Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross (2 vols.)
Overview
The fullest commentary ever to come out on the Gospel of Mark, this monumental work by Robert H. Gundry, reflecting years of painstaking scholarship, presents a well-argued alternative reading of the Greek text of Mark. Gundry turns from form and redaction criticism, both of which he considers largely inapplicable to Mark, to a very close reading of Mark's text as it stands — a reading that pays special attention to such literary devices as word order, chiasm, inclusion, asyndeton, and the historical present tense.
Driving the commentary is Gundry's provocative thesis that the Gospel of Mark constitutes a straightforward apology for the apparently shameful manner of Jesus' death; as such Mark is essentially an evangelistic tract rather than an obliquely written handbook of Christian discipleship and church life.
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- Discusses new literary critical arguments supporting the view that Mark did not originally end at 16:8
- Provides an extensive interaction with other interpretations and detailed discussions of authorship, date, etc.
- Presents a defense of the Papian tradition, including Mark as getting his materials from Peter
- The Commentary
- Excursus on 2:1–3:6
- Excursus on the Classes of the Sanhedrin with Reference to Jesus’ Passion
- Excursus on the Secret Gospel of Mark
- Excursus on the Chronology of Mark 11
- The Purpose of Mark
- The Origin of Mark’s Gospel
- The Outlining of Mark’s Gospel
- The Literary Genre of Mark’s Gospel
Top Highlights
“Mark’s meaning lies on the surface. He writes a straightforward apology for the Cross, for the shameful way in which the object of Christian faith and subject of Christian proclamation died, and hence for Jesus as the Crucified One.” (Page 1)
“‘And they found just as he had said’ indicates the fulfilment of both his predictions, details and all (for other occurrences of εὑρίσκω for finding Jesus’ statements or predictions to have come true, see 7:30; 11:2, 4).” (Page 822)
“Mark does not pit the suffering and death of Jesus against his successes, but that Mark pits the successes against the suffering and death, and then uses the passion predictions, writes up the passion narrative, and caps his gospel with a discovery of the empty tomb in ways that cohere with the success-stories, in ways that make the passion itself a success-story.” (Page 3)
“The fact that it is not his practice but the practice of his disciples that comes into question yet again makes the question not simply (and, so far as Mark is concerned, not mainly) one of the legitimacy of an action, but a question of Jesus’ authority: Does he have authority to let them pluck ears of grain on the Sabbath (cf. the comments on v 18)?” (Page 139)
“‘Boanerges, which means ‘Sons of Thunder.’ ’ Mark’s audacity in using the plural ‘names’ for a single name whose plural form merely enables it to cover both James and John (contrast the singularizing v.l. in B D 28 pc boms, which takes offense at this audacity) doubles the emphasis on Jesus’ authoritative act of renaming them.” (Page 166)
A major contribution to Markan scholarship . . . An indispensable resource for scholars, students, and pastors.
——John R. Kohlenberger III, lecturer, consultant, and adjunct instructor in Bible and biblical language, Multnomah Bible College and Western Seminary
No serious student of Mark dare neglect so important a book.... A full commentary on the text of the Gospel of Mark, expounding it in the light of a thesis which runs counter to much critical orthodoxy—namely, that the Gospel is a straightforward account of Jesus with an evangelistic purpose and is designed to overcome the scandal which the cross wrongly presented to unbelievers. The author is skeptical of many of the methods and conclusions of radical scholarship and argues for a presentation based on historical fact transmitted through Peter's reminiscences to John Mark. Based on the Greek text, the commentary contains an extraordinary abundance of detail and discussion of other points of view, yet it is written in an easy and readable style.
——I. Howard Marshall, emeritus professor of New Testament exegesis, University of Aberdeen
Gundry's independence and creativity show up throughout the work. He seems incapable of writing a page that is not provocative, and just the fact that his commentary includes numerous controversial judgments will affect the scholarly discussion in a fairly profound way. Yet this feature is not the result of haphazard, shotgun attempts at being original. On the contrary, Gundry has managed to present a coherent interpretation that obviously is based not on a selective handling of the data but on exhaustive research.... I hope that the volume will be widely recognized as the great success that it is.
——Moisés Silva, Westminster Theological Seminary
- Title: Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross
- Author: Robert Gundry
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2000
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 1124
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. N.T. Mark › Commentaries
- ISBNs: 9780802847904, 0802847900, 9780802829108, 9780802829115, 9780802836984, 0802829104, 0802829112, 0802836984
- Resource ID: LLS:MRKCMMHPLGYCRSS
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:36:28Z