General Observation

As a writer, I am disappointed in the quality of writing in the most important book in history. There are three big reasons why we find writing quality lacking - three resons which are quite often easy to forget:

1) God chose his human instruments on criteria other than rhetorical skills.

2) God's message is being filtered through men and was written for men to understand. Men between 2000 and 6000 years ago - which has to be translated into modern language - to make the situation more interesting.

3) We will never know the full meaning of God's message so long as mere language is the best tool to convey it. God's message is too huge, varied, multi-dimensional and colorful for our meat-based minds to comprehend. Running God's message through human language is like running the Pacific Ocean through a garden hose - nobody will receive the full impact of it until they meet Him in person.

Mark 6 - Overview

If it weren't for the segment headers in my NIV and NASB, Mark's writing would make no sense - it all runs together. Mark's book would better be served (and would better serve) as a book of 50 or so smaller chapters.

Mark 6:47-52

The disciples are still unsettled by Jesus's miracles, even after witnessing one after another. Jesus will continue to amaze even those that know Him, and you'll never get used to Him.

Mark 6: 30-34

Jesus is already a rockstar. His roadies (the disciples) can't even stop for a bite to eat without drawing a crowd.

Mark 6:14-29

If you're going to the strip club, leave the gold card at home. Only offer what you're willing to pay.

Mark 6:4

1) No matter how great you become, your brothers will always remember when you peed the bed. 2) Keeping gifts to yourself and close friends is a waste of said gift.

Mark 5:37-42

Even those who believe in Jesus can be astonished by his power. Peter, James and John worked with Jesus every day and even they were picking their jaws up off the ground.

Mark 5:21-34

Graphic evidence that faith in Jesus heals. Touching the garments wasn't what cured her - clothes are clothes.

Mark 5:1-20

Demons fear Jesus, Jesus cuts them a break (for what reason?) and lets the demons infect some pigs, infected pigs drown themselves. Herders notice, tell the people in the city, city kicks Jesus out... AGAIN! Moral of the story - don't mess with BLT's.

Mark 4:36-41

Jesus keeps the disciples on their toes by doing nothing about a storm until they cry out for His help. The function of this is two-fold: first is shown that the disciples still have no idea of how much power Jesus truly has (nor will any of us ever comprehend it), and second that Jesus's power is always with us, even - or especially - when things are at their worst. We simply need to remember to call upon Him and He will provide.

He might give you a "What took you so long?" barb, but hey, He's allowed... He's Jesus.

Mark 4:33-34

The parable-style of illustrative speaking was about the only way to get the message of the New Covenant through to the masses. The people of the day were largely uneducated (and their betters liked it that way), so just reading the Covenant like a news article would have missed the mark - and/or gotten Jesus stomped by a crowd for blasphemy. The parable delivers the message to them at an angle, so the people understand it before they realize it differs with their previous teachings.

Mark 4:21-25

This is why I've always loved Jesus even when I wasn't much of a follower. Sure, he could have just said "All are equal before the eyes of God," but here he chooses to turn that principle inside out by saying basically Don't take crap from The Man, but never think you're above The Law."

Mark 4:12 (Isaiah 6:9-10)

Upon first reading, it sounded like Jesus didn't want certain people to convert, but that didn't make sense. After further immersion into the original Isaiah passage in the NASB, what I gathered is that simple recitation and memorization of the scripture is not the way to serve the Lord. You have to understand God's word to live it.

As an example - does anybody truly heed the Pledge of Allegiance? Would you lay your life down to protect a piece of cloth? Many have and will lay their lives down "to the Republic for which it stands", but the Pledge is an AND proposition - the Flag AND the Republic. You're saying that you will give or take a life in order to protect a piece of cloth. You say it twenty times a month or so. Blindly. Rotely. Rhythmically. It means jack squat.

The same thing can happen with Bible verses. Reading and memorizing them is all fine and good, but if you don't consider what they mean, all you're doing is filling up your mental hard drive. In Biblical times, back before literacy was a popular thing, the only way for the masses to remember scripture was through memorization as repeated by their temple leaders. Since they spent all their mental energy on memorization, many of the citizens failed to comprehend the meaning. Through the generations, those who memorized the scripture most accurately were promoted through the highest ranks of the temple, which compounded the problem of emphasis on memorization over understanding more and more throughout the generations until Jesus came to set the record straight.

