Mark

Saint Andrews Expositional Commentary #2

by R.C. Sproul

Mark, the fifth volume in the series, is a study of the gospel of Mark, which is generally regarded as the first account of Jesus' life and work that was written. There is broad agreement that it was written by John Mark, one of the apostle Paul's companions and missionary helpers. The book puts particular focus on Jesus as the Son of God. It is thought that the book was written to encourage the believers in Rome during the times of the Emperor Nero's persecutions. The book includes sixty-two chapters, each of which began as a St. Andrew's sermon. Dr. Sproul deals with major themes as he moves through the book passage by passage. Though the book is an "expositional commentary"-that is, it does not deal with each and every verse-it unpacks key ideas in Dr. Sproul's easily understandable style. Readers will find invaluable insights into the goals Mark had in writing his gospel, the background for Jesus' time, and the meanings of some of Mark's most difficult passages.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christianity, Nonfiction, New Testament, Reference, Religion

430 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2011

About the author

Dr. R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, an international Christian discipleship organization located near Orlando, Fla. He was founding pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.

Ligonier Ministries began in 1971 as the Ligonier Valley Study Center in Ligonier, Pa. In an effort to respond more effectively to the growing demand for Dr. Sproul’s teachings and the ministry’s other educational resources, the general offices were moved to Orlando in 1984, and the ministry was renamed.

Dr. Sproul’s radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. Dr. Sproul produced hundreds of lecture series and recorded numerous video series on subjects such as the history of philosophy, theology, Bible study, apologetics, and Christian living.

He contributed dozens of articles to national evangelical publications, spoke at conferences, churches, and academic institutions around the world, and wrote more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone’s a Theologian. He signed the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and wrote a commentary on that document. He also served as general editor of the Reformation Study Bible, previously known as the New Geneva Study Bible.

Dr. Sproul had a distinguished academic teaching career at various colleges and seminaries, including Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and Jackson, Miss. He was ordained as a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.

Reviews

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

These commentaries from RC Sproul are one of my favorite ways to study a book of the Bible. He does such a good job of expounding on each chapter in the book of Mark in this book. Many of the chapters are broken down into two or more "messages" as they are based on sermons RC has delivered to his congregation. When reading or hearing RC speak about a passage in the Bible I come away with a nugget of information that I had not been exposed to previously or had not connected the dots before.
One of my favorites in Mark was his chapter on the Triumphal Entry. Jesus entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives where the spirit of God had gone to rest after deserting the temple in Jerusalem.
Love the ways RC shows us the connections between the Old and New Testament in so many ways. This volume and others in the series are HIGHLY recommended.

[Lydia Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great commentary on the book of Mark. My dad highly respected R.C. Sproul, and after reading this I can see why. He offers a lot of great insights/details into this short Gospel. I now realize how important the book of Mark is. Definitely worth reading!

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is much information in this book that years of preachers never preach and sheep miss the biblical meanings of scripture. Highly recommend for any studier for the Word of God.

[Justin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A faithful commentary on the Gospel of Mark. Christ is King 🙌🏻

[Carrie Brownell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a little bit of time on this one but that's as I meant it. Last year I went through Sproul's commentary on Matthew and this year was Mark. Bet ya can't guess next year's read. ;)

I love the short chapters which provide burst of wisdom and insight on the scriptures.

[Cameron Barham]

“…Scripture gives us a portrait of the cosmic Christ, the One who, along with the Father and the Spirit, was responsible for the creation of the universe, and who possesses the power to calm chaos wherever He encounters it.”, p. 99

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great as a daily devotional - easy to read, insightful, classic Sproul.

[Tyler Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good commentary from Sproul, per usual. Listening to him speak on Jesus’ parables and stories from His life is so enriching… sometimes more enriching than listening to him just speak on doctrine for 35 minutes. I think I like this one better than his series on Luke.

Three more to go: Galatians, Matthew (scary), then Romans.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this commentary. I do wish that it had been a little more in-depth though. It is essentially distilled sermons from R.C. Sproul' s career in ministry. This is not made apparent until you are actually reading the book so I was unaware until I got into it that it was not exactly what I was looking for. Sproul divvies up Mark into very small sections and expounds on them. It made a good daily devotional and he includes the applicable verses in the book so you don't have to use both your Bible and his commentary (which is nice if you are reading it on the couch, like me, and not at a desk/table). Easy to read and follow, but Sproul does give you Greek and Hebrew words and translations which I valued. I would recommend this for someone who wants a deeper understanding of Mark's gospel but isn't looking to be a student.

