Baptism of Jesus

Mark 1:10 NIV

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

Mark 1:10 NIV

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

from Nazareth A small town in Galilee. Jesus seems to