Isaiah told you kids to watch out, but when Jesus came along... well... your Father came home.

Mark 3:20-30

After the Scribes from Jerusalem (basically God's publishing company) publicly brand Jesus as the spawn of Satan, Jesus runs the score up on his loudmouth detractors. If He were a demon, how could He possibly chase out other demons? That made no logical sense. Yet before the Scribes could slink away with their tails between their legs, Jesus turns the tables on them saying they created blasphemy by denouncing the Holy Spirit.

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus pretty much tears it with the Pharisees by healing a man on the Sabbath right in the synagogue. Performing such an act on Sabbath right in the synagogue would be the ancient Jewish equivalent of crashing the Pharisees party, drinking their beer, stealing their girlfriend, then kicking their dog on the way out the door. Not only did Jesus break their laws in their house, he did so by helping out somebody the Pharisees refused to help, thereby making the New Covenant look a heck of a lot more in line with a caring God than the Pharisees practices.

The Pharisees now knew Jesus *had- to be silenced... permanently.

Mark 2:21-22

That's a tough one, but what I think Jesus is saying here is that His new covenant will not fit into the old standards and practices of Judaism, or more specifically, the Pharisees. If you want to follow Him, you'll have to abadon the old ways completely, trust in Him completely, and follow His direction absolutely.

Updates and Background

The bulk of my readings will be from the New International Version (NIV). The NIV is the easiest read, as it translates entire phrases - thus more likely to convert idioms and colloqualisms more accurately. When the NIV doesn't make sense, I'll look the troublesome verse up in my New American Standard Bible (NASB), which offers more of a word-for-word translation. I will also consult the NASB if the NIV offers me two or more different meanings. If the NASB still offers me multiple meanings, you'll hear about that, too.

Note that I will be studying every day, but not necessarily posting every day. I'm about nine chapters behind as it is, but I took notes - hopefully I can catch up pretty quickly

Further, I won't be publishing actual verses, just my interpretations, meditations and/or musings upon their significance. Printing one verse at a time kicks the door open for verses to be taken out of context, which is how trouble brews and cults get started. Besides, you're supposed to be reading along with me, remember?

Mark 1:40-45

Jesus heals a leper in Galilee (let's call him Bob), then asks Bob to give credit to the local priests. Jesus knows that the priests of his day hate competition - especialy if the competition gets stuff done, and even moreso if the competition does it for free.

Priests pretty much ran the show back then. They were the de facto mayor, judges and juries of small towns. Since literacy rates were appalingly low, priests were often the only people in small towns who could read and write, so their interpretation of scripture pretty much stood unchallenged. This gave them an inordinate amount of power to massage the message to their own benefit. If some guy comes rolling into town with a new interpretation of scripture and pretty much backs His up by healing folks on the spot, local priests lose their meal tickets.

Because Bob ignored Jesus's request to give it up to Galilee's priest and told everybody who healed him (including Galilee's priest), now everybody knows who to watch out for - the citizenry for help, and the other local priests for competition. Thus word will go through the local priests' grapevine about Jesus and precede His arrivals. The other local priests will have Him banned from cities as a heretic or demon, so He'll have to set up shop outside of town. Citizens will still go to see Him, however, because they knew Bob's skin used to look like moldy Swiss cheese, but now he's fine and dandy.

The net effect - Jesus and his disciples don't get to sleep in nice places. The fear was that Jesus wouldn't get to share the Word with as many people since he can't hit the major population centers, but the word of mouth basically made wherever He set up camp the new major population center, albeit temporarily.

Mark 1:1-20

This reads like Mark was following Jesus for a few months or so when he thought to himself, "Oh, crap! I should have been writing all this cool stuff down!" then tried like mad to remember as much as he could for his first entry.

Purpose

I've just gotten back into reading the Bible seriously for the first time in about... oh... 300 months or so. I'm taking a loosely-arranged course through it as inspired by a converstion with Pastor Mike of Grace Summit Community Church of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. www.gracesummit.org

I'm sharing my thoughts, interpretations, surmisings and musings as a new middle-aged follower who likes to write. The hope is that there are a few people out ther ein the Blogosphere who have interest in the Bible and like to read what other people get out of it - especially maturish people reading the Bible through fresh eyes for the first time who fancy themselves as entertaining writers.

Comments are very welcomed.

Thanks!

Carl