Michael J. Kok, The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century (Fortpress Press, 2015), 158-159. The John Mark of the book of Acts is a composite creation, the result of harmonizing the earlier accounts of Mark as a Pauline coworker and the later association of Mark with Peter. Like 1 Peter... Continue Reading →
In addition to my regular Bible reading schedule and my verse-by-verse translating of the Gospel of Mark, I've also been reading a Markan pericope a day each weekday. Today I was in Mark 14:43-52 and something struck me as really odd. Jesus is in Gethsemane (14:32-42) with a few of his sleepy disciples when Judas... Continue Reading →
Michael J. Kok, The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century (Fortress Press, 2015), 136. The Greek [of 1 Peter] is not the singular hindrance to Petrine authorship. It seems peculiar for the historical Cephas to address a predominantly non-Jewish audience and not broach the subject of Torah observance (cf. Gal... Continue Reading →
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, In the Company of Jesus: Characters in Mark's Gospel (Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 60. Within the Markan story, only the women follow Jesus to the end. At Gethsemane one of the twelve betrays Jesus (14:43-45) and the remaining eleven forsake him (14:50). The women, on the other hand, witness the crucifixion -... Continue Reading →
L. Michael White, Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite (HarperOne, 2010), 360. The Gospel of John thus represents a social situation of much greater separation of the Christian community from its Jewish neighbors. The theme of rejection of the message about Jesus has not been magnified into a total rejection of Jesus and the one sent from... Continue Reading →
And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41, NRSV) One of the themes of the Gospel of Mark is that the disciples simply don't get what's going on. In fact, they go from not understanding Jesus... Continue Reading →
John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 33. Intertextually two very strong Old Testament themes merge in the Gospel of Mark. One is that Jesus is the "suffering just one" who is "tested" by God (see Mark 1:12-13), suffers opposition from enemies, and is... Continue Reading →
John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 17. Mark writes about Jesus with a great human realism that Matthew and Luke often omit or tone down; see, for example, 1:41 (his compassion); 1:43 (strong displeasure); 6:5 (surprise at disbelief); 8:12 (deep sigh); 10:14 (indignation);... Continue Reading →
From Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, Press, 1994), 99-100. To further an understanding of Peter's "mourning" and "vision", reference should be made in this connection to investigations at Harvard into cases of mourning and the painful loss associated with them. The researcher followed forty-three widows and nineteen widowers through... Continue Reading →
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