When you write on the Bible, one of the things that you should avoid, if you can, is flippancy. People tend to get riled up when you are flippant about Scripture because flippancy, gone bad, comes off more as “disrespectful” than “light and airy.” As a result, the flippant writer, even if unintentionally so, comes off as arrogant and “puffed up” (to use a good Pauline phrase from the Corinthian correspondence: Greek, physio – see how biblical this post is already?).But I love lists and everyone on the Internet gets to make lists, so why shouldn’t a biblical blogger have lists? (I do not believe this is an argument from authority or reason; it is more along the lines of “but everyone else is doing it.”) Initially, though, I do not want to create a list myself – greatest historical Jesus books of the last century (quake in anticipation, it is coming), best biblical movies, or top ten NT disciples – but a) to ask you what your favorite biblical book is and b) why (OT or NT, but only one). I know this can be an almost impossible task to choose only one out of many inspired texts, but keep in mind that choosing one book does not indicate a diminution of or rejection of the other books of the Bible. It is just an attempt to get a sense as to how a particular book has spoken to you, transformed you, guided you and challenged you.

This is my choice: The Gospel of Mark. I surprised myself by coming back to the Gospel of Mark, even as I tried out other options mentally, over and over. I love the dramatic simplicity of Mark and the constant focus on Jesus. Whenever I read it, I am constantly challenged to reaffirm my answer to the question, “who is Jesus?” and to consider it in new and deeper ways. I love the humanity of Jesus and the subtle way in which his divinity is revealed throughout the Gospel.

Think about it and then leave your choices in the comments section below. 

P.S. I will send out a copy of one of my books to anyone who answers “Letter of Jude,” really, really means it and can give compelling reasons for this choice. This is not flippancy, by the way, just inquisitiveness.

John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.