John Mark Hicks

Jesus sent (apostellein) his disciples with authority over demons and diseases (6:7). The apostles (apostoloi) returned reporting what “they had done and taught.” They followed Jesus into the practice of the kingdom of God—announcing the coming reign of God and demonstrating that reign by wondrous acts of mercy. The twelve had become apostles (cf. 3:14—they […]

Jesus leaves the shores of the Galilean lake and enters the Galilean hills east of the lake. Numerous Jewish villages, as well as a few Greco-Roman cities (like Sepphoris), dotted the hills of Galilee. One of those villages was Jesus’ own home town of Nazareth (Mark 1:9, 24). This is not necessarily the first time […]

Almost comically, Jesus is ferried back to the western side of the lack (presumably near Capernaum) apparently just after he arrived on the eastern shore. He was asked to leave and he left, but he finds himself again in the middle of a “large crowd” on the western shore. It seems as if Jesus can […]

Mark’s action-soaked narrative testifies to the identity of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He calms storms, exorcizes demons, heals diseases, and raises the dead. The question the disciples raised after Jesus calms the storm is answered by a demon named “Legion.” Ferried to the eastern side of the lake, “the region of Gerasenes,” Jesus encountered a […]

The Gospel of Mark is rightly characterized as an action-oriented telling of the story of Jesus. So, it is important to pay particular attention when the Gospel slows down to focus on the teaching of Jesus as it does in Mark 4. Mark offers a kind of synopsis of Jesus’s parabolic teaching. The Gospel stresses that […]