Hearing Mark: A Listener's Guide

by Elizabeth Struthers Malbon

In this book, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon recreates for contemporary readers the experience those ancient listeners shared. She helps us read - and more importantly hear - the Gospel more perceptively and more powerfully than ever before.
Writing with humor and in clear, non-scholarly language, she proceeds through the Gospel in narrative order, focusing on the themes emphasized in each Gospel kingdom, community, discipleship, suffering. In conclusion, she offers new interpretations of interrelated themes as they played out for Mark's listeners in the first century - and as they might for hearers today in the twenty-first.

Genres: Theology

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hearing Mark is a useful introduction to many of the interpretive issues present in reading the Gospel of Mark. Malbon is especially good at helping us understand the genre and time of when Mark was written. I will likely use her phrasing to help in other bible studies in general. Her reading of Mark's geography is clear and insightful - e.g., when the disciples finally make it to Bethsaida, you can sigh in relief along with the initial listeners of Mark. Her sections on Assumptions, Kingdom, and Community not only provide the general notes one might find in any commentary but also more specific content (e.g. Her discussion of the fragment/title of 1:1 pp. 11-14; or the mysterion of the kingdom of God, p. 30). The later sections on Discipleship and Suffering are not as useful - less context is given for most of the action - and some passages are neglected (nothing is said about 10:45, for example). Her handling of the longer endings is excellent (especially as she deals with them early on, as otherwise they are anticlimactic). And yet Jesus' death and resurrection, dare I say it, fall a bit flat. Although Malbon certainly helps us hear the story as a listener for the first few chapters, in the end I am not certain how early listeners to Mark's gospel would have heard the crucifixion story. The great strength of the book is its colloquial style - breezy and humorous; the great weakness that follows from the strength is the lack of footnotes and other scholarly apparatus.

If you have had little exposure to reading Mark closely, this is an excellent introduction - truly a joy to read. This is also useful to those of us who teach Mark; so much of what Malbon writes is so well said it makes our teaching easier! But some of the thorny questions of Mark are not comprehensively addressed, and for this other texts (including Malbon's own excellent journal articles) must be read.

[Ron Tenney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I became aware of this book in reading some of the writing about Mark by Julie Smith. I wanted to read a short review of Mark.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Some of the material was familiar to me, some was new. But Elizabeth Malbon has a lively, fun, and insightful way of reading Mark. She breaks the text into four blocks. She then shows repeatedly, patterns of sayings and teaching that would have been memorable to the hears of this Gospel account.

I recommend it for anyone interested in reading more about the Gospel of Mark. It, along with Echoes of Scriptures in the Gospels (Richard Hays) and The Gospel According to Mark by Julie Smith are all wonderful resources. (Julie Smith’s work is of greatest interest to LDS readers as that is the perspective of that volume.)

[Kj · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing commentary that serves as a cue for how to hear, remember and follow the story in Mark. Unlike most commentaries (and Bible interaction in general) Malbon's book resists the urge to break things into tiny, applicable pieces, and instead, guides the reader through the complete world and narrative journey of the earliest gospel telling. Though most of my exposure to Malbon's writing is rich but DENSE, "Hearing Mark" is clearly meant to be readable for non-seminary folk- a definite plus.

I might buy this one to keep handy.

[Niko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good