Abstract
While some acknowledge that the context in which the ransom logion is given in Mark is one of instruction to the disciples, comments are often devoted to possible meanings of ransom as atonement with little reference to its implications for discipleship. The following study considers how the ransom logion’s sources and salvific import also inform what is required of disciples in Mark’s Gospel. In addition to being a clarification of Jesus’s messianic identity, the ransom logion speaks to the cost of discipleship through the intentional bracketing of motifs by the author in chs. 8–10. Like the exchange that Jesus makes, discipleship in Mark is considered a transaction by which disciples gain heavenly treasure beginning to be realized now in the community devoted to Jesus.