[Jo Burl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sproul does it again

RC has a great gift for teaching. Every time I read one of his books I come away with greater understanding.
I chose to do a slow study of the Gospel of Mark because, I confess to my shame, it has always seemed like an unnecessary book to me and was my least favorite Gospel. So I purchased this book along with Let’s Study Mark by Sinclair Ferguson and took a year and half to go through Mark, studying and pondering this Gospel.
I discovered I couldn’t have been more wrong in my thinking. These two authors helped me to see the beauty of this Gospel, the touching aspects that never resonated with me (but does now), and even the humor which is easy to miss in a quick read. I now have a great fondness and love for this Gospel, and am grateful for this men who helped me to understand better.
SDG!

[Matt Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent commentary. We all know te story. Most of it is review, but there are plenty of new insights. There is not just the story telling. There is theology and application. It is conversational with how history has played these things out. Tis commentary [set] is an asset for the scholar, academic, student, pastor, and lay person. It makes a "beeline for the Cross" and though this particular gospel is often overlooked Sproul shows why this should not be the case!

[Aaron Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sproul is stunning and succinct as always. A helpful commentary the both educates and encourages.

[Jerry Hillyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

MarkTitle: Mark

Author: RC Sproul

Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing

Date: December 12, 2011

Pages: (e-pub version): 434

[The FCC has made it perfectly clear that if I do not abide by their rules, then someone may end up in trouble one way or another. So I am advised to tell you that I received this copy of Mark (e-book) for free from Ligonier Ministries in exchange for my unbiased review. I was in no way instructed to write a favorable review, just a fair one. There you go.]

I haven't read through a commentary for fun for a long time. Back when I was preaching full-time, I devoured commentaries the way some folks devour the daily paper. Thus it took me a little longer to get through this book than I had originally intended.

I read through this commentary at the same time I have been working my way back into a daily habit of Scripture reading. So in the course of reading this commentary, I read the Psalms twice and Proverbs once. They were a nice complement to one another and I found that hearing the voice of the Psalmists echoed in Mark was a wonderful addition to my daily reading regimen.

This commentary was a good read for me as I work my way slowly back into theological reading. It was not a terribly complicated book to read. It was not overly-scholarly. Sproul focused on a more-or-less verse by verse commentary while offering the occasional theological excursus when he felt it necessary--most memorable was the excursus on Jesus' temptation in Gethsamane. It is not difficult to discern Sproul's theological bent towards Reformed theology in the commentary and this, at times, made the book terribly frustrating to read.

These things noted, this is actually my main gripe with the book. There was a time when the verse by verse commentary was especially useful, but I'm not inclined to think that way any longer. In my opinion, the verse by verse format in this commentary caused Sproul to miss what I think is the main point of Mark's Gospel as literature, as gospel, precisely because he had already committed himself to a theological perspective that guided his exegesis: Mark is writing to make a point, a point that Sproul believes is, in one way or another, to 'prove' the divinity of Jesus. So there are times when Jesus is referred to as the 'Son of God' (notably Mark 1:1 & 15:39 which form a rather nice 'sandwich' to the book as a whole), but it is important to ask what this might mean. What does 'son of God' mean in the Bible and how does that inform our understanding of Mark's theological point?

Surely Jesus is the God of Israel in the sense of being somehow divine--whatever that might mean--and there are times when I think Sproul did an absolutely masterful job of connecting the text with the Hebrew Scriptures in order to show the reader how Mark makes this clear (I'm think in particular of the walking on water episode in Mark 6:45-52 & the scene where Jesus enters Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-11). So I'm not disputing that for a minute; however, I do not think that is necessarily the point that Mark is trying to make in the Gospel as a whole. [Sproul wrote, "Remember, Mark has been at pains to demonstrate to Gentiles that Jesus is the divine Son of God" (214). I just do not think that Mark is at pains about this at all as much as he is at pains to do something different.]

It seems to me that Mark's point is made clearly in 1:1 & 15:39: Jesus is the Son of God. The question is, however, one of how we understand that phrase. In the Hebrew Scriptures, 'son of God' is a phrase that is given to the King of Israel (see especially Psalm 2). So what Mark does is this: he tells us in verse 1 that Jesus is Messiah (the anointed one, the King), the Son of God. Then he goes about showing us all throughout his Gospel what that means, how people do not get it (even his own family 3:20-34), how they misunderstand it, how they try to misappropriate his power, and what being King really means--what it means for God's power to be unleashed on earth (see Mark 3:23-29). Jesus in turn, goes into hiding, tells demons to be quiet, tells people not to say anything about his power, and is crucified after refusing to defend himself against charges brought against him. Yet it is here, after he dies death on a cross, that one person says something about Jesus that he is not rebuked for: "Surely this man was the Son of God."

