New Testament Commentaries: Mark

In the first installment of his two-volume commentary on Mark, New Testament scholar Joel Marcus recaptures the power of Mark's enigmatic narrative and capitalizes on its lively pace to lead readers through familiar and not-so-familiar episodes from the ministry of Jesus. As Marcus points out, the Gospel of Mark can be understood only against the backdrop of the apocalyptic atmosphere of the Jewish rebellions of 66-73 c.e., during which the Roman army destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem (70 c.e.). While the Jewish revolutionaries believed that the war was ?the beginning of the end? and that a messianic redeemer would soon appear to lead his people to victory over their human enemies (the Romans) and cosmic foes (the demons), for Mark the redeemer had already come in the person of Jesus. Paradoxically, however, Jesus had won the decisive holy-war victory when he was rejected by his own people and executed on a Roman cross. The student of two of this generation's most respected Bible scholars and Anchor Bible authors, Raymond E. Brown and J. Louis Martyn, Marcus helps readers understand the history, social customs, economic realities, religious movements, and spiritual and personal circumstances that made Jesus who he was. The result is a Bible commentary of the quality and originality readers have come to expect of the renowned Anchor Bible series. Challenging to scholars and enlightening to laypeople, Mark 1-8 is an invaluable tool for anyone reading the Gospel story.

"In this volume New Testament scholar Joel Marcus offers a new translation of Mark 8–16 as well as extensive commentary and notes. He situates the narrative within the context of first-century Palestine and the larger Greco-Roman world; within the political context of the Jewish revolt against the Romans (66–73 C.E.); and within the religious context of the early church’s sometimes rancorous engagement with Judaism, pagan religion, and its own internal problems. For religious scholars, pastors, and interested lay people alike, the book provides an accessible and enlightening window on the second of the canonical Gospels." Yale University Press

"In this new addition to the BECNT series, respected New Testament scholar Robert Stein offers a substantive yet highly accessible commentary on the Gospel of Mark. The commentary focuses primarily on the Markan understanding of the Jesus traditions as reflected in this key New Testament book. For each section in Mark, the author analyzes how it fits the immediate and larger context of the Gospel; offers verse-by-verse comments on the words, phrases, sentences, and themes found in the section; and explores what Mark is seeking to teach. As with all BECNT volumes, Mark features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text. It combines academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility to serve as a useful tool for pastors, church leaders, students, and teachers." -Baker Academic

"The last fifty years have seen a shift of emphasis in New Testament scholarship. When the task was to establish the text and to discuss the authenticity of the documents, linguistic and historical considerations came first. Now that these things are approaching a settled state it has become possible, and necessary, to give more attention to the theological and religious content of the New Testament. Hence the New Testament is re-examined by scholars in this new series. Each volume takes a book of the New Testament and, after an introduction on general matters, goes through the text in great detail, commenting especially on theological matters, relating the contents to the life and worship of the early Christian communities. It is assumed that students have their own Greek text beside the open commentary. The text on which the commentary is based is the Kilpatrick-Nestle edition." - CUP

""Though Mark's Gospel is the shortest Gospel in length, it is certainly not short in profound insights on the life and teaching of Our Lord. Mary Healy plumbs the depths and unwraps the riches of this Gospel for both the serious scholar and the novice alike in her easy-to-read and lucid style. With the incisiveness of a surgeon and the clarity of a scholar, she pulls back the curtain on the first century and the ministry of Jesus Christ. This commentary on Mark will fill an important place in my library!" -Steve Ray

"The Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series is the product of nearly 40 scholars, many of whom participated in the creation of the NLT. The contributors to this series, who are well-known and represent a wide spectrum of theological positions within the evangelical community, have built each volume to help pastors, teachers, and students of the Bible understand every thought contained in the Bible. In short, this will be one of the premier resources for those seeking an accessible but fairly high-level discussion of scriptural interpretation." - Tyndale Press

"This series is designed for those who know biblical languages. It is written primarily for the pastor and Bible teacher, not for the scholar. That is, the aim is not to review and offer a critique of every possible interpretation that has ever been given to a passage, but to exegete each passage of Scripture succinctly in its grammatical and historical context. Each passage is interpreted in the light of its biblical setting, with a view to grammatical detail, literary context, flow of biblical argument, and historical setting. While the focus will not be on application, it is expected that the authors will offer suggestions as to the direction in which application can flow." - Zondervan

