Mark

As a Sunday School teacher, I found this to be an excellent resource in bringing out the historical and cultural perspectives of the Gospel of Mark. In addition, the life application inserts provide information to relate it all to our current lives and culture. I highly recommend it to anyone teaching Sunday School or wanting to get more out of their personal Bible Study.

This book is intended to both guide you as you study the book of Mark and to teach you how to study a book of the Bible on your own. It definitely meets the first goal but doesn't assist as much with the second. The book is divided into chapters, each of which takes a section of Mark at a time. The typical chapter begins with about a page of introductory text/commentary on the passage of Mark, then proceeds into a series of questions about that passage. Other commentary is scattered through the questions, and some "side trails" are printed in the margins, usually for further study of some point. Two things struck me about this book: 1) The questions are actually thought and discussion provoking (in general) rather than simple "fill in the fact from the text." This is a refreshing change and actually made me (and the study group I was in) really struggle with what the passage meant. 2) The drive to give you an overall view of what Mark is about, what are the main themes, and seeing how the individual passages are a part of that. I must give it four stars because it claims to help you learn how to study a book of the Bible on your own. While studying with this book is great, the book also gives much background information, especially about the themes of Mark, that a reader like me coming with less prior study would know. Thus, while a great help for Mark, I don't believe this book made me able to independently study a book of the Bible where I don't really know the themes and so can't ask good pointed questions. This does not detract from this book as a guide to study Mark. Though I don't agree with every single thing in it, it was a very fruitful study in our group and made us dig much deeper than we normally would. I highly recommend it for either individual or small group study.