This Free Commentary Will Have You Reading Ancient Insights in Seconds

June’s free book of the month is here! It’s a free commentary on Mark, offering insights into this synoptic Gospel.

Excerpts from Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine, Tertullian, Irenaeus, and more illuminate passages in a surprisingly readable way. From these Church fathers who lived centuries ago, we can glean application for the modern Christian life.

The insights below come from just the first chapter of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volume on Mark, only a few verses in. 

3 insights from Church fathers in June’s free book

1. Origen: Prepare your heart through living a holy life

“The way of the Lord must be prepared within the heart; for great and spacious is the heart of man, as if it were a whole world. But see its greatness, not in bodily quantity, but in the power of the mind which enables it to encompass so great a knowledge of the truth. Prepare, therefore, in your hearts the way of the Lord, by a worthy manner of life. Keep straight the path of your life, so that the words of the Lord may enter in without hindrance.”¹

2. Jerome: To revere Christ above comfort, remove temptations

“John the Baptist had a religious mother and his father was a priest. Yet neither his mother’s affection nor his father’s affluence could induce him to live in his parents’ house at the risk of the world’s temptations. So he lived in the desert. Seeking Christ with his eyes, he refused to look at anything else. His rough garb, his girdle made of skins, his diet of locusts and wild honey were all alike designed to encourage virtue and continence. Later the spiritual descendants of the prophets, who were the monks of the Old Testament, would build for themselves huts by the waters of Jordan and forsaking the crowded cities live in these on pottage and wild herbs. As long as you are at home, make your cell your paradise, gather there the varied fruits of Scripture, let them be your favorite companions, and take its precepts to your heart.”²

3. Bede: We should model the image of a dove and live simply and graciously

“The image of a dove is placed before us by God so that we may learn the simplicity favored by him. So let us meditate on the nature of the dove, that from each one of its features of innocence we may learn the principles of a more becoming life. The dove is a stranger to malice. So may all bitterness, anger, and indignation be taken away from us, together with all malice. The dove injures nothing with its mouth or talons, nor does it nourish itself or its young on tiny mice or grubs, as do almost all smaller birds. Let us see that our teeth are not weapons and arrows.”³

Get the commentary on Mark free today, and check out three more commentaries for under $20.