DRAMATIC CENTERPIECE OF THE BOOK OF MARK
Dr. Mike Armour (1988)
"To be honest, I ignored Mark 13 for years, perhaps subconsciously avoided it. To say the least, my view of it was superficial; it was a strange chapter filled with strange language in an otherwise simple book. Only in the most general ways did I see a connection between this passage and the rest of Mark's story. But no longer is this so. Today, when I survey Mark, chapter point toward it; the later chapters draw from it. Its paragraphs embody the major themes of the book. To miss its import, in my judgment, it to miss Mark's purpose altogether." ("Jesus' Teaching on the Mount of Olives," in The Lifestyle of Jesus, p. 142)
Dr. Craig L. Blomberg (1989)
"It is also noteworthy that, although Mark has fewer teachings of Jesus than the other three Gospels, the one extensive "sermon" that he preserves in Christ's eschatological discourse (chap. 13). One plausible analysis of Mark's narrative flow sees the entire Gospel building towards and foreshadowing the structure of this major sermon." (Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction, p. 120)
Dr. George Eldon Ladd (1964)
"There is no passage in the gospels more replete with critical and exegetical difficulties than the Olivet Discourse." (Jesus and the Kingdom, p. 305)
Dr. James W. Thompson (1971)
"Mark 13 has long been an enigmatic text for exegetes. It stands in Mark as the final discourse of Jesus, in which the small circle of disciples (13:1) are to come to understand their situation in the end time. The final discourse contains both warnings and apocalyptic features, indicating that the disciples are to understand their existence as part of the last days." ("The Gentile Mission As an Eschatological Necessity," Restoration Quarterly 14, p. 20)
Dr. David Wenham (1984)
"There are perhaps no more difficult chapters in the gospels than the chapters containing Jesus' eschatological discourse, i.e. Matthew 24,25, Mark 13, Luke 21." (The Rediscovery of Jesus' Eschatological Discourse, p. 305)