"Professor Adela Yarbro Collins brings to bear on the text of the first Gospel the latest historical-critical perspectives, providing a full treatment of such controversial issues as the relationship of canonical Mark to the "Secret Gospel of Mark" and the text of the Gospel, including its longer endings. She situates the Gospel, with its enigmatic portrait of the misunderstood Messiah, in the context of Jewish and Greco-Roman literature of the first century. Her comments draw on her profound knowledge of apocalyptic literature as well as on the traditions of popular biography in the Greco-Roman world to illuminate the overall literary form of the Gospel. The commentary also introduces an impressive store of data on the language and style of Mark, illustrated from papyrological and epigraphical sources. Collins is in constructive dialogue with the wide range of scholarship on Mark that has been produced in the twentieth century. Her work will be foundational for Markan scholarship in the first half of the twenty-first century." - Fortress Press

"Journey inside the pages of Scripture to meet a personal God who enters individual lives and begins a creative work from the inside out. Shaped with the individual in mind, Immersion encourages simultaneous engagement both with the Word of God and with the God of the Word to become a new creation in Christ." - Abingdon Press

This was published in 1896 in the prestigious ICC series. Thus, while it is dated, many modern authors have been heavily influenced by the conclusions made in this commentary and thus it is worth browsing. This is a short blurb of a review when it was first published:
"The Gospel of Mark, while in comparison of less importance than Matthew or John, nevertheless presents a great opportunity for the commentator. Dr. Gould has in a large measure seen and fulfilled this opportunity. He has undoubtedly given us a commentary on Mark which surpasses all others, a thing which we have reason to expect will be true in the case of every volume of the series to which it belongs." - Clyde Weber Votaw

"Mark's 'biography' of Jesus is the earliest of the four gospels, and influenced them all. The distinctive feature of this biography is the quality of 'good news', which presupposes a world dominated by the forces of evil. John Painter shows how the rhetorical and dramatic shaping of the book emphasises the conflict of good and evil at many levels - between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, Jesus and the Roman authorities, and the conflict of values within the disciples themselves. These matters of content are integral to this original approach to Mark's theodicy, while the stylistic issue raises the question of Mark's intended readership." - Routledge

"Best contends that the Gospel stands between oral and written literature, the major literary influence on Mark was the Old Testament and the Gospel should be regarded as a whole, and not divided into sections." - T&T Clark

"This volume provides a comprehensive, accessible introduction to the Gospel of Mark, now widely considered the first recorded treatment of Jesus. Darrell Bock explains how this text, once the least-used gospel, came to be regarded as the starting point for understanding Jesus. Drawing together previous arguments and discussion in a constructive summary, he traces the significance of Mark and addresses key features such as its cultural and historical background, its narrative flow, and the role of Greek in supplying meaning. This commentary highlights the issues Mark's gospel raises and develops Mark's message surrounding Jesus' claims of kingdom authority and salvation, the call to disciples to follow him, and the preparation of those disciples to face suffering in light of their choice. Mark will be a valuable resource for students, teachers, and pastors alike." - CUP

"This widely praised commentary by William Lane shows Mark to be a theologian whose primary aim was to strengthen the people of God in a time of fiery persecution by Nero. Using redaction criticism as a hermeneutical approach for understanding the text and the intention of the evangelist, Lane considers the Gospel of Mark as a total literary work and describes Mark's creative role in shaping the Gospel tradition and in exercising a conscious theological purpose. Both indicating how the text was heard by Mark's contemporaries and studying Mark within the frame of reference of modern Gospel research, Lane's thoroughgoing work is at once useful to scholars and intelligible to nonspecialists." - Eerdmans

