Book Review (Part 1): A Theology of Mark by Hans F. Bayer

A Theology of Mark: The Dynamic between Christology and Authentic Discipleship is part of the Explorations in Biblical Theology series published by P&R. What I have read in this series so far has been very good. I am not familiar with Hans F. Bayer as an author but am familiar with other professors who also teach at Covenant Theological Seminary. I also have an ongoing love/hate relationship with scholarship on the Gospel of Mark. Was Mark written first? Did Mark actually write it? Did Mark write with a plot in mind? Did Mark deliberately develop characters? Did Mark write for oral performance? Did Mark write for the first Christians? And so the questions mount up. I find all of this fascinating but ultimately of little use to me or, say, the young men I help teach the Bible to on Saturday mornings. So when I saw this book on the theology of Mark with a focus on Jesus and discipleship, after much prayer and advice from wise Christians, I bought it (at the Evangelical Book Shop, Belfast)
The book is split into 2 parts - (1) Mark as Biography and Message of God's Eternal Rule and (2) The Dynamic between God's Messiah and Authentic Disciples. Part 2 makes up the bulk of the book. Issues about the formation and origin of Mark are in an appendix. Another appendix looks at Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and Mark 8:34. I have not yet read the appendices. Bayer starts by pointing out that while many people rightly look to Jesus for salvation, they do not focus enough on his view of discipleship.

This book is an attempt to remedy this situation. Though there is value in other approaches to discipleship, our purpose here is to explore a more comprehensive approach-that of Jesus with his own disciples ... many readers will be surprised-perhaps as surprised as the original band of disciples. (p. 1)

He goes on to say:

We will argue that Jesus teaches, exemplifies, and above all enables "pattern-imitation" among his followers rather than simply calling for a simplistic, self-generated "copying of Christ". (p. 12)

But why Mark's Gospel? Well, the theme of the identity of Jesus and what it means to follow him come out very clearly in Mark.

The twelve initial companions of Jesus, chief among them Peter, were indeed taken by surprise, as John Mark's presentation of Peter's account reveals. The account is honest, self-critical, transparent, and unadorned. The group with which Jesus works admits to disbelief and the inability to comprehend key aspects of his person and teaching. The Master is portrayed as incomprehensible and yet deeply personal, puzzling yet captivating, awesome yet the harbor of profound hope. What has been revealed about the purposes of God in the Old Testament is brought by the disciples' Master to a perplexing yet exhilarating realization. In the wake of this realization, preconceived expectations held among Jews in first-century Palestine are shattered to make room for the unexpected yet deeply biblical appearance of "him who is to come." In the end, the profound claims laid upon Mark's readers are a consequence of the eminent stature, sacrificial commitment, and transforming power of the Master, as well as his knowledge of the human heart. (p. 1-2)

Chapter 1 - Mark as Biography and Memorized Witness Account - addresses the type of document that the Gospel of Mark actually is. As with many Greco-Roman scholars, Bayer states the Mark (and the other synoptics) fits best the general genre of ancient bios. This is not to say that Mark sat down and said "I shall write in the genre of X" but that when modern scholars look back at a bunch of writing about influential people or heroes, they recognise certain common features which can be classified into genre X.
Chapter 2 - Mark's Structure, Purpose, and Flow of Thought - deals with what has often frustrated me with other works I have read about Mark. Did Mark really have a structure in mind with character development and plot? Or did he simply write about what he knew in the way he thought or was told it happened? Bayer brings out many useful features of Mark such as a "conspicuous element in the section 8:27-10:52 is the fact that each of the three predictions of Jesus' passion and resurrection (8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34) is followed by an instruction in discipleship (8:34-38; 9:32-50; 10:35-45)" (p. 21). He also notes the bipartite structure of the Gospel (with 8:22-26 as a transition section). Pages 24-30 go on to provide an excellent short overview of the flow of thought in Mark. But what is the point of all this?

