Bolt on Gethsemane
Posted by BryanApr 19
I’ve been reading Peter Bolt’s book The Cross From A Distance: Atonement In Mark’s Gospel, which explores how the cross and the crucifixion event is interwoven into the entire narrative of Mark’s Gospel- and what each section can teach us about the atonement. The book has been a great read so far, and I wanted to highlight a quote that I just read that highlights the disjunct between Jesus and his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane:
“Jesus realizes that it is the great time of trial (v. 38), and he urges the disciples to watch and pray so that they might not succumb to it. This adds to the drama of the scene. Jesus is at one end of the garden, struggling against the great cosmic battle about to be fought, and the disciples are at the other end, struggling to stay awake against the weakness of their mortality. This reinforces the fact that jesus will face this battle alone. He alone can embrace this hour.” (pg 110)





6 comments
Comment by Jacob on April 19, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Nice. Mark is structurally incredible. It is definitely the most detailed and most action-oriented of the gospels. It’s a smart, pithy, deliberate piece of literary art and is under-appreciated. I’ll have to pick up this book.
Comment by Bryan on April 19, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I highly recommend it. It’s a great book. I disagree (for now, anyways) on some of his work on Mark 13. But we can talk about that over a pipe one day.
Comment by Scripture Zealot on April 19, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Thanks for mentioning this. It looks really good.
Jeff
Comment by Alex S. Leung on April 20, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Great quote bro.
I wish I had the money to get this book lol…
Comment by Bryan on April 20, 2009 at 7:04 pm
When you get the money- grab it. This whole series (New Studies in Biblical Theology) looks to be fantastic.
Comment by brian on April 24, 2009 at 10:04 am
they NSBT books are good – there lots of good books in that series. I one on missions and pastoral theology that are pretty good.