Mark (Believers Church Bible Commentary | BCBC)
Overview
The Believers Church Bible Commentary Series is published for all who seek more fully to understand the original message of Scripture and its meaning for today—Sunday school teachers, members of Bible study groups, students, pastors, and other seekers. The series is based on the conviction that God is still speaking to all who will listen, and that the Holy Spirit makes the Word a living and authoritative guide for all who want to know and do God’s will.
Each volume illuminates the Scriptures; provides historical and cultural background; shares necessary theological, sociological, and ethical meanings; and, in general, makes "the rough places plain." Critical issues are not avoided, but neither are they moved into the foreground as debates among scholars. The series aids in the interpretive process, but it does not attempt to supersede the authority of the Word and Spirit as discerned in the gathered church.
The Believers Church Bible Commentary is a cooperative project of Brethren in Christ Church, Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Brethren Church, and Mennonite Church.
Overall Outline
The commentaries are organized into sections according to the major divisions of the text. Each section comprises five parts:
- An introductory preview
- A summary outline of the section
- Explanatory notes
- The text in its biblical context
- The text in the life of the church
Mark
Timothy J. Geddert views Mark as a profound theologian and accomplished writer, not a mere compiler of traditions. Mark's text provokes careful reflection on its subtle and challenging message of hope and its call to faithfully follow Jesus on the way.
Mark's Gospel speaks plainly, yet sometimes in riddles, of God as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God. Mark presents God's reign, its present hiddenness and future glory, and its surprising way of coming. Mark is also about Jesus and his followers crossing barriers to pass God's grace on to those formerly excluded. Mark's resurrection message is open-ended. Readers supply their own ending, not just in words, but by following their resurrected Lord.
Includes essays on themes useful for teaching, preaching, and Bible study; bibliographies; charts; two maps; and an index of ancient sources.
Top Highlights
“For the average first-century Jew, the title Christ (Messiah) meant a great political ruler, the expected coming king from the line of David. These associations triggered thoughts of political liberation from Rome, with freedom and prosperity for national Israel. Suffering and death would not fit into the picture. Son of God, especially for Gentile readers, would raise expectations of a great miracle-worker, a link between heaven and earth, one who appears human but is really one with God (or the gods). Again, the idea of suffering and death would be absent.” (Page 30)
“I hold (along with almost all modern scholars) that Matthew and Luke both wrote their Gospels after the Gospel of Mark and used Mark as a source, rather than vice versa.” (Page 20)
“These miracles combine to show what can (and must) happen to the disciples” (Page 189)
“The disciples also need hearing ears and seeing eyes” (Page 189)
“Accepting God’s reign by following this Messiah means self-sacrifice, servanthood, humility, standing with the weak, and rejecting the power-hungry and glory-seeking ways of the world. It means allegiance to a Messiah who will suffer and die. It means living by the values of the coming kingdom, where God’s thoughts, not human thoughts, determine what is right.” (Page 23)
I warmly recommend Geddert's commentary. It expresses outstanding scholarship with utter simplicity and clarity. A superb guide, explaining Mark in its first-century setting and interpreting its meaning for today.
—I. Howard Marshall, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
- Title: Mark
- Author: Timothy J. Geddert
- Publisher: Herald Press
- Publication Date: 2001
- Pages: 456
