Mark 1–8 (Anchor Yale Bible Commentary | AYBC)

by Joel Marcus

Publisher:

Yale University Press

, 2008

Overview

Although it appears second in the New Testament, Mark is generally recognized as the first Gospel to be written. Captivating non-stop narrative characterizes this earliest account of the life and teachings of Jesus. In the first installment of his two volume commentary on Mark, New Testament scholar Joel Marcus recaptures the power of Mark’s enigmatic narrative and capitalizes on its lively pace to lead readers through familiar and not-so-familiar episodes from the ministry of Jesus.

As Marcus points out, the Gospel of Mark can only be understood against the backdrop of the apocalyptic atmosphere of the Jewish rebellion of 66–73 AD, during which the Roman army destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. While the Jewish revolutionaries believed that the war was “the beginning of the end” and that a messianic redeemer would soon appear to lead his people to victory over their human enemies (the Romans) and cosmic foes (the demons), for Mark the redeemer had already come in the person of Jesus. Paradoxically, however, Jesus had won the decisive holy-war victory when he was rejected by his own people and executed on a Roman cross.

The student of two of this generation’s most respected Bible scholars, Raymond E. Brown and J. Louis Martyn, Marcus helps readers understand the history, social customs, economic realities, religious movements, and spiritual and personal circumstances that made Jesus who he was. Challenging to scholars and enlightening to lay people, Mark 1–8 is an invaluable tool for anyone reading the Gospel story.

Logos Bible Software gives you the tools you need to use this volume effectively and efficiently. With your digital library, you can search for verses, find Scripture references and citations instantly, and perform word studies. Along with your English translations, all Scripture passages are linked to Greek and Hebrew texts. What’s more, hovering over a Scripture reference will instantly display your verse! The advanced tools in your digital library free you to dig deeper into one of the most important contributions to biblical scholarship in the past century!

Key Features

• Offers original translations, including alternative translations, annotations, and variants
• Provides verse-by-verse commentary on the text
• Presents the reader with historical background, including analysis of authorship and dating
• Features an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature

Contents

• The Markan Prologue (Mark 1:1–15)
  • The Beginning of the Good News (1:1–3)
  • The Ministry of John the Baptist (1:4–8)
  • The Baptism of Jesus (1:9–11)
  • Jesus in the Wilderness (1:12–13)
  • Jesus’ Inaugural Preaching (1:14–15)
• First Major Section (Mark 1:16–3:6)
  • The Honeymoon Period (Mark 1:16–45)
  • The Opposition Asserts Itself (Mark 2:1–3:6)
• Second Major Section (Mark 3:7–6:6a)
  • The Spreading Impact of Jesus (3:7–12)
  • The Commissioning of the Twelve (3:13–19)
  • Which Side Is Jesus On? (3:20–35)
  • The Parabolic Discourse about the Dominion of God (Mark 4:1–34)
• Third Major Section (Mark 6:6b–8:21)
  • The Disciples Are Sent out on a Missionary Journey (6:6b–13)
  • The Martyrdom of John the Baptist (6:14–29)
  • Jesus Feeds Five Thousand Men (6:30–44)
  • Jesus Walks on the Sea (6:45–52)
  • More and More Healings (6:53–56)
  • Jesus Argues with the Pharisees about Scripture and Tradition (7:1–15)
  • What Really Defiles a Person (7:17–23)
  • Jesus Grants a Gentile Woman’s Request for Healing (7:24–30)
  • Jesus Heals a Deaf-Mute (7:31–37)
  • Wilderness Feeding, Testing, and Incomprehension (8:1–21)

Top Highlights

“Although Mark’s ‘Son of Man’ concept is probably not a polemic against Christian opponents, it may reflect another sort of polemic: one against the Jewish zealots whose revolutionary activity and theology form the probable background to the Gospel’s composition.” (Page 532)

“Pastors who counsel such troubled souls that, if they are worried about having blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, they probably have not done so, have good biblical grounds for their position. In the Markan context blasphemy against the Spirit means the sort of total, malignant opposition to Jesus that twists all the evidence of his life-giving power into evidence that he is demonically possessed (see 3:22, 30); those guilty of such blasphemy would not be overly concerned about having committed it. This charge that Jesus is demon-possessed is ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’ because, in Mark’s view, the true source of Jesus’ exorcistic and miracle working power is not an unclean spirit but the Holy Spirit, the power of God’s new age.” (Page 284)

“In Mark’s mind, therefore, the situation before the advent of the royal power of God (cf. 1:15) is not one in which royal rule is absent from the world but one in which the world is ruled by Satan. As Davies and Allison comment (2.336): ‘Over against the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Satan.’” (Page 273)

“Mark does not identify the exorcism as a teaching so as to deemphasize miracle in favor of teaching. Mark’s summary passages, as a matter of fact, put great emphasis on exorcism (1:34; 3:11; cf. also 3:15; 6:7), and he has deliberately placed a dramatic exorcism near the start of the first major section of his Gospel; see the introduction to the COMMENT.” (Page 189)

Product Details

• Title: Mark 1–8
• Author: Joel Marcus
• Series: Anchor Yale Bible (AYB)
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 592

About Joel Marcus

Joel Marcus teaches New Testament with an emphasis on the Gospels and the context of early Christianity in first-century Judaism. His publications include two monographs on Mark and the first part of a two-volume commentary on the same Gospel in the Anchor Bible series (Doubleday, 2000, 2009). His current research focuses on the parting of the ways between ancient Judaism and the Christianity of the first three centuries A.D.