Based on these observations, the ultimate purpose of Mark is to legitimize Jesus' universal and authoritative call to discipleship (see the narrative repetition of this theme and the fact that the audience of Jesus splits into followers and opponents as the narrative unfolds). The two-fold outline ... demonstrates that the central effort in presenting this call is to narrate the identity, action, teaching, and severe testing of Jesus. This fact already indicates that discipleship in Mark is essentially a function of the eminence of the Master's person, deeds, and teaching, not of a certain code of conduct for the disciples. (p. 24)

Quite so. But I'm sure this could have been stated in a more straightforward way. In fact, this is one point I could raise on numerous occasions. The language is a tad academic without needing to be so. I suppose this has made me read more carefully.
Chapter 3 - Mark's Thematic Framework: The In-Breaking of God's Eternal Rule - is very important and focuses on his kingdom (Mark 1:15). "The kingdom is to be expected on earth but not mediated by a mere human (such as David). Rather, the incarnate Son of God, fulfilling human and divine aspects of Old Testament kingdom expectations, eternally rules as messianic King over his people worldwide" (p. 38).
The main meat of the book is in Part 2. Chapter 4 - Witness to the Unique Person of Jesus - presents Jesus in light of the disciples "fixed set of expectations and scriptural interpretations, taught for centuries by synagogue teachers all over Israel" (p. 42). To put it bluntly, Jesus shatters the disciples expectations. Bayer addresses the messianic secret and the conflicting expectations of the Messiah at the time of Jesus.

The people of Israel thus had a fixed plan for their Messiah, and the Messiah had to fit into that plan (cf. John 6:15) ... As soon as Jesus acts remotely like the expected messianic figure, he will be the spark which may cause a political uprising. While the atmosphere is pregnant with a particular expectation of political liberation, Jesus, as the eternal Son of God, is sent for a broader messianic purpose that includes the totality of the Old Testament anticipation of liberation by God ... The root problem of human alienation from God and self has to be dealt with above all else." (p. 47)

Now, with Chapter 5 - Jesus' Fundamental Challenge to the Twelve and to All Disciples - the real challenging material starts. Bayer has been very helpful up to this point as he treads familiar territory through Mark's Gospel. Chapter 5 marks a shift in gear. It is a long chapter and conceptually profound. In light of this I am splitting this review into two parts.

Book Note - The Jesus Way by Peter Walker

The Jesus Way: The Essential Christian Starter Kit by Peter Walker. Monarch Books, 2009.

Dr Peter Walker was lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. In his academic capacity he has focused a lot on Jerusalem and the Holy Land*. In fact, he has written the book that I think anybody studying Eschatology should read carefully - Jesus and the Holy City: New Testament Perspectives on Jerusalem (Eerdmans, 1996). However, as a churchman he has written many more books to help Christians understand the Bible and how to be disciples of Jesus. The Jesus Way is in this later category. Walker focuses on two chapters of the Bible - Luke 24 (Learning from Jesus Himself) and Acts 2 (Learning from the Apostles). This in itself is helpful as the reader has two chunks of Scripture to meditate on while reading the book.

The contents are:

1. Enjoy Jesus' Resurrection
2. Accept His Forgiveness
3. Welcome His Spirit
4. Feed on His Scriptures
5. Participate in His Meal
6. Bear Witness to His Reign
7. Share with Jesus' People
8. Worship His Majesty
9. Follow His Teaching
10. Live His Life
11. Resist His Enemy
12. Trust Him for the Future

I think this book is an excellent modern introduction to the Christian life. The teaching contained in it is solid, minus gimmicks and to the point. It would be very useful to new adult Christians and, with the addition of a good study Bible and a healthy local Church, would set a good foundation for growth and maturity in the faith.

* See the following books edited by Walker.

1. Jerusalem Past & Present in the Purposes of God (Cambridge: Tyndale House: 1992; 2nd ed., Carlisle: Paternoster, 1994)
2. The Land of Promise: biblical, historical and theological perspectives (ed. with P.S. Johnston; Leicester: IVP, 2000)
3. The Bible and the Land: Israeli, Palestinian and Western perspectives (ed. with M. Wood & L. Loden; Bethlehem: Musalaha, 2000)
4. The Gospel and the Land of Promise: Christian Approaches to the Land of the Bible (ed. with Philip Church, Tim Bulkeley, Tim Meadowcroft; Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2011)

Book Review: Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind by Mark Noll

Everyone I know is smarter than me. I am not naturally or inherently strong intellectually. It is precisely because of this that I have to be disciplined with my mind and thinking process. I know what little strengths I have and need to nurture those strengths. This is why reading 'Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind' is important for me. Noll claims "Understanding more about Christ and his work not only opens a wide doorway to learning, but also checks tendencies toward idolatry that are as potent among scholars as in the rest of humankind." (p. ix)

