New International Biblical Commentary Of Mark

One story that has been described throughout history is the passage in Mark located in the eighth chapter, verse twenty-seven through thirty-four. This certain passage is about Peter’s confession of Christ and when Jesus predicts His death. The passage fit into the flow of the book is because it foreshadows the death of Jesus. In the book “New International Biblical Commentary of Mark “explains “the next two sections of this chapter we see how this story provides a fitting introduction to the account of the disciple’s limited perception and their need for a filler understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ mission” (Hurtado, 1989, p.134). The passage advances the overall message and carries important themes of the book. According to Hurtado, the two sections give us an open acclamation of Jesus as Messiah and the first of three prediction of Jesus’ death, which triggers the

For example, the passage before which is Mark 8:22-26 explains how Jesus healed a blind man which foreshadows how Jesus’s disciples were blind about who He was. It give concrete examples to help explain a statement in the previous material. According to Brower, this story illuminates both of the previous stories and those that will follow. The disciples’ eyes and ears have been blind and deaf to his message and identity. The two stage restoration of the blind man’s sight by the touch of Jesus prefigures the metaphorical coming to sight of the disciples. But their insight into Jesus and the purpose of God comes only gradually (2012, p.226). It relates to the material after it because it provides the rest of the statements from Jesus which states “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it”.(Mark 8:35, NIV). According to Brower, “The cost of denying Jesus is expressed in terms of shame and honor. Death on a cross was unimaginably shameful in Jesus’ context.