Book excerpt: Through the use of current intertextual methods and narrative criticism, this book offers a fresh examination of the Son of Man in Mark, developing the conclusions of Morna Hooker's 1967 work, The Son of Man in Mark: A Study of the Background of the Term "Son of Man" and Its Use in St. Mark's Gospel. Contrary to recent scholarship that argues Mark's Son of Man does not make any thematic or christological contribution to the Gospel and/or that the OT background of the Son of Man phrase is irrelevant, this work demonstrates that the Son of Man, when examined in light of Daniel 7, advances one of Mark's major themes: the transition of the locus of Yahweh's saving presence from the Jerusalem temple to a new covenant community that is not only founded on the Son of Man's sacrificial death but also is vindicated at his coming in the heavenly temple.