Mark 9:14-29

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• Reading the Text:
  • NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
  • Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
  • The Bible Gateway: NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
  • The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
  • The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary & sermons.
• Historical References, Commentary and Comparative Texts:
  • The Five Gospels Parallels, John W. Marshall, University of Toronto.
  • Comparative World Scriptures from United Communities of Spirit: Faith.
  • Comparative primary texts about Spirit Possession and Exorcism and Purity and Social Relations, from Philo, Josephus, Lucian, Pseudepigrapha, Babylonian Talmud, Midrash, Philostratus. At Mahlon H. Smith's (Rutgers University) Into His Own: Perspective on the World of Jesus.
  • From the Catena Aurea, Patristic Commentary by St Thomas Aquinas.
  • From the Geneva Notes.
    • "The nearer that the virtue of Christ is the far greater Satan rages."
  • From Matthew Henry's Commentary.
    • "But Satan is unwilling to be driven from those that have been long his slaves, and, when he cannot deceive or destroy the sinner, he will cause him all the terror that he can."
  • From Wesley's Notes.
    • "Although my faith be so small, that it might rather be termed unbelief, yet help me."
  • From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
    • "Thus the Lord helps the birth of faith in that struggling soul; and now, though with pain and sore travail, it comes to the birth."
  • From The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
    • "The faith which will be effectual must be a faith exercised in prayer."
• Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
  • A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8:27 - 10:52, Carl W. Conrad. (Click superscript numbers for commentary.)
  • "Jesus Heals an Epileptic that the Disciples Failed to Heal," Michael A. Turton's Historical Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, "a complete verse-by-verse commentary on the Gospel of Mark, focusing on the historicity of people, places, events, and sayings in the world of the Gospel of Mark."
  • "Faith and Unfaith," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed textual notes.
• Articles & Background:
  • "Mark 9: The Possessed Boy," wikipedia.
  • "Magic, Miracles, and The Gospel," L. Michael White. PBS From Jesus to Christ.
    • "Probably in some ways, and more than any other issue within the development of early Christianity and the gospels tradition, miracles present one of the problematic areas."
  • "Miracles, In Other Words: Social Science Perspectives on Healings," Jerome H. Neyrey, University of Notre Dame, 1995.
    • "...we should attend to the institution in which the healing takes place, either kinship or politics. What roles does the family have in an illness? How are they socially and economically affected? What role do they play in the seeking of a cure? What costs do they pay or debts to they incur? What if the healing occurs in the political realm, even if this is a healing shrine such as the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus? Healings, moreover, might have important political implications, for "prophets" arose, echoing themes of liberation and freedom. The political significance of the account of the healing by the Jewish Eleazar before the emperor Vespasian and his retinue should not be discounted (Josephus. Ant. 8.45-48)."
  • "Opening Blind Eyes: A Revisioning of Mark 8:22 - 10:52," Marie Noel Keller, Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2001.
    • "Keller argues that Mark uses the stories of the two blind men in his Gospel to serve as metaphors for his community...Their stories and the material within the frame of 8:22-10:52 work together to help his community learn the lessons they need in order to advance from the fear they are experiencing to follow Jesus boldly 'on the way.'"
• Recommended articles from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are linked below. ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices.
  • Capps, Donald, "Curing Anxious Adolescents through Fatherlike Performance," Interpretation, 2001.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
• Reviews:
• Sermons:
  • "What Can You Believe in a World Where It's Hard to Believe Anything?" the Rev. Dr. John Killinger, 30 Good Minutes, Chicago Sunday Evening Club, 1996.
• With Children:
  • Mark 9 & 10 Crossword, Don Crownover's Bible Puzzles.
• Drama:
• Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
• Hymns and Music:
  • Hymns with Scripture Allusions: Mark 9:23, 24. The Cyber Hymnal.
  • At Digital Hymnal (midi files, guitar chords, karaoke files, projection text):
    • Pass me Not, O Gentle Savior
• Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
• Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
  • Clean/Unclean
  • "Possession" by Evil
  • Faith
• Study Links and Resources for the Book of Mark