Mark

Craig Keener is to commentaries what Stephen King is to novels. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On the plus side, you're getting thousands of pages of commentary, excursuses, notes and bibliography, so you're getting the type of attention to detail and topics not touched upon by standard commentaries. For example: Keener includes an excursus on the Shroud of Turin, something I never thought I'd see in biblical studies. On Mark 1:23 Keener gives seven entries on demons, possession and culture. The same detail is found in the commentary proper which prompted the publisher to reserve the excursuses for a separate volume. Reading Mark 1-4 I get the impression the book is fairly divided between text and footnotes with some pages having more footnotes than commentary. This commentary is so copious it is divided into four volumes. There are an additional three volumes for the introduction, excursuses, and bibliography making it rather unwieldy for people who prefer physical medium (not to mention people's pocket books). I'm sure there are those, like me, who may buy selectively. I purchased the Excursuses and Mark 1-4 (I ordered impulsively on a Sunday evening when I found the books steeply discounted on Bloomsbury's US website). Although the information contained is highly detailed, reading the commentary feels more like reading a catalogue or dictionary entries. I haven't quite felt the 'personality' of the writer the way one might get from reading Marcus, Hooker, Maloney, French, Garland, Black, Boring, or any other authors/scholars you could name. I'm not getting the 'thrust' of the commentary. Keener's approach appears to be more clinical, which certainly has its place. He seems to be keeping out of the way of the material. It also means you can open the commentary just about anywhere and start reading comfortably. As always knowledge of Greek is a benefit but not an absolute must. The physical books are handsome enough, with a very legible typeface and spacing for both the text and footnotes. The textblock is glued. It opens alright for reading, but does not lay flat. The paper stock used for the volume of excursuses is cheaper than the stock used for Mark 1-4 which surprised and disappointed me because the cost is the same. I am, however, left wondering if a different publisher might have served the material better. Certainly Eerdmann's or Baker would have offered better materials and binding at a competitive price point. Be that as it may, fans of Keener's meticulous approach will no doubt appreciate this latest effort as will those involved in Markan studies. I'm just a guy who enjoys commentaries so my assessment is less than scholarly. I've been excited for this commentary since it was announced and so far I'm not disappointed. I would like to read other volumes if I can find them at comparable discounts. I deducted half a point based on the number of volumes and materials used by the publisher which I cannot fault the author for. The content is five stars all the way for my purposes.