The one place where we are truly allowed to hear a confession of who Jesus is, is while he is on the cross. It is there he was enthroned. And there he does not tell the centurion to keep quiet. It is this point which I wish Dr Sproul had made more clear to his readers because I think this is Mark's point: Here is our King! Here is our God! Here is the one who came to bring us back to life! He is the One! He is Jesus! (that's a David Crowder Band lyric). Sproul touches on this periodically, but in no way sustains this throughout his commentary which is unfortunate. (Note the heavy iron in chapter 15 verses 2, 9, 12, 17-20, 26, 32, 43.)

I have a couple other complaints which are minor by comparison with what preceded. First, I dislike that there were any footnotes or end notes of any kind. Sproul frequently says things like 'a commentator' or 'an author' or 'I once heard a speaker' and fails to give us any point of reference. This is bothersome. I get that the book is not a commentary for scholars, but there are some who read it who would like more information about who is it that he is interacting with on various pages.

Second, he tells too many stories about himself. I'll leave it at that. I make this complaint in nearly every book I review because if I have learned anything about being in ministry it is this: don't make yourself look good and nearly every story Sproul tells in this book makes himself look good. Third, there's way too much Reformed Theology. Mark certainly didn't write his commentary to explain the finer points of Drs Calvin and Luther and seeing such theological perspectives in Mark seems far more imposed than exposed.

Finally, I wish he had spent less time taking us to the other Gospels to make a point. Mark is sufficient in an of itself and sometimes, frankly, Mark's point is obscured when we bring in material from other Gospels (Matthew, Luke, and John). It's not that such a practice is wrong or evil, it's just that Mark has plenty to say on his own and he says it well on his own. Tying Mark together as one piece of literature, written to it's own audience, for its own sake seems to me a far better way to understand the book than trying create a bigger picture by bringing in other facts that Mark left out of his work. Maybe he left them out for a reason.

What I enjoyed most about this book was that Sproul makes some rather brilliant observations about the text that are easily overlooked if one is not careful. I will note just a few that I found especially wonderful.

I very much like how Sproul drew from the Old Testament to make points about such passages in Mark, such as the parable of the sower (Mark 4). I think his point about compassion when Jesus exercised demons from a man named Legion is brilliant, "...Jesus was not displaying a lack of compassion; he was exercising proper compassion. He was willing to sacrifice two thousand pigs, as valuable as they were, to rescue the demon-possessed man" (105). Well, of course! Folks often accuse Christians of being anything but compassionate--probably because we too often align ourselves politically with those who wish to exploit and terrorize the poor, but here Jesus gives us a fine example of compassion and forces us to ask the question of ourselves: just what are we willing to sacrifice in order to save one life? (Which was a nice question asked in the film Schindler's List.) And of course Jesus did what no one else could do or wanted to do: he saved the man!

I have already mentioned the brilliant points he makes when Jesus walks on the water and 'is about to pass them by' being an echo of the story of Moses who was hidden in the rocks when God passed by and the story of Jesus entering the temple being an echo of the Ezekiel story where the Spirit of God left the temple by stages. He also makes observations about the text that I find brilliant. For example, a young man runs up to Jesus with an important question (10:17-31) and Sproul notes how, at the end of the story, the man slowly walks away. Finally, his interpretation of the Bartimaeus story (10:35-52) and its juxtaposition with the request of James and John to sit right and left of Jesus is spot on (274).

Another valuable aspect of this commentary is the historical background Sproul provides for his readers at various points in the text. This historical background is necessary and vital for understanding such things as the Triumphal Entry, Gehenna, and the character of Pharisees and Saducees and Scribes among others. I am especially fond of the point that he made on page 310: "First, the Pharisees stressed the sovereignty of God. They were the Augustinians and Calvinists of their day." It made me smile, just a bit, when Dr Sproul, almost certainly inadvertently, announced that the Calvinists of our day were the Pharisees of Jesus' day. Who would have guessed. :-)

Still, it took until page 423 for Sproul to rightly direct our attention to the point Mark had been making all along and even then it is made from a portion of Mark that is disputed as original to the text. Nevertheless, I agree with Sproul

"Second, we see the session of Jesus. His reign in power at the right hand of the Father....This ministry flows out of his ascension and coronation. He is reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords, governing every event in this world, so that there are no maverick molecules" (423).

