98 Eve-Marie Becker at least until Mk 6:29 (cf. also 8:28; 11:27ff.)45. Accordingly, the ‘erzählte Zeit’ in Mk 2:18-22 has to be dated within John’s imprisonment46. And Mk 6:17-29 does not act as a “Nachinformation” or “Rückblende”47, as scholars tend to claim. Both passages are, moreover, part of the con- temporaneously narrated sequence of events (“Ereignisfolge”)48 that is opened up in Mk 1:4. (4) We should be aware that the concept of a ‘Markan prologue’ in Mk 1:1-15 has significance for the overall interpretation of the Markan Gospel either as a biographical or a historiographical piece of ancient literature. If one defines Mk 1:1-15 as a specific literary unity in regard to the rest of the Gospel story, it does act as a diptychal narrative in- troduction, while the rest of the Gospel is purely concentrated on Jesus’ biography. Such a definition basically serves the idea of classifying the Markan Gospel as a biographical writing. However, if one sees already in Mk 1:4 the narrative beginning of the Gospel story, as I suggest, Mk 1:4ff. indicates that the Markan Gospel narrative is already from its beginning less interested in biography: It rather starts with a story of events (‘Ereignisgeschichte’) that is prelimi- nary to Jesus’ mission and somehow independent. Hence, this story is not primarily focused on Jesus’ life but on the ‘beginning and the history of the gospel’ (Mk 1:1): Accordingly, the Markan narration is rather histo- riographical than biographical in nature. There are some contemporary scholars like Joachim Gnilka49, Dieter Lührmann50, and Adela Collins, who avoid using the concept of a ‘pro- logue’: This hesitance shows that the term is not as certain and definite among Markan scholars, as Pesch once has stated. Thus, Mk 1:1-15 (1:1- 13) can neither be defined as a literary unity nor as a so-called ‘Markan prologue’. My thesis simply is to define Mk 1:1-3 as a prooemium and to see already Mk 1:4 as the initial point of the Gospel’s ‘Ereignisgeschichte’. 45 I have indicated this earlier within a narrative disposition of the Markan Gospel: Cf. E.-M. Becker, Das Markus-Evangelium im Rahmen antiker Historiographie (WUNT 194; Tübingen 2006) 423: 1. Hauptteil: Johannes der Täufer und Jesus (1,1-6,29) [1,1-3‚ Mk Proömium’] 1,4-14a Auftreten des Täufers 1,14b-6,13 Wirken Jesu in Galiläa 6,14-16 Johannes, Herodes und Jesus 6,17-29 Tod des Täufers 46 Cf. Becker, Markus-Evangelium, 227ff. 47 J. Gnilka, Das Evangelium nach Markus Bd.1 und 2 (EKK II/1; Neukirchen-Vluyn5 1998) 245; D. Lührmann, Das Markusevangelium (HNT 3; Tübingen 1987) 113. 48 Becker, Markus-Evangelium, 227. 49 Gnilka, Evangelium Bd. 1, 39 speaks of ’initium’ (1:1-15). 50 Lührmann, Markusevangelium, 31 speaks of „Der Beginn des Evangeliums“ (1:1-15).