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It's quieter there, and no spiritual warfare rages these days. I couldn't resist this last paragraph. It is a joke, friends! But dealing with demons IS messy business. Jesus' presence has a way of bringing out the best in men and women -- and the worst. There is no spiritual neutrality as one of his disciples. If we dare to operate in God's power, there'll be some power confrontations that aren't too pretty. We need to look carefully at the text to understand what's going on. So let's start at the beginning. The passage we're studying examines Jesus' ministry to cast out demons. Please read in conjunction with this lesson my essay entitled "Demonization and Deliverance in Jesus' Ministry" http: After escaping martyrdom in Nazareth, Jesus returns to Capernaum, literally goes "down.
Capernaum, is a town near the water's edge at the north end of the lake at an elevation of feet below sea level. Nazareth had been Jesus' hometown, now he moves to Capernaum and makes it his new base of operations. Its original meaning in classical Greek is "close to that of town, the oldest term for a fortified settlement or a larger settlement in general. In the New Testament, however, the word doesn't carry these political connotations. It means simply "an enclosed place of human habitation as distinct from uninhabited areas, pastures, villages, and single houses.
Even at its largest population during the Byzantine period, it comprised only about 1, people. When Jesus "began to teach the people" in Capernaum, it was apparently in the town's synagogue. Jesus' ministry of teaching out-of-doors hadn't become necessary yet for two reasons: As yet he was hardly a blip on the religious establishment's radar, and Capernaum is far from the powers that be in Jerusalem.
If you visit the site of Capernaum today, you'll see the ruins of a rather elegant white synagogue built in the late Fourth Century AD. See the photos I took in at http: The synagogue in which Jesus taught is no longer standing. But excavations in trenches under the central nave of the prayer hall in the white synagogue, beginning in , exposed the stone pavement of the First Century synagogue built by the Roman centurion Luke 7: When Jesus did begin to teach in the synagogue, however, he startled people: They were used to commentary on scripture and on other commentators in the scribal tradition.
But when Jesus taught, he taught authoritatively, with the Spirit upon him. He spoke more like a prophet than a scribe, with a "Thus saith the Lord I didn't win one that day but my friends told me this book was one of their kids' favorites so I ordered the hardcover copy since it would be easier for us to read and for my kids to look at. The Jesus Storybook Bible contains many stories from both the Old and New Testaments that children would be likely to hear at Sunday School or kids' groups that teach Bible lessons.
The book is pages long and contains 21 stories from the Old Testament and 23 stories from the New Testament. Each story ranges from about six to ten pages in length and contains beautiful, colorful pictures that go along with the stories. When we received this Bible, my kids initially weren't too interested in it but they started asking for me to read it after awhile.
My son, especially, loves it and calls it the "Bible book.
I love that the stories are paraphrased for kids to make the stories simple and easy to understand, not to mention FUN! The stories are told in words that kids are likely to understand and they are easy for parents to explain if an explanation is needed. I'd say the stories take about ten minutes to read, give or take a few if you take some extra time to explain more of the story or the pictures so they would be great for bedtime stories.
I cannot recommend this book enough because my kids LOVE it! They weren't too interested in this Bible at first but now they love it and ask for me to read it fairly often. There are a lot of stories that kids are likely to hear in Sunday School so this would be a great book to help reinforce their learning and understanding of them. I'm so glad we purchased this Bible for my twins, who are now four.
It's a fun way for them to learn Bible stories and it would make a great gift for many children! I bought this deluxe edition specifically for the cds that went along with it. My 4yo loves listening to books on cd so I was disappointed that there were no page-turn signals. As a non-reader, she can't follow along by herself and found it frustrating.
I already own the original version of the Jesus Storybook Bible and love it , so I would not have bought this one as well. See all 3, reviews. See all customer images. Most recent customer reviews. Published 6 days ago. Published 11 days ago. Published 16 days ago. Published 19 days ago.
