Search Results
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
by BRF - Dick France
From the Least to the Greatest Mustard Seed Mustard seed is proverbially tiny (see Matthew 17:20), and yet it produces ‘the greatest of all shrubs’. This is not, of course, the puny ‘mustard-and-cress’ that we grow in little plastic boxes, but a garden herb which in Palestine com…
Mark The People's bible commentary - Golgotha
Mark The People's bible commentary - Golgotha
by BRF - Dick France
GOLGOTHA Crucifixion was a particularly cruel form of execution reserved normally for slaves and for political insurgents. The Roman writer Cicero called it ‘the most cruel and revolting punishment’ and the Jew Josephus called it ‘the most pitiable of deaths’. A crucified person …
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 - The Fruitless Fig Tree
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Fruitless Fig Tree
by BRF - Dick France
The FRUITLESS FIG TREE A pointless display of power? Interwoven with Jesus’ attack on the traders in the temple is the story of his cursing and destruction of a fig tree because it had no fruit. Jesus’ other miracles save life and restore health, but this one seems quite out of c…
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 - 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 - Mark's gospel A Drama in Three Acts