that John must be situated alongside other examples of ancient Jewish texts from his era which reuse and interpret earlier texts. He argues that John followed the example of authors of Jewish texts categorized as Rewritten Scripture, using earlier texts as sources and creatively reinterpreting them in light of later circumstances and more developed views. Bowes suggests that John offers a re-interpretation of Mark into a new context for new readers, and that John saw himself as spiritually qualified to provide this new interpretation.

After reviewing the current paradigms in John's use of Mark and discussing Jewish source reuse in antiquity, Bowes explores John as a rewritten text in a Jewish literary context. He compares passages from the text with corresponding texts: John the Baptist and Jubilees, the Temple disturbance with the Temple Scroll and the Temple Scroll, reworking Mark's multiplication alongside Genesis apocryphon, anointing with Philo's De Vita Mosis, and John alongside Josephus' Jewish Antiquities. Bowes thus fully situates John's Gospel within Jewish literary culture, arguing that John utilizes distinctively Jewish compositional practices and interpretive methods.