Bible Commentary / New Testament
Mark
Mark presents Jesus as the mighty Messiah, the Son of God, and the suffering Son of Man whose path to kingship runs through rejection, the cross, and resurrection. The Gospel moves quickly, emphasizes Jesus’ authority, and repeatedly presses the issue of discipleship: if Jesus’ way is the way of the cross, then His fo…
Literary units
Mark 1:1 - Mark 1:8
John the Baptist prepares the way
Mark opens by naming his account as the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and by placing that beginning under Scripture. John appears in the wilderness as the promised messenger, calling Israel to repentance throu…
Mark 1:9 - Mark 1:13
The baptism and temptation of Jesus
Mark links Jesus' baptism and wilderness testing as one opening movement. At the Jordan, heaven is torn open, the Spirit descends on Jesus, and the Father names him the beloved Son. Then the same Spirit immediately drives him into the wild…
Mark 1:14 - Mark 1:20
Jesus begins preaching in Galilee; calls first disciples
After John is imprisoned, Jesus enters Galilee announcing God's good news: the appointed time has reached its fulfillment, God's kingdom has drawn near, and the proper response is repentance and belief. Mark then gives that response narrat…
Mark 1:21 - Mark 1:28
Teaching in Capernaum; exorcism
Mark's first synagogue scene in Galilee presents Jesus' authority in public view. The congregation is struck first by the way he teaches, and that judgment is immediately confirmed when an unclean spirit names him, protests his presence, a…
Mark 1:29 - Mark 1:34
Healings at Simon's house
Mark moves from the synagogue exorcism into Simon’s house and then to the crowded doorway by evening. Jesus takes Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand, raises her, and the fever leaves at once; her return to service shows full restoration. Af…
Mark 1:35 - Mark 1:39
Prayer and preaching in Galilee
After the crowded healings of the previous evening, Jesus leaves before dawn for a solitary place to pray. When Simon and the others find him and report that everyone is searching for him, Jesus declines to return to the same center of dem…
Mark 1:40 - Mark 1:45
Cleansing of a leper
A leprous man kneels before Jesus and frames his plea around Jesus' willingness, not his ability: 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.' Jesus answers with compassion, touch, and an effective word, and the man is cleansed at once. He…
Mark 2:1 - Mark 2:12
Healing of a paralytic
In a packed Capernaum house, four men lower a paralytic through the roof to reach Jesus while he is preaching. Jesus first says, "Son, your sins are forgiven," drawing silent blasphemy charges from the scribes. He then heals the man in ful…
Mark 2:13 - Mark 2:17
Calling of Levi; eating with sinners
Jesus teaches by the sea, calls Levi from his tax booth, and then shares a meal in Levi's house with many tax collectors and sinners. That meal becomes the point of dispute: scribes associated with the Pharisees question why he eats with s…
Mark 2:18 - Mark 2:22
Questions about fasting and new/old
Asked why John's disciples and the Pharisees fast while His disciples do not, Jesus answers by making His own presence the decisive factor. Wedding attendants do not fast while the bridegroom is with them, though the coming day when He is…
Mark 2:23 - Mark 3:6
Sabbath controversies and healing
These paired Sabbath scenes pit Jesus' reading of the command against the Pharisees' accusatory use of it. In the grainfields, he answers from David's hunger, states that the Sabbath was made for humanity, and then claims that the Son of M…
Mark 3:7 - Mark 3:12
Crowds and withdrawal
After the rising conflict of 2:23-3:6, Jesus withdraws to the sea, but the move does not reduce attention. Mark emphasizes a massive, geographically diverse crowd coming from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and the Phoenici…
Mark 3:13 - Mark 3:19
Appointment of the Twelve
Jesus leaves the pressing crowds, goes up the mountain, and formally constitutes the Twelve. Mark keeps the initiative with Jesus: he calls those he wants, they come, and he appoints them for two connected ends—first to be with him, then t…
Mark 3:20 - Mark 3:35
Accusations; Jesus' true family
Mark arranges this unit so that Jesus is misunderstood from two directions: his natural family thinks he must be restrained, while Jerusalem scribes attribute his exorcisms to demonic power. Jesus answers the scribes by exposing the incohe…
Mark 4:1 - Mark 4:34
Parables of the kingdom (beginning)
Jesus opens this parable section by the lake with the sower, then explains it as the controlling pattern for hearing the word. Responses differ sharply: Satan snatches, pressure exposes shallow roots, and cares, wealth, and competing desir…
Mark 4:35 - Mark 4:41
Calming the storm
