This is the parable about not hiding your light under a bushel, except I didn't realise it at first, because modern translations just say "people don't put their lamp under a basket", which makes a lot more sense ( Read more... )

Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ... Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Narrative deviceThis is another parable from the J K Rowling school of "try to persuade the listener it's obvious by acting all surprised that they don't know ( Read more... )

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.
Didn't we just have this? Yes, exactly the same thing happens again! I think this might be one of those bits where there was a famous story about ( Read more... )

Summary

Jesus says his true mothers and brothers are his fellow disciples.

Family tiesThe idea that we can be a family with God is a nice piece of Christianity, especially if your existing family is not worthy of the name ( Read more... )

Summary

Jesus' mother and brothers turn up looking for him.

Biological brothers

The first thing to note is that Jesus has brothers. There's no reason to be sure these are Jesus' full brothers, but conversely, there's no reason to be sure they're not either. I don't see anything wrong with the natural interpretation that they're probably ( Read more... )

Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.
Ooh, controversial ( Read more... )

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

Beelzebub

So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?"
Modern readings tend to run lucifer and beelzebub and satan and so on all together, I ( Read more... )

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed ( Read more... )

Content

Jesus goes to the lake.
People from several specifically named nearby regions flock to him.
People were crowding him because of his reputation for healing, so he went out on a boat.
Unclean spirits fell down before him crying out "you are the son of God". He said "Yes, but don't tell anyone!"

AnalysisI don't have much to say about this. I ( Read more... )

My gospel readthrough is falling very behind. I skipped the end of chapter 2, which I didn't have anything to say about, and here's the beginning of chapter 3. Not all of this is in Mark, I'm taking some of it from the description of the same incident in Matthew ( Read more... )