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AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. Amazon Inspire Digital Educational Resources. Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. They are fishing , a large business then in Galilee. He only appears three times in Mark, here, and in Mark 3: They follow him and then soon come upon James and John whom he will name the Sons of Thunder in 3: Mark does not relate that Jesus convinced them to follow him in any way. Mark simply has them follow him without question. Kilgallen argues that historically this calling was not so sudden, with perhaps a prior meeting, but Mark has shortened it for extra effect to emphasize total devotion to Jesus.
Mark says they had nets in Mark 1: Karris argues this shows they had money and a high probability of being educated, with a knowledge of the Jewish Bible. Others point to Acts 4: Philip and Nathanael are then called secondly, not James and John. The calling of disciples is also found in Luke 5: Jesus and the four go to Capernaum , which Mark has as Jesus's center of activity and Jesus teaches in the synagogue on the sabbath.
Gathering disciples students and teaching are thus the first part of what Jesus does to proclaim the kingdom of God. Mark does not relate what Jesus taught, which could mean he left it out because he did not deem it important enough for his book or because he did not know what Jesus taught there. Some archaeologists believe a synagogue in Capernaum that has been excavated lies on top of the synagogue that existed at this time that would have been the one Jesus would have gone to. The scribes would answer questions in a traditional, official manner, see also Pharisaic Principles and Values.
Jesus in Mark operates on no authority but his own judgement. He then performs an exorcism on a demon possessed man. Curing people, especially possessed people, will be another major method Jesus uses in his mission in Mark. Jesus simply says "Be quiet, and come out of him! The people are amazed. This follows a path Mark often uses, that of a description of the affliction, Jesus' cure of the affliction, and then a demonstration of the cure to others. There were several people who were claimed to have the ability to perform exorcisms in the ancient world and many ancient opponents of Christianity dismissed Jesus as just another magician.
Parallels in Hellenistic cultural stories of exorcisms differ in that they usually involve an associated disease , which is not the case here. Meier sees a clear distinction between these incidents and descriptions of magicians at the time. They go to Peter and Andrew's house and Jesus cures Peter's sick mother-in-law.
The house was presumably near the synagogue. She then gets up and helps Jesus and his companions. Attending to her guests would have been her social duty in the Jewish culture. Karris argues for this event's historicity, perhaps based on an eyewitness.
Peter is clearly listed here as having a wife, as Jesus healed his mother-in-law. Paul says that other Apostles , Cephas Peter , and Jesus' brothers have wives, but not him, in 1 Corinthians 9: See also Clerical celibacy. It is now night. Mark says "That evening after sunset …," one of his examples of redundancy as evening and after sunset are really the same thing repeated.
When we received this Bible, my kids initially weren't too interested in it but they started asking for me to read it after awhile. Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing. He would spend eternity with His loving Creator. They were sure that Jesus could heal their friend, so they carried him to the home where Jesus was. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four other people.
Neither Luke and Matthew retain this redundancy. By this time word has spread and the people have brought the sick and possessed for Jesus to heal, which he does. Mark says the "whole city" came to see Jesus, which is probably an exaggeration. Both Luke and Matthew just state there were many people. The demons leaving the possessed people are not allowed to tell people who Jesus is, a common theme of Mark called the Messianic Secret. Jesus is able to cure every affliction of the people who come to see him. He then leaves town very early in the morning for solitary prayer.
He says "Let us go somewhere else", to the nearby villages and he will preach to them there also. He cures a leper who comes to him asking for a cure and tells him to show the priests and offer the cleaning sacrifices Moses had commanded Leviticus , but not to tell people that Jesus had done it.
Jesus here seems to stress the importance of the Mosaic law , see also Expounding of the Law. This episode is also recorded in the Egerton Gospel 2: People have seen Jesus telling the man to be quiet about what had happened as related to the Messianic Secret, although it could be Jesus just telling the man to immediately go to the priests. Leprosy could mean many skin diseases, such as favus or psoriasis.