"Boring provides a helpful commentary—with historical introduction, interpretative outline, translation with explanatory notes, and full commentary—for students with limited resources for Mark. Writing always with an eye to theological concerns, Boring adapts the historical-critical commentary tradition literarily, primarily in the vein of narrative criticism, by focusing his comments as a “reading” of Mark. As a result, Mark’s (and Boring’s) reader is the most important character other than Jesus (and the narrator). To chart a way through Markan criticism, Boring, like his exemplar Mark, sometimes speaks rather imperatively, particularly when rejecting other readings of Mark as anachronistic moralisms, psychologizings, or universalizings. In their stead, Boring focuses on the narrative meaning of Mark’s particulars in Mark’s historical setting (65-75 CE). For that critical time, Mark offers his narrative (Christology), rejecting charismatic prophets who speak for the Lord and associate the destruction of the Temple and the parousia. For Mark, the end is not yet. Now is the time to follow Jesus “on the way (of the cross),” but also “on the way” of Isaiah’s new exodus. Mark employs the messianic secret to create his narrative and his divine and human Jesus. This structuring device allows him to adopt, without logically reconciling, the epiphany and kenosis christologies available to him." - Richard Walsh

"In this addition to the well-received Paideia series, Mary Ann Beavis examines cultural context and theological meaning in Mark. Paideia commentaries explore how New Testament texts form Christian readers by * attending to the ancient narrative and rhetorical strategies the text employs * showing how the text shapes theological convictions and moral habits * commenting on the final, canonical form of each New Testament book * focusing on the cultural, literary, and theological settings of the text * making judicious use of maps, photos, and sidebars in a reader-friendly format Students, pastors, and other readers will appreciate the insights that Beavis derives from interrogating the text through multiple perspectives." - Baker Academic

"Over the last several decades, the Jewishness of Jesus has been at the forefront of scholarship and students of the New Testament are more than ever aware of the importance of understanding Jesus and the Gospels in their Jewish context. Reading Mark in Context helps students see the contour and texture of Jesus' engagement with his Jewish environment. It brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast viewpoints, theologies, and hermeneutical practices of Mark and his various Jewish contemporaries. Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the context of Mark's theology and the nuances of his thinking. Following the narrative progression of Mark's Gospel, each chapter in this textbook (1) pairs a major unit of the Gospel with one or more sections of a thematically-related Jewish text, (2) introduces and explores the historical and theological nuances of the comparative text, and (3) shows how the ideas in the comparative text illuminate those expressed in Mark." - Zondervan

"In The Gospel of Mark Fathers Donahue and Harrington use an approach that can be expressed by two terms currently used in literary criticism: intratextuality and intertextuality. This intratextual and intertextual reading of Mark's Gospel helps us to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology. Includes an updated bibliography as an appendix. Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, is a professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and general editor of New Testament Abstracts. He is a past-president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America and is the author of The Gospel of Matthew and co-author of 1 Peter, Jude and 2 Peter in the Sacra Pagina series published by Liturgical Press. John Donahue, SJ, PhD, is the Raymond E. Brown Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore. He is the author of Life in Abundance: Studies of John's Gospel in Tribute to Raymond E. Brown, S.S., and Hearing the Word of God: Reflections on the Sunday Readings, Year A published by Liturgical Press." - Publisher

"Mark wrote his Gospel to explain why and how Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God who fulfills God's promises as he proclaims and embodies the coming kingdom of God. Mark emphasizes Jesus' authority and also his suffering and death as God's will for his messianic mission. This Tyndale New Testament commentary from Eckhard Schnabel seeks to help today's Christian disciples communicate the significance of Jesus and the transforming power of the good news. An exegetical commentary on the Gospel of Mark, this volume will be useful for preachers, Bible teachers, and non-specialists alike." - InterVarsity Press

This is volume 1 of a 2 volume set. Volume 2 can be found HERE"
"The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. " - Zondervan

"Concentrate on the biblical author's message as it unfolds. Designed to assist the pastor and Bible teacher in conveying the significance of God's Word, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series treats the literary context and structure of every passage of the New Testament book in the original Greek. With a unique layout designed to help you comprehend the form and flow of each passage, the ZECNT unpacks: The key message, the author's original translation, an exegetical outline, verse-by-verse commentary, and theology in application. While primarily designed for those with a basic knowledge of biblical Greek, all who strive to understand and teach the New Testament will benefit from the depth, format, and scholarship of these volumes." -Zondervan Academic