Title: YHWH’s All-Comfort Summary:With his first quotation, Mark pointed his audience’s eyes to the ‘good news’ of justice in the Incarnation. In verse three he turns our attention to the reality of comfort in the appearance of King Jesus, drawing from YHWH’s prophecy through Isaiah (40:1–5). Proclaimed to Judah prior to its exile in 587/586 […]

Title: “For Whom Is Justice ‘Good News’?” Summary: Mark continues his introduction to the ‘good news’ of Jesus by quoting two short texts from the First Testament. These lines link Mark’s readers to the greater story of Redemption, allusions to great episodes in history that set even greater expectations for what YHWH was going to […]

Title: “What Kind of ‘Good News’ Is This?” Summary: Mark begins his story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus with a vivid and demanding description: Jesus is the God-King. Writing to Gentiles during the middle of the 1st century A.D., Mark references politically and religiously-charged words that his audience was familiar with to […]