Mark (New Testament Library Series)

I rated this commentary only 4 stars because of the following reservations:\\r\\n1. Boring interpreted the Gospel solely from the perspective of the early church (70 CE). In doing so, he discounted on many occasions the historicity of the gospel traditions. I am not entirely sure whether this is doing justice in interpreting Jesus' teachings and ministry solely from the perspective of the Markan congregation. \\r\\n2. I enjoyed very much the insights of the commentary. The comments on the calming of the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and the Gerasene Demoniac (Mark 5:1-20) are brilliant. Unfortunately, the same insightfulness is not maintained especially in the latter part of the commentary. For instance, in his comments on Mark 9:49-50: after providing some brief remarks about the background and parallel verses, Boring concluded: """"but the fact is, here we have one of the New Testament passages that defy interpretation"""". The lame remark is really rather disappointing.