Call For Papers: Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context

See the embedded flyer below.  Feel free to download it, share it with others, and by all means, feel free to submit an abstract.

Call For Papers: Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context

I just wanted to remind folks of the call for papers for this year's "Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context" meeting, which will take place at the annual SCJC.  We still have a couple of open spots for papers, so, if you or anyone you know might be interested in submitting a title + abstract, please, forward this link or flyer on to them.  

Midwest SBL Paper Accepted

I just got word that my submission to the annual Midwest SBL meeting has been accepted. There, I will be presenting in the Gospels section and I will be building upon my previous work "Was Mark Framed? : Killing the Messenger in Mark’s Tragedy," 5th Annual Western Fellowship of Professors and Scholars, Manhattan, KS, October 8-9, 2010. The paper for Midwest that I am offering is titled: "Behold, I Send My Messenger" : The Content and Contour of Mark’s Tragedy. In April, I will take another approach to this topic when I present at a conference in Cincinnati, a paper titled "A Fine Tale Beautifully Told": Unmasking the Tragic Elements of Mark's Story. Additionally, I will be presenting at least 3 (but probably 4) other research papers at various conferences this spring, which means that this semester, I will have reached my 25th paper presentation. Needless to say, I'm up to my head in research and writing these days!

Call For Papers: Mark's Gospel In Mediterranean Context

I am pleased to announce the "Call for Papers" for this year's session "Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context" which will be held in Cincinnati, OH at the annual Stone-Campbell Journal Conference. If you have an interest in Mark's Gospel and the socio-cultural context that intersects with it, submit your title and abstract to the email address listed on the flyer to the left (michael dot halcomb at asburyseminary dot edu). In addition to our wonderful session on Mark's Gospel this year, three wonderful keynote speakers will also be speaking on the topic of the "Extraordinary" that is, "The Body, Demons, and Miracles." This year's keynote speakers are: Luke Timothy Johnson (Emory University), who will present "The Body and Resurrection in Corinthians: The Ontological Body and the Social Body", Loren Stuckenbruck (Princeton Theological Seminary), who will speak on "Demonology in the Synoptic Gospels" and Barry Blackburn (Atlanta Christian College), who will address the topic of "The Miracles of Jesus Viewed From Above". See more HERE.

Wordplay in Mark's Story: Studies in Mark, Pt. 86

Today, while working my way through Mark’s story, an interesting but simple thought came to mind: Mark’s narrative contains some great wordplay. In this short study / post, I want to share just a few examples of where I think Mark’s wordsmithing shows up (which definitely makes the story more fun to read).

One example is Mk. 1.1. Notice how in this verse, there is a lot of rhyming: του ευαγγελιου ιησου υιυο θεου. Another example stems from that phrase υιυο θεου. Of course, in English that translates to “Son of God”. The phrase appears a number of times throughout the rest of the narrative. Now, I think something interesting occurs when this relationship is underscored in 14.36 when Jesus prays saying αββα ο πατερ (abba ho pater), which, in English, is “Father, my Father” / “Father, the Father”. Of course, “abba” is Semitic and is often appears in context with the word “באר” (bar). “Bar” means “Son”. So, here, we see the relationship between the “Son” and the “Father”. Now, it is right after this (15.7) that Jesus is taken to trial and He as the “Bar Abba” or “Son of the Father” is tried in the place of “Barabbas” (βαραββας) which means “son of a father” or “son of a rabbi”. Nice wordplay!

Another fun example of this, I think, shows up in Mk. 4.24. In Greek, the wording looks like this: εν ω μετρω μετρειτε μετηθησεται υμιν και προστεθησεται υμιν. Notice the three similar words right in the middle of the sentence “metro metreite metethesetai”. While most English translations gloss this over rather heavily making it smoother to read, it should literally be rendered: “With the measure you measure it will be measured unto you.” What an interesting little quip.

Of course, there is much more wordplay that exists in Mark’s story but these are just some examples that I was thinking about today and thought I’d share. Do you know of any others or are there any others in Mk. that you like? Share them with us!

*This post has been added to the "Studies in Mark" page.

More On Mark's Gospel...

So, in addition to a pretty sweet snowblower that will come in handy this winter, I got a nice gift card to B&N. So, I picked up some books online, of course, more on Mark's Gospel:

Mark's Gospel At Christmastime

Yesterday, we spent some time with my mother's side of the family and exchanged gifts. I recieved a few gifts but my two favorite were:

At present, these are the only two presentations of Mark on video that exist. Each of them are actually one-man-plays (or monologues). In many ways, these are better than movies because they are closer to what the oral presentation of the Gospel might have looked and sounded like in the first-century. I'm excited to watch and re-watch these in the days to come.