Keeping Up with Jesus

What is a “narrative devotional commentary”? It’s a new way to gain insight into a Bible book with commentary that flows much like the source text. For those who may have found the gospel of Mark less helpful than the other gospels or who have looked at it more as a collection of stories strung together in order to get us to the end of Jesus’ life, this commentary could be a breakthrough. Allan Bevere follows the story while at the same time bringing insight, both from historical sources and from the history and the faith of the Church. As he does so, the gospel of Mark comes alive as we learn to hear in these stories a connected story leading to who Jesus was, and then who Jesus is. This short commentary avoids the pitfalls of enumerating dry details on the one hand, while also sticking to a serious, scholarly approach to the text. You can read clear, well-founded ideas about the text in a devotional way without the distraction of excessive notes or long, complex excurses. This book is suitable for a popular audience who will be led to a more serious understanding of the gospel writers, of Jesus, and of the Gospel that they proclaimed. More scholarly readers will find it a good aid to meditation and to absorbing the devotional message of the text.