This year [2026] William Wrede’s epoch-making book Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien. Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verständnis des Markusevangeliums (The Messianic Secret in the Gospels: At the Same Time a Contribution to the Understanding of the Gospel of Mark) celebrates its one-hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary. In 1906, the year of Wrede’s untimely death, Albert Schweitzer designated the tome as the end-point in modern life of Jesus research and in 1919 Rudolf Bultmann described it as methodologically honest, exemplary, and in no way dated. The methodological significance of the work, which continues to engage biblical and theological scholarship, lies in its distinction between a Gospel’s literary character and the historical value of its most ancient traditions. … Download PDF to read more