M. John-Patrick O'Connor proposes that - in contrast to recent contemporary scholarship that rarely focuses on the ethical implications of discipleship and Christology - Mark's Gospel, as our earliest life of Jesus, presents a theological description of the moral life.

Arguing for Mark's ethical validity in comparison to Matthew and Luke, O'Connor begins with an analysis of the moral environment of ancient biographies, exploring what types of Greco-Romanic conceptions of morality found their way into Hellenistic biographies, and what genres Mark employs. Turning to the Gospel's own examples of morality, O'Connor examines moral accountability according to Mark, including moral reasoning, the nature of a world in conflict, and accountability in both God's family and to God's authority, the accountable self according to Mark, and virtues and virtuous practices within the Gospel. O'Connor concludes with the personification of evil in Mark, human responsibility, punitive consequences and evil's role in Mark's moral landscape.