When we study the Gospel According to Saint Mark, declares Dr. Barclay, we study the most important book in the New Testament, for in it we have the first life of Jesus ever to be written, the one on which all other accounts are based. In his introduction, Dr. Barclay explains why the first three Gospel are called synoptic, how the came to be written, and how scholars have concluded that Mark was the first. Touching on Mark's own life, he discusses the rift that Mark occasioned between Paul and Barnabas, Mark's sources of information about Jesus, the characteristics of his Gospel writing, and the mystery of the lost ending.