This is the first English translation of a text that Cahill identifies as the first formal commentary on Mark's gospel. Probably written in Ireland in the first half of the seventh century, the commentary was for almost 1000 years attributed to St. Jerome and as such exercised incalculable influence on subsequent commentary, including Aquinas's Catena Aurea. This translation will make this unique text available to readers who do not know Latin and will serve as an invaluable introduction to late patristic and early medieval biblical exegesis.

Adding to the interest in early medieval biblical exegesis, Michael Cahill has produced an edited translation of the first full-length continuous Markan commentary, The First Commentary on Mark: An Annotated Translation, 1998. In his helpful introduction, Cahill describes the work as a running commentary that does not quote the Markan text in full nor does it touch on every issue. The editor showed caution in issues pertaining to authorship and provenance. Cahill s translation will aid the scholarship of the history of biblical interpretation and the history of the Markan gospel. For a fuller review, see my review in Church History, June, 99, Vol. 68, Issue 2. ( )