BRF - Dick France
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Betrayal & Arrest
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Betrayal & Arrest
by BRF - Dick France
Betrayal and Arrest The arrest of Jesus is carried out by an armed ‘crowd’, not specifically described as either soldiers or police, but sent out with the authority of ‘the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders’. Mark has used this full listing of the component groups of the…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Gethsemane
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Gethsemane
by BRF - Dick France
Gethsemane Here we are on holy ground, privileged to join Peter, James and John in sharing one of the most poignant and personal moments in Jesus’ life on earth. More than once Mark has told us about Jesus praying, but now we come closer and hear the actual words of the Son of Go…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Trouble Ahead
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Trouble Ahead
by BRF - Dick France
A DEMONSTRATION in the TEMPLE Mark has carefully interwoven two themes here, as the scene shifts repeatedly between the temple and a fig tree on the Bethany road, thus: Verse 11, temple; verses 12–14, fig tree; verses 15–19, temple; verses 20–25, fig tree; verse 27, temple (which…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Startling Symbolism
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Startling Symbolism
by BRF - Dick France
STARTLING SYMBOLISM The Passover meal consisted of a series of courses interspersed by cups of wine (four in all), and for each course and each cup there were appropriate words of blessing and explanation repeated by the head of the family. Jesus, as head of the ‘family’ of his d…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Priests & Judas Iscariot
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Priests & Judas Iscariot
by BRF - Dick France
The PRIESTS & JUDAS ISCARIOT We have had plenty of indications of how the religious authorities are reacting to Jesus. Even as far back as 3:6 they were plotting his death. Now he is in Jerusalem, within their grasp, and the time has come…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Woman To Be Remembered
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Woman To Be Remembered
by BRF - Dick France
A TELLING CONTRAST In these verses a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of the religious professionals is followed by an example of true piety. But the example is not of a prominent religious figure, but of a poor widow whom everyone (and especially the scribes?) would overlook. Tr…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Telling Contrast
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Telling Contrast
by BRF - Dick France
A TELLING CONTRAST In these verses a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of the religious professionals is followed by an example of true piety. But the example is not of a prominent religious figure, but of a poor widow whom everyone (and especially the scribes?) would overlook. Tr…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Demonstration in the Temple
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Demonstration in the Temple
by BRF - Dick France
A DEMONSTRATION in the TEMPLE Mark has carefully interwoven two themes here, as the scene shifts repeatedly between the temple and a fig tree on the Bethany road, thus: Verse 11, temple; verses 12–14, fig tree; verses 15–19, temple; verses 20–25, fig tree; verse 27, temple (which…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Arrival of the King
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Arrival of the King
by BRF - Dick France
The ARRIVAL of the KING Passover time It is important to remember that in the week or two leading up to Passover large numbers of pilgrims would be arriving in Jerusalem, which at this time of the year had to accommodate something like six times its normal population. Jesus and h…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Veil Is Drawn Aside
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Veil Is Drawn Aside
by BRF - Dick France
The VEIL is DRAWN ASIDE There is a further possible meaning of Jesus’ puzzling saying in verse 1 about seeing that the kingdom of God has come with power. For ‘some’ (only three) of those who heard it would indeed have a more immediate vision of power and glory, a foretaste of wh…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Ultimate Realities
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Ultimate Realities
by BRF - Dick France
ULTIMATE REALITIES Gaining and losing Verses 35–37 are hard to translate, since the same Greek word, here translated by ‘life’ (but sometimes also by ‘soul’), means both the fact of being physically alive and not dead and also the real self which is far more than physical life an…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Dose of Cold Water
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - A Dose of Cold Water
by BRF - Dick France
A DOSE of COLD WATER The command to maintain silence must have been deflating enough, but what follows is far harder to take. The martyrdom of the Son of man The exciting title ‘Messiah’ is immediately dropped, and Jesus speaks of himself, as he usually does, as the ‘Son of man’.…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Peter Declares his Faith
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Peter Declares his Faith
by BRF - Dick France
PETER DECLARES his FAITH Caesarea Philippi is the most northerly point of Jesus’ journeys, in a remote non-Jewish area in the foothills of the Mount Hermon range. He takes his disciples not to the town itself but into the countryside, and the whole focus of this part of the story…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Food for the Gentiles too
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Food for the Gentiles too
by BRF - Dick France
FOOD for the GENTILES TOO Why another impromptu feast? Only a page or two ago Mark has told a story of the miraculous feeding of a large crowd of men. Now he tells another story, similar in general outline, but different in detail, particularly in the numbers (4,000 people instea…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Setting the Scene
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Setting the Scene
by BRF - Dick France
SETTING the SCENE ‘The wilderness’, mentioned four times in verses 1–13 and never again in Mark’s Gospel, is a pointer to the different focus in these introductory paragraphs. They are set not among human society in Galilee or Judea, but in the uninhabited land around the Jordan.…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Mark's gospel A Drama in Three Acts
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Mark's gospel A Drama in Three Acts
by BRF - Dick France
MARK’S GOSPEL- A DRAMA in THREE ACTS After a prologue which sets the scene, Mark’s story unfolds in three main sections, each of which has a distinct geographical setting: 1:1–13 Prologue (set in ‘the wilderness’) 1:14—8:21 Act 1: Galilee 8:22—10:52 …
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - PBC Mark: Introduction