Jesus orders the night crossing, a violent squall engulfs the boat, and the disciples panic while he sleeps in the stern. With a brief rebuke he stills the wind and sea, then turns the episode back on the disciples: their terror has expose…
Mark 5:1 - Mark 5:20
Gerasene demoniac restored
On the far side of the lake, Jesus is met by a man living among the tombs, beyond restraint, and dominated by an unclean spirit. The spirits identify themselves as 'Legion,' beg Jesus for terms, and can act only by his permission. When the…
Mark 5:21 - Mark 5:43
Jairus' daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage
Mark interlaces Jairus's plea for his dying daughter with the healing of a woman who has bled for twelve years. The interruption sharpens the crisis: what begins as an urgent request for healing turns into a summons to trust Jesus when dea…
Mark 6:1 - Mark 6:6
Rejection at Nazareth
Jesus returns to Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue. The hearers register both his wisdom and the reports of his mighty works, yet they interpret him through the categories of village familiarity—his trade, his mother, his siblings, his…
Mark 6:7 - Mark 6:13
Sending out the twelve
Jesus sends the Twelve out in pairs, gives them authority over unclean spirits, and sets the terms of their mission: travel light, stay in the first house that receives them, and mark persistent refusal by shaking off the dust as testimony…
Mark 6:14 - Mark 6:29
John the Baptist beheaded
Mark places John’s death between the sending of the Twelve and their return so Herod’s fearful talk about Jesus is read through a guilty memory. Hearing of Jesus’ fame, Herod concludes that the man he executed has been raised. The flashbac…
Mark 6:30 - Mark 6:44
Feeding the five thousand
After the apostles report back from mission, Jesus seeks temporary withdrawal for rest, but the crowd interrupts the retreat. Mark highlights Jesus' compassion: he sees them as "sheep without a shepherd" and responds first by teaching, the…
Mark 6:45 - Mark 6:56
Jesus walks on the water; healings at Gennesaret
Jesus sends the disciples ahead, dismisses the crowd, and goes up the mountain to pray. While they labor against the wind in the dark, he sees them, comes to them walking on the sea, and answers their terror with, 'Take heart; it is I; do…
Mark 7:1 - Mark 7:23
Traditions and true defilement
Jesus answers a charge about unwashed hands by exposing a deeper problem: traditions meant to guard holiness can be used to evade God's command. After citing Isaiah and the corban case, he shifts the issue from ritual contact to moral sour…
Mark 7:24 - Mark 7:30
Syrophoenician woman and healing in Tyre
Jesus enters the region of Tyre hoping to remain unnoticed, but a Gentile mother finds him and begs for her demon-oppressed daughter. Jesus answers with a household image in which the children are fed first and the dogs receive no bread be…
Mark 7:31 - Mark 7:37
Healing a deaf man with a speech impediment
Jesus heals a deaf man who also speaks with difficulty by taking him aside, touching the affected organs, looking to heaven, and commanding, "Ephphatha." Mark lingers over the physical details and the man's privacy, then turns to the famil…
Mark 8:1 - Mark 8:21
Feeding the four thousand and demand for a sign
Mark 8:1-21 links the feeding of the four thousand, the Pharisees' demand for a sign, and the disciples' confusion in the boat. Jesus has already fed a hungry crowd in the wilderness and again leaves more than enough, yet the Pharisees sti…
Mark 8:22 - Mark 8:26
Healing a blind man at Bethsaida
Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida in two touches: the first brings partial sight, the second clear vision. Mark highlights the odd middle moment—people appearing like walking trees—and frames the miracle with Jesus’ private handling of…
Mark 8:27 - Mark 8:33
Peter's confession; first prediction of death
Near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus turns from public opinion to the disciples' own confession, and Peter answers, "You are the Christ." Jesus then states plainly what that confession means: the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed, an…
Mark 8:34 - Mark 9:1
Take up the cross; cost of discipleship
After rebuking Peter’s resistance to a suffering Messiah, Jesus calls not only the disciples but the crowd to the same pattern: deny self, take up the cross, and follow him. He explains that the instinct to preserve one’s life by avoiding…
Mark 9:2 - Mark 9:13
The Transfiguration
Six days after Jesus' call to self-denial and his promise that some would see the kingdom come with power, Peter, James, and John are taken up a high mountain and see Jesus transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah appear with him, but Pe…
Mark 9:14 - Mark 9:29
Healing the boy possessed by an unclean spirit
Coming down from the mountain, Jesus finds the remaining disciples trapped in a public dispute and unable to free a boy from a destructive unclean spirit. The father's plea, Jesus' rebuke of an unbelieving generation, and the cry "I believ…
