M.F. Sadler was an Anglican priest. He served as rector of Honiton, England, and wrote several other commentaries, including volumes on each of the four Gospels. SADLER, MICHAEL FERREBEE (1819-1895), theologian, eldest son of Michael Thomas Sadler [q. v.], was born at Leeds in 1819. Educated at Sherborne school, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, after a short interval of business life. He was elected Tyrwhitt's Hebrew scholar in 1846, and graduated B.A. 1847. He was vicar of Bridgwater from 1857 to 1864 (during which time he was appointed to the prebend of Combe, 13th in Wells Cathedral), and of St. Paul's, Bedford, from 1864 to 1869; he was rector of Honiton from 1869 till his death. In 1869 he received an offer of the bishopric of Montreal, carrying with it the dignity of metropolitan of Canada, but refused it on medical advice. He was a voluminous writer on theological subjects, and a strong high churchman. His works, which had a large circulation, did much to popularise the tractarian doctrines.

The world to which the Gospel of Mark introduces its reader is a world of conflicts and suspense, enigmas and secrets, questions and overturning of evidence, irony and surprise. Its principal actor, Jesus, is perplexing in the extreme. He is evidently so for the religious authorities who oppose him, but also for his disciples, who shift from incomprehension to opposition and flight. Questions of meaning, life and death, good and evil are continually broached. This narrative is a subtle invitation to enter into a new world, that of the coming Reign of God, in which the first are last and whoever wants to save his life must lose it. This commentary on the Gospel of Mark has been enthusiastically reviewed in the French edition as one of the best current commentaries on Mark. As a narrative critical commentary, it favors an interpretation of the Gospel that tries to grasp the dynamic of the text taken as a whole. Even if the technical vocabulary of narrative analysis is not used, and the main results of the historical-critical criticism, particularly those of redaction criticism, are not neglected, as the notes will reveal, it is narrative criticism that guides the proceedings.