I also belong to the Evangelical sub-culture of Northern Ireland. This sub-culture is not known for emphasising learning and the intellectual life as important. At the most extreme this sub-culture tolerates learning and the intellectual life as a means to get a job. In some churches it is not uncommon to hear further education and a life a scholarship viewed with extreme suspicion, especially if that education and scholarship is in Theology and related disciplines. Odd, I know. So it is refreshing to read Noll:

"The message in this book for my fellow evangelicals can be put simply: if what we claim about Jesus Christ is true, then evangelicals should be among the most active, most serious, and most open-minded advocates of general human learning. Evangelical hesitation about scholarship in general or about pursuing learning wholeheartedly is, in other words, antithetical to the Christ-centered basis of evangelical faith." (p. x)

Noll is a historian and therefore he is adept at drawing out the significance of the times. For example, in Chapter 1, he highlights the importance of Christians who lived in the 4th and 5th centuries when Christianity moved from an illegal sect to a formally recognised religion of the Roman Empire. Noll calls this time "the Church's first intellectual breathing space" and one challenge the Church faced at this time "was to summarize the faith in authoritative short statements that could specify what Christianity was, define a curriculum for new converts, provide formulas for use in worship, and build barriers against false teaching." (p. 1) This is a great explanation of what creeds were for and Noll weaves creedal statements throughout each chapter. Fascinating. But almost superfluous to the book in my opinion. None of his points would be lost or even weakened if his creedal weaving was removed.

For me, the book really takes off in Chapter 2 - Jesus Christ: Motives for Serious Learning - Noll highlights John 1:2-3, Colossians 1:15-16 and Hebrews 1:2 noting that one of the most basic things these passages affirm is that "for believers to be studying created things is to be studying the works of Christ ... There simply is nothing humanly possible to study about the created realm that, in principle, leads us away from Jesus Christ." (p. 25) With regard to Colossians 1:13 - 2:3 Noll elaborates further:

"The claims are strinking and bear repeating. The apostle says, in effect, that if we study anything in the realms of nature or the realms of the spirit, we study what came into existence through Jesus Christ. Likewise, if we study human interactions or spiritual-human interactions (thrones, dominions, rulers, powers), we are studying realms brought into existence by Jesus Christ. If our study concerns predictability, uniformity, regularity, we are working in the domains of the one who 'is before all things, and [in whom] all things hold together.'" (p. 28)

"The tight conjunction of assertions in Colossians underscores the fact that all humans, including academics are needy sinners who require God. All humans, including academics, remain in need of divine grace even as they explore the depths of 'wisdom and knowledge' hidden in Jesus Christ." (p. 30)

In Chapter 3 - Jesus Christ: Guidance for Serious Learning - Noll, drawing from John 1, Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1, focuses on four general expectation that can inform and guide intellectual life:

1. Doubleness. Because Christ is divine and human, two natures in one integrated person, Christian thinkers should be predisposed to seek knowledge about specific things from more than one perspective. "... [F]or a Christian who has experienced the saving power of Christ, it will be a smaller step, when confronting at least some dichotomous intellectual problems, to seek the harmonious acceptance of the dichotomy than for a scholar who does not believe that the integrated person of Christ was made up of a fully divine and fully human nature." (p. 49)
2. Contingency. Contingent statements are not necessarily true (like 1+1=2) or necessarily false (all bicycles have one gear). Contingency will mean pursuing the evidence of experience and not settling for non-contingent statements. As Noll writes "If we know God by experiencing him, so also do we come to know the world." (p. 52)
3. Particularity. Christianity springs from real events about 2000 years ago in a specific location. If read carefully, the Gospels have dust, noise and smell. "The implication can be stated succinctly: because God revealed himself most clearly in a particular time and place, every other particular set of cultural circumstances takes on a fresh potential importance." (p. 55)
4. Self-Denial. A developed and developing intellectual life can lead to pride in degrees and qualifications or pride in academic achievements. This pride can and should shrivel in light of the Good News as Noll writes "... a Christ-centered understanding of why all people require an atoning saviour demands that scholars not trust their own wisdom as the source of their self-worth." (p. 62)

