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Category Archive: Bible - NT - Mark

Bread of angels - August 04, 2007
Davies and Allison point out in their commentary on Matthew that Mark uses the verb DIAKONEIN in 1:13 to describe the angel's ministry to Jesus after His temptation. The word connotes "table service," and they suggest that Jesus, hungered by...

Exhortation, Palm Sunday - April 09, 2006
What is the cross? For Mark, the cross is not so much Jesus' passive suffering as His last great act of power. While Matthew shows Jesus as the great teacher of Israel, Mark shows Jesus as a man of action....

Mark's Meta-Irony, 3 - February 20, 2006
The Romans were deeply anti-semitic, as a number of studies have shown. So, when they dress Jesus up in purple, press a crown of thorns on his head, genuflect before Him, they are mocking the Jews as much as they...

Simon and Simon - February 20, 2006
A number of students point out the contrast between Simon of Cyrene, who takes up Jesus' cross and follows Him, and Simon Peter, who denies Jesus out of fear. The Gentile Simon proves a more faithful disciple, in this moment...

Substitutionary Atonement - February 20, 2006
I'm sure the point has been made elsewhere, perhaps by Wright, but the substitution of Jesus for Barabbas is not only a sign of a generalized substitutionary atonement (though it is that); it is also a sign that Jesus is...

Mark's meta-irony, 2 - February 18, 2006
Some thoughts inspired by student papers on Mark 15: The most obvious Markan irony in chapter 15 is the fact that the Roman soldiers mock Jesus for being king of the Jews when He in fact is the king of...

Mark's Meta-Irony - February 14, 2006
Mark is known for the understated irony of his gospel, but there is a large-scale irony overarching the book that is worthy of Sophocles. Readers know from the first verse of the gospel that Jesus is Son of God, and...

Watts on Mark 1:1f - February 07, 2006
Rikki Watts offers some other dimensions to the quotation from Mark 1:1. He notes that Mark is quoting not only from Isaiah 40, but also from Exodus 23 and Malachi 3, and shows how these three texts overlay each other...

Judge Judged and Judging - January 19, 2006
Marcus shows that Daniel 7, cited in Mark 14:62, is lurking behind the trial narrative as a whole. Daniel 7 tells about judgment being passed against the bestial empires in favor of the people of the saints of the most...

Mark and Psalm 2 - January 19, 2006
Marcus notes that Mark's attention to Psalm 2 is not exhausted by quoting the words from heaven at Jesus' baptism: "the whole series of pericopes in 1:9-11, 12-13, 14-15 reflects the basic 'plot' of the psalm, and its influence may...

Way of Yahweh, Way of Jesus - January 19, 2006
Joel Marcus' study of Mark's use of Scripture (The Way of the Lord, W/JK, 1992) begins with an illuminating discussion of the opening verses of the gospel. The quotation from Isaiah brings the whole of Isaiah's second-exodus eschatology into play,...

Exhortation, March 20 - March 20, 2005
People often cling to familiar and comfortable things even when they know that clinging to the past will destroy them. Remember Lot�s wife: When fire falls from heaven and starts burning your town, that�s a strong hint it�s time to...

Sermon Outline, March 20 - February 19, 2005
Destroy this Temple, Mark 13:1-37 THE KING RETURNS Palm Sunday celebrates the king�s coming to His city. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as a king. -He requisitions a donkey, claiming it as Lord: �The Lord has need of...

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