Mark 9:30 - Mark 9:50
Teaching on greatness, causes of sin, and salt
As Jesus moves privately through Galilee, he gives a second passion prediction, but the disciples still fail to grasp the path he is taking and instead dispute status among themselves. In response, Jesus redefines greatness by last-place s…
Mark 10:1 - Mark 10:31
Teachings on divorce, children, and riches
Mark places three episodes side by side to show what blocks or marks entry into God's kingdom. In the divorce dispute, Jesus refuses to let Deuteronomy's concession override Genesis' account of God joining husband and wife. In the scene wi…
Mark 10:32 - Mark 10:52
Third prediction of death; blind Bartimaeus healed
As Jesus leads the ascent to Jerusalem, he gives his fullest passion prediction yet, naming condemnation, Gentile abuse, death, and resurrection. James and John's request for the chief places shows how little the disciples grasp that road,…
Mark 11:1 - Mark 11:11
Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Jesus enters Jerusalem by deliberate design, not by accident or crowd momentum. The arranged colt, the route by the Mount of Olives, and the Psalm 118 acclamations identify him as the Davidic king and the Lord’s authorized representative.…
Mark 11:12 - Mark 11:26
Withering fig tree and cleansing the temple
Mark places the temple disruption between the curse and the withering of the fig tree so that each scene interprets the other. Jesus finds a tree full of leaves but empty of fruit, then enters the temple courts, stops their traffic, and in…
Mark 11:27 - Mark 12:44
Authority questioned; parables and controversies
In the temple courts, the chief priests, scribes, and elders challenge Jesus' authority, but his question about John's baptism exposes their fear of the crowd and their refusal to answer honestly. He then tells the vineyard parable against…
Mark 13:1 - Mark 13:37
Olivet discourse - signs of the end
Prompted by a disciple’s admiration for the temple, Jesus predicts its complete ruin and answers a private question about when “these things” will happen and what sign will mark their approach. He distinguishes early disturbances from the…
Mark 14:1 - Mark 14:11
Plot to kill Jesus; anointing at Bethany
Mark places the Bethany anointing between the leaders’ plan to kill Jesus and Judas’s move to betray him. In that frame, the woman’s costly act is not waste but a timely deed Jesus interprets as preparation for his burial. The scene sets t…
Mark 14:12 - Mark 14:31
The Passover, Last Supper, and predictions
Mark presents Jesus entering the Passover meal with full awareness of what is coming. He directs the preparations in detail, names betrayal from within the Twelve, gives the bread and cup covenantal meaning in relation to his death, and pr…
Mark 14:32 - Mark 14:52
Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus
Jesus enters Gethsemane in visible anguish, yet meets the coming hour through repeated prayer and settled submission to the Father. Around him, the disciples cannot stay awake, cannot withstand the moment, and finally scatter when Judas ar…
Mark 14:53 - Mark 14:72
Jesus before the council; Peter denies Jesus
Mark interweaves the hearing before the high priest with Peter in the courtyard so the two responses can be read together. The council cannot secure consistent testimony, and the case turns on Jesus' own answer to the high priest: he is th…
Mark 15:1 - Mark 15:20
Jesus before Pilate; the crowd chooses Barabbas
Mark moves Jesus from the Sanhedrin's verdict to Rome's sentence by translating the case into the political charge of kingship. Pilate sees that envy drives the chief priests, asks what wrong Jesus has done, and still yields to the crowd h…
Mark 15:21 - Mark 15:32
The crucifixion
Mark tells the crucifixion with severe brevity. Simon is compelled to carry the cross, Jesus is brought to Golgotha, refuses the myrrhed wine, is crucified, and has his garments divided. The charge above him reads 'The king of the Jews,' w…
Mark 15:33 - Mark 15:47
Death and burial of Jesus
Mark narrates Jesus' death with stark, public signs and multiple witnesses. Supernatural darkness frames the final hours, Jesus voices Psalm 22:1, and then dies with a final loud cry. Immediately the temple curtain is torn from top to bott…
Mark 16:1 - Mark 16:8
The resurrection (short ending)
After the Sabbath, the women who saw where Jesus was buried return with spices to anoint his body, only to find the stone already rolled away and the tomb empty. A young man in white tells them that Jesus the Nazarene, the one who was cruc…
Mark 16:9 - Mark 16:20
The resurrection appearances (longer ending, if included)
If this longer ending is included, it presents a compressed chain of resurrection appearances, the disciples' repeated refusal to believe eyewitness testimony, Jesus' rebuke of the eleven, a universal commission to proclaim the gospel, pro…