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CHAPTER 1 .

THE BAPTIST. THE BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS. BEGINNINGS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY.

Mark 1:1-8. The appearance and ministry of the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-12, Luke 3:1-18).

Mark 1:1. ἀρχὴ, etc.: This verse may best be taken as the superscription of the whole Gospel, and as meaning: Here begins the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God. So viewed it should be made to stand apart, Mark 1:2 beginning a new section as in the Greek Testament of W. and H.[1] If we connect Mark 1:1 closely with Mark 1:2-4 it will contain the statement that the Gospel of Jesus Christ began with the ministry of the Baptist. On this view the connection of the sentences may be taken in two ways: either Mark 1:1 may be joined closely to Mark 1:2, the resulting sense being: the beginning of the Gospel (was) as it is written = was in accordance with the prophetic oracle predicting the introduction of Messiah by a forerunner, the story of the Baptist then following as the fulfilment of the prophecy; or Mark 1:2-3 may be bracketed as a parenthesis, and Mark 1:1 connected with Mark 1:4, yielding this sense: the beginning of the Gospel was or became (ἐγένετο) John the Baptist. All three ways give a perfectly good meaning. In favour of the first view is the absence of the article before ἀρχὴ; against it has been alleged (Holtzmann, H. C.) that καθὼς in Matthew and Mark always connects with what goes before, never introduces a protasis as in Luke 6:31.—τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰ. Χ., the good news concerning, not preached by, Ἰ. Χ. being genitive objective; not quite the evangelic record, but on its way to that final meaning of εὐαγγέλιον. “Christ” here appears as a proper name, as in Matthew 1:1.—υἱοῦ τ. Θεοῦ: this title, even if omitted, is implicit in the title Christ, but it is every way likely to have formed a part of the original text, as indicating the point of view in which Jesus is to be presented to readers of the Gospel. Without assuming any acquaintance on the part of the evangelist with the Gospel of the Infancy in Matthew and Luke we may say that this title takes the place of the opening chapters in these Gospels. It is all that Mark offers to gratify the curiosity to which these chapters owe their origin. Who is this remarkable Personage of whom you write? He is “the Son of God”. How much that was meant to convey cannot be certainly determined.

[1]W. and H. Westcott and Hort.

Mark 1:2-4. καθὼς introduces a prophetic citation as protasis to the historical statement about John in Mark 1:4 = in accordance with, etc., John appeared. The prophetic reference and the historical statement are given in inverse order in Matthew.—ἐν τῷ Ἠσαίᾳ, in Isaiah, the actual quotation being from Isaiah and Malachi (Mark 1:2) conjointly. An inaccuracy doubtless, but not through an error of memory (Meyer and Weiss), but through indifference to greater exactness, the quotation from Isaiah being what chiefly occupied the mind. It is something analogous to attraction in grammar. It is Mark’s only prophetic citation on his own account.—ἰδοὺ begins the quotation from Malachi 3:1, given as in Matthew 11:10, with μου, after προσώπου and ὁδόν, changed into σου.

Mark 1:3. Quotation from Isaiah 40:3 as in Matthew 3:3.

Mark 1:4. ἐγένετο Ἰ.: in accordance with, and in fulfilment of, these prophetic anticipations, appeared John.—ὁ βαπτίζων = the Baptist (substantive participle), that the function by which he was best known.—εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν: this clause (in Luke, not in Matthew) may plausibly be represented as a Christianised version of John’s baptism (Weiss), but of course John’s preaching and baptism implied that if men really repented they would be forgiven (Holtz., H. C.).

Mark 1:5-8. Mark 1:5 describes the widespread character of the movement much as in Mt., only that Judaea comes before Jerusalem, and the district of the Jordan is not mentioned.

Mark 1:6 describes John’s way of life as in Mt., ἐνδεδυμένος standing for εἶχεν τὸ ἔνδυμα, and ἔσθων for ἡ τροφὴ ἦν.

Mark 1:7. καὶ ἐκήρυσσεν, introducing a special and very important part of his kerygma: inter alia he kept saying—anxious to prevent men from forming a wrong impression of his position. This is what makes mention of his ministry relevant in the evangelic record.—λῦσαι τὸν ἱμάντα, to loose the latchet of, instead of τὰ ὑποδ. βαστάσαι; a stronger expression of subordination, practically the same idea.