There's nothing in this book that is so dangerous it will cause anyone to wobble in faith and, on the contrary, I think if an unbeliever reads it they might be persuaded to have faith in Jesus. Believers alike will be edified, as I was, and probably be even hungrier for more of the Scripture after reading it.

It's not a weighty book, but that is no insult. It is a book helpful for getting people involved in the Scripture and giving them a rudimentary understanding of what was happening. It is excellent devotional reading and perhaps for sermon preparation as much of the time it reads like short sermons that were written and preached, and that's fine too. I'm glad there were times at the end of chapters when Sproul challenged my faith and, in light of what Scripture said, forced me to come to grips with aspects of my life that were in contradiction to the Word of God.

4/5 Stars

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bro lived out at the golf course.

The late Dr. Sproul was a massive intellect and he was a great commentator on the Bible. It would be nice, though, if he could do a commentary w/o mentioning Luther or Calvin or Calvinism or Reformed Theology or discussing how much he differs from "Rome," but he just cannot do it. Those things were just too much a part of him.

Sproul certainly has an ecumenical quality to his approach, though, that I appreciate, and though I lean toward a Thomist or Roman Catholic interpretation of scripture, I definitely always learn so much from him, and I am indebted to him for it. The Gospel is the Gospel, after all.

Saints John Mark and Pope Peter pray for us!

[Kevin Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a direct commentary on the book of Mark, and Sproul goes passage by passage through the book explaining the context and different interpretations of each section.

I always appreciate Sproul's clear and to-the-point writing style, and his theology is always grounded in Scripture. The nature of a commentary like this takes that to the extreme. I also appreciated how Sproul did not only give his interpretations of the passages, but made a point to explain other ways people have viewed each section.

I look forward to reading his other gospel commentaries soon.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read three different commentaries over Mark's Gospel this year, and Dr. Sproul's was my favorite. He expertly handles each passage, seeking to debunk any claims against the inerrancy of Scripture as he wrestles with difficult, complex passages. I found this commentary to be encouraging, convicting, and overall very helpful in not only helping me to better understand Mark's Gospel, but also great for daily application.

This was the first of the St. Andrew's Expositional Commentaries that I have read and I am so excited to read the others in the future now that I have the complete set.

[Allyson Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a helpful resource. Sproul has such a way of making big theological concepts seem tangible to the lay mind. Mark has always been a book that I skim through because it never really interested me. I felt that the other gospels were more beneficial to read, but Sproul opened my eyes to so many wonderful things about this book and showed me the beauty in its simplicity! My Bible is now filled with notes in Mark. I have the strong urge to buy his entire commentary set.....maybe one day!

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a really powerful and interesting commentary. Highly recommend for anyone not familiar with using a commentary when studying Scriptures as Sproul is careful to explain without muddying the waters with complex theological debates (while this works for Henry its not the best for personal bible study I've found).

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this commentary more than I thought I would. He gives you all the cool cultural details like how big the boat was and what the surrounding area was like. He also ties in good philosophical points and relevant illustrations. At times, he does harmonise the gospels. I would have preferred him staying in Mark more. But with that said, I loved this book.

[Ethan Doucet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall great commentary. Not terribly academic, more for personal use. The author translates all scripture from Greek himself, which I think is silly. He uses no tried-and-true translations like ESV, NASB, NLT, etc. Many of his interpretations of specific words seemed odd, but the overall exploration of Mark was exactly what I needed.

[Rodney Tripp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just another outstanding commentary by Sproul. This commentary I read was not heavy in technical jargon, but more of a writing style for lay people to understand. I chose to read this commentary as a devotional.

[K.L. + Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming soon!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another exceptional exposition by Sproul. I highly recommend this series for bible study.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Sproul’s conversational tone is wonderful, it feels like I’m reading the gospel with an experienced pastor next to me explaining the truth clearly and concisely. Brilliant commentary.

[Abigail Whitcomb]

A great family devotions book! Definitely would be good on your own as well.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent reference source for any bible study on Mark. I love this authors insights and perspectives. Very very good

[Travis Daggett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly covered in the Matthew commentary.

[Brynne B · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ☆

Probably my favorite commentary in the series so far!

[Philip Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're just finishing up a sermon series on Mark. This was a good tool for highlighting key bits in the text and giving ideas on how they can be preached. R.C. was a gem.