What do you think?
Rate this book
Mark: Doubleday Bible Commentary
In Mark, we meet the Jesus who changed people's lives-healed their hurting hearts, gave them hope, and made them whole. Author R. T. France follows Jesus' journey along a trail of miracles, signs and wonders, and profound preaching that embody the essence of God's love. As Jesus touched the lives of those he met, so too will Mark, as it takes us to new depths of understanding and insight.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
8 people want to read
About the author
R.T. France
36 books17 followersRichard Thomas France was a New Testament scholar and Anglican cleric, and Research Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Bangor.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 21, 2020
Although this book is labelled as a commentary, it’s really more of a daily devotional. R.T. France breaks the text of Mark’s Gospel into structural sections and then devotes two pages to detailing the events and expositing their meaning. The advantage of this approach is that a very readable commentary has been produced with a very low barrier for entry. Readers can dip in and out of the book for as little as two pages a day and learn something about the Gospel of Mark in easily digestible chunks. The disadvantages are that the short format inherently makes it difficult to get any real depth in discussing what is going on in each scene. This is further compounded in the difficulty of tracing the themes as they develop through the Gospel.
I found myself disappointed with this book, although to be fair, that was mostly down to my misunderstanding of the purpose of the book. I was expecting a more traditional commentary and so didn’t find the depth that I was looking for, which shouldn’t count against it in the review score. France does hit the mark set by the publishers by delivering a very readable book that, it must be admitted, suits the quick-fire nature of Mark’s writing style.
However, there are downsides to this book. Firstly, the introduction does not cover the structure or major themes of the Gospel of Mark very well. Themes and literary devices are discussed as they come up (the Marcan sandwich comes to mind), but these are necessarily brief with the limit of two pages of discussion. It would have been much more helpful to discuss them at the beginning of the commentary in order to lay a foundation of understanding of what Mark intended to achieve.
Secondly, France seems to have somewhat of a low view of Scripture. While he does seem to believe in the authority of the written word, he makes several passing comments that suggest that he believes there is room for error in the Bible. An example of this is his discussion of Jesus’ teaching on divorce in Mark 10:1-10: here France suggests that both Moses and Matthew added allowances to divorce (for any reason and for adultery, respectively) because they acknowledged that the ideal of God (no divorce) had to compromise with the real world. For anyone who believes in divine inspiration, this is a troubling interpretation. This line of thinking only comes up a couple of times and only in a tangential comment, but it has made me wary of France’s other works.
Finally, France ends on a low with his discussion of the controversial conclusion of Mark’s Gospel. He maintains that verses 9-20 almost certainly were not part of the original text and doesn’t discuss them at all, while not really covering alternative theories other than to say that the original ending is lost to history. What we’re left with is an ending to a commentary that is as abrupt and disappointing as Mark would be without the disputed ending.
I found myself disappointed with this book, although to be fair, that was mostly down to my misunderstanding of the purpose of the book. I was expecting a more traditional commentary and so didn’t find the depth that I was looking for, which shouldn’t count against it in the review score. France does hit the mark set by the publishers by delivering a very readable book that, it must be admitted, suits the quick-fire nature of Mark’s writing style.
However, there are downsides to this book. Firstly, the introduction does not cover the structure or major themes of the Gospel of Mark very well. Themes and literary devices are discussed as they come up (the Marcan sandwich comes to mind), but these are necessarily brief with the limit of two pages of discussion. It would have been much more helpful to discuss them at the beginning of the commentary in order to lay a foundation of understanding of what Mark intended to achieve.
Secondly, France seems to have somewhat of a low view of Scripture. While he does seem to believe in the authority of the written word, he makes several passing comments that suggest that he believes there is room for error in the Bible. An example of this is his discussion of Jesus’ teaching on divorce in Mark 10:1-10: here France suggests that both Moses and Matthew added allowances to divorce (for any reason and for adultery, respectively) because they acknowledged that the ideal of God (no divorce) had to compromise with the real world. For anyone who believes in divine inspiration, this is a troubling interpretation. This line of thinking only comes up a couple of times and only in a tangential comment, but it has made me wary of France’s other works.
Finally, France ends on a low with his discussion of the controversial conclusion of Mark’s Gospel. He maintains that verses 9-20 almost certainly were not part of the original text and doesn’t discuss them at all, while not really covering alternative theories other than to say that the original ending is lost to history. What we’re left with is an ending to a commentary that is as abrupt and disappointing as Mark would be without the disputed ending.
Displaying 1 of 1 review