Mark (Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament)
Overview
In this volume, Mary Ann Beavis examines cultural context and theological meaning in Mark. Students, pastors, and other readers will appreciate the insights that Beavis derives from interrogating the text through multiple perspectives. Students, pastors, and other readers will also appreciate the historical, literary, and theological insight offered in this practical commentary. This commentary, like each in the Paideia series, approaches each text in its final, canonical form, proceeding by sense units rather than word-by-word or verse-by-verse. Each sense unit is explored in three sections: (1) introductory matters, (2) tracing the train of thought, (3) key hermeneutical and theological questions.
- Examines cultural context and theological meaning
- Discusses theological issues raised by the text
- Provides notes, outlines, images, and tables
Top Highlights
“However, the saying should be interpreted not anachronistically, in terms of notions of free will and predestination, but as an assurance that the divine purpose will be done despite (or even by means of) human obduracy and error.” (Page 81)
“His faith that ‘all things are possible’ with God (9:23; 10:27; 14:36; cf. 11:24) is confronted by the reality that God’s will is for him to suffer and die. Jesus models a faith that is not a facile ‘You can do miracles if you believe,’ but a self-surrender to God, an act of free will ‘bound up with responsibility and love, … interested in the preservation of life’ (Moltmann-Wendell 2001, 31), a life ‘poured out for many’ (Mark 11:24; cf. 10:45).” (Page 236)
“As Ira Brent Driggers (2007, 11) has perceptively noted, while Jesus is the main character of the Gospel, God is the main actor. Although Jesus is the character in Mark who aligns most closely with the will of God (3:35), even he finds the demands placed on him by divine destiny hard to bear (e.g., 14:35–36).” (Page 20)
“Initially the focus of redaction criticism was on distinguishing between editorial input and pre-Gospel material, but it soon became apparent that the evangelists were not just transmitters of tradition but also authors in their own right.” (Page 5)
“Gerasa was one of the cities of the Decapolis (5:20), distinguished by political, social, cultural, and religious affinities with Greco-Roman culture (Mare 2000, 334).” (Page 93)
Beavis brings to this commentary ample familiarity with the text of Mark and with ancient literature more broadly. Balanced in judgment and offering numerous astute observations, this work should prove highly useful, especially to serious readers seeking a reliable introduction and companion for their study of Mark’s account of Jesus’ ministry.
—Larry W. Hurtado, professor of New Testament language, literature, and theology, New College, University of Edinburgh
While deftly drawing on patterns of Greek tragedy to illuminate Mark's Gospel, this commentary is a marvelous triumph! Thoroughly engaged with ancient sources and contemporary scholarship, Beavis offers a historically rich, literarily astute, and theologically sensitive exposition of Mark, chock-full of valuable information and insight for a wide range of readers. This work provides an immensely satisfying guidebook through Mark's narrative for both introductory and more advanced students.
—F. Scott Spencer, professor of New Testament and preaching, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
In this new commentary on Mark, Mary Ann Beavis focuses on the story told by the evangelist and what it would have meant for its earliest hearers. Building on her previous work on the Gospel, she concentrates on the 'narrative flow' as she traces the way in which Mark's story develops as a story in five acts. Students just beginning their exploration of the Gospel will find this commentary especially useful, but every reader is certain to find in it something new and illuminating.
—Morna D. Hooker, Lady Margaret's Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge
- Title: Mark
- Author: Mary Ann Beavis
- Series: Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2012
- Pages: 336
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. N.T. Mark › Commentaries
- ISBNs: 9781441251282, 9780801034374, 1441251286, 080103437, 080103437X
- Resource ID: LLS:PAIDEIA62MK
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-05T17:08:54Z