The Messiah of Peace

The telling of Mark's story of Jesus as the Messiah of peace in the decades following the Roman-Judean war announced a third way forward for Diaspora Judeans other than warfare against or separation from ""the nations."" Mark's Gospel was the story of the victory of a nonviolent Messiah who taught and practiced the ways of a new age of peace and reconciliation in contrast to the ancient and modern myth of redemptive violence. The Messiah of Peace is a performance-criticism commentary exploring a new paradigm of biblical scholarship that takes seriously the original experience of the Gospel of Mark as a lively story told to audiences rather than as a text read by readers. The commentary is correlated with the Messiah of Peace website, which features video recordings of the story in both English and Greek. Critical investigation of the sounds of the Markan passion-resurrection narrative reveals the identity of its original audiences as predominantly Judean with a minority of Gentile nonbelievers. Hearing the passion-resurrection story was an experience of involvement in the forces that led to the rejection and death of Jesus--an experience that brought on the challenges inherent in becoming a disciple of the Messiah of peace. ""Boomershine's new book marks a significant step forward in the emerging field of performance criticism. Combining decades of research in both Mark and ancient media culture, the author demonstrates the utility of orality research by addressing a number of well-established critical problems in the framework of a careful reading of Mark's passion account. This book offers significant new insights not only into Mark's gospel, but also new ways of thinking about exegesis of the New Testament."" --Tom Thatcher, Professor of New Testament, Cincinnati Christian University, Cincinnati, OH ""Tom Boomershine in The Messiah of Peace has truly shown light into the understanding of Mark as story, an approach that is relevant for students of the Bible and lovers of peace in Africa. The oral culture people in Africa need to hear the gospel as story in order to effect meaningful peace. This book is a useful scholarly commentary for all pastors, seminary students, and professors, as well as all lovers of the passion and resurrection of Jesus in Africa."" --George Vimensi Minang, Coordinator of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, Ndu, Cameroon ""Boomershine's book is the fruit of a life of engagement with Mark's passion narrative in order to understand the impact it made on those who first heard it. This commentary is a bold plea for all of us to reconsider everything we thought we had figured out regarding the way this account functioned in the ancient world. . . . Those who have ears to hear this book's compelling claims will understand that this is not just one more commentary on Mark's gospel, but is a prophetic call for a whole new paradigm of biblical study."" --Philip L. Ruge-Jones, Professor of Theology, Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, TX ""Boomershine's Messiah of Peace ambitiously moves readers toward a new paradigm in biblical interpretation: an appreciation of Mark's passion-resurrection story as interactive performance. When structured into sound units, the gospel's narrative voice draws hearers into the process of involvement and sympathetic identification. As a result, centuries of referential readings, be they of a theological or historical kind, are overcome, and interpretation is restored to what it used to be: meaning as narrative experience."" --Werner H. Kelber, Isla Carroll Turner and Percy E. Turner Professor emeritus of Biblical Studies, Rice University, Houston, TX