Reading Mark

by Sharyn Dowd

Publisher:

Smyth & Helwys

, 2000

Overview

Sharyn Dowd examines the Gospel of Mark from literary and theological perspectives, suggesting what the text may have meant to its first-century audience of Gentile and Jewish Christians. Dowd sees the gospel of Mark as a Greco-Roman biography written in an apocalyptic mode, its theology based on the message of the prophet Isaiah—the proclamation of release from bondage and a march toward freedom along the “way of the Lord.”

Contents

Top Highlights

“Rather, this story will unfold as an interpretation of the gospel according to Isaiah: the one God who reigns over all the nations has anointed a warrior-king to lead God’s captive people, both Jews and gentiles, out of bondage into freedom.” (Page 9)

“Both tree and temple are condemned for their failure to manifest the signs of God’s reign. The withering of the fig tree prefigures the destruction of the temple by the Romans—an event in the Markan Jesus’ future but in the Markan church’s present.” (Page 119)

“Taken together, the two panels demonstrate Jesus’ power over illness and demonic oppression and his authority to teach, to forgive sins, and to reinterpret scripture.” (Page 16)

“Since the women do not obey the young man’s command within the story, the audience is left with the responsibility to pick up the baton that the women seem to have dropped. If anyone is to go and tell about the resurrection, if anyone is to meet Jesus in the various Galilees where people need healing, deliverance, and good news, there would seem to be no one left to do those things except the audience.” (Page 170)

“This may suggest that the number twelve was important for symbolic reasons, but that the exact identification of these people was not so important.” (Page 32)

Praise for the Print Edition

Though Sharyn Dowd’s Reading Mark admirably lives up to its subtitle, A Literary and Theological Commentary, it also shows surprising strength—especially for a commentary of limited length—in Jewish and especially Greco-Roman cultural background. Dowd puts this information to excellent interpretive use. Nor does she disappoint in tracing the flow of Mark’s narrative and bringing to light his concentric and chiastic arrangements of material. Regardless of one’s agreement or disagreement with her interpretation, Reading Mark not only makes Mark more readable, but also proves itself to be highly readable.

—Robert H. Gundry, Scholar in Residence, Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, Westmont College

Product Details

• Title: Reading Mark
• Author: Sharyn Dowd
• Series: Reading the New Testament Commentary Series
• Publisher: Smyth & Helwys
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 171

About Sharyn Dowd

Sharyn Dowd is an associate professor of religion at Baylor University. She received a B.A. from Wake Forest University, an M. Div. from The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Emory University. She served six years on the staff of First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., coordinating inner-city ministry and outreach programs. She taught New Testament and Greek at Lexington Theological Seminary from 1987-1999, and joined the Baylor faculty in 1999. She has contributed to Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, The Women’s Bible Commentary and Mercer Commentary on the Bible, and is the author of Prayer, Power, and the Problem of Suffering.