Chapters 4 - 7 move on to specifically look at how Christ's saving work impacts the intellectual life for various disciplines. Noll is upfront and writes that "... these expositions are self-consciously exploratory. They are not intended as final words laying down a law but as first words urging others to take up the task." (p. 65)

Chapter 4 briefly examines the Atonement as a principle to frame scholarship. Noll relies heavily on John Stott's classic 'The Cross of Christ'. This chapter is good, but compared to the others it is a little underdeveloped. It may be that Noll has many more thoughts about the Atonement and scholarship, so much more that another book would be required. I agree with him when he writes that the Atonement "must of necessity have much to do with how the redeemed scholar approaches the tasks of learning." (p. 73) Surely everyone who takes the mantle of scholar or who values the intellectual life could unpack this sentence for a lifetime.

Chapter 5 - Christology: A Key to Understanding History - was probably the highlight of the book for me. It is the most underlined and is very important when I consider my times of doubt (which accompany my times of depression). Noll writes:

"The critical significance of history for Christianity arises, however, not just from how the past bears upon the present, but even more comprehensively from the historical character of Christianity itself ... Christian interest in history writing is a natural consequence of the fact that Christianity is so obviously a religion of historical event." (p. 76)

With regard to the possibility of historical knowledge, Noll admits that history is written by people with a context, that interesting historical facts are complex and historical knowledge is not exhaustive, irreformable or absolute. However, "Christianity has always displayed an innate tendency toward historical realism, in large part because it depends upon events that believers ... assert really happened. Moreover, Christian practice is predicated on the tacit assumption that these past events can be known reliably today and can provide meaning for present life (however far distant they occurred in the past)." (p. 78) Further, "Because all things do in fact hold together in Jesus Christ, historians who write from one particular time and place about an earlier time and place may actually be connected sufficiently with that past time and place to discover at least partial truth about it." (p. 81) This might not be enough for some people but I think it is a profound idea worth trusting. With regard to how Christians write history "The general lesson is that when humans assume that their interpretations of history possess the same level of veracity about God and his purposes as the veracity found in Scripture, there are always real difficulties." (p. 86) This is again very stimulating and worthy of sustained meditation.

Chapter 6 - "Come and See": A Christological Invitation for Science - shows Noll's strengths as a historian. He gives a good short history of the development of science and the relationship it has to Christianity. He provides an important overview of how Galileo Galilei advised how to combine investigations of nature with complete trust in Scripture (p. 103). There is nothing new under the sun. Noll claims that answering questions about science and Christianity responsibly "requires sophistication in scientific knowledge and sophistication in biblical interpretation - exercised humbly, teachably, and non-defensively. Unfortunately these traits and capacities have not always predominated when such questions are addressed." (p. 121) This is not a chapter that young earth creationists will agree with at many points but for me it was important and has helped me think through a number of important issues.

Chapter 7 - Christology: The Foundation of Biblical Study - discusses how to best understand the Scriptures. Noll's two main allies are J I Packer and B B Warfield. This is good because if you were to believe all you read on the internet B B Warfield's work on the Inspiration of Scripture is hopelessly outdated. Noll also uses Peter Enns work Inspiration and Incarnation. I have not read Enns' book but it seems interesting even though a lot of people have been very critical of it. Noll writes "Stressing the capacity of revelation to unite humanity and divinity in perfect integration puts believing scholars on the path to intellectual insight, but only because this is the path to life." (p. 145)

This has been a challenging book to read, not because the writing style was difficult, but because it was so suggestive and stimulating. It was also very devotional causing me to stop and worship God. Not bad for a book about the life of the mind. How has the book changed me? Now, more than ever, I will pursue excellence in intellectual pursuits always being aware that my identity and worth come from Jesus. I will also push back whenever I encounter anti-intellectualism in my own life, church life and work life.

Paul Barnett - Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity (2)

So, who was Jesus and what is he doing? The answer cannot be found by reading the pages of the Gospels in isolation from the covenant Scriptures of Israel. We need to have those Scriptures open in one hand and the Gospels in the other. Jesus can only be comprehended against the background of God's dealings with his covenant people (pp. 160-161).


Does Paul Barnett overstate his case in the last sentence? I think so. Jesus can be BETTER comprehended against the background of God's dealings with his covenant people. But surely not ONLY comprehended. However, I do need to better understand the OT.