The Gospel of Mark
I’m currently preaching on Mark’s Gospel, but I’m a bit behind in blogging all the stuff I’ve wanted to from my study in this Gospel. Here’s a first step toward catching up.
What are the best commentaries on Mark? Well, frankly, most evangelical commentaries say pretty much the same thing. I’ve found some helpful stuff in William Lane and some in R. T. France (especially the stuff that he footnotes and argues against; often it’s pretty good!).
But what stands out? As Jeff Meyers noted in one of his lectures at the recent Christ Church Ministerial Conference, the best commentaries are the postmodern ones. They’re the ones that treat the Gospel as a literary unit and pay attention to the literary features of the text.
I agree: There’s some very stimulating stuff in Jerry Camery-Hoggatt’s Irony in Mark’s Gospel and in John Paul Heil’s The Gospel of Mark as a Model for Action. Occasionally, Bas van Iersel’s Mark: A Reader-Response Commentary has been useful.
Austin Farrer’s A Study in Saint Mark is fascinating and indispensable, even if you end up disagreeing with him at several points (as I do). Jeff Meyers‘s lectures on the theology of Mark, given at the 1997 Biblical Horizons Conference are well worth listening to. Mark Horne‘s The Victory According to Mark draws on Farrer and Meyers significantly; it’s a must-have. Tom Wright’s little Mark for Everyone is sometimes helpful, but what you really must read is his Jesus and the Victory of God.
I have other commentaries and I do look through them, but these are the ones I’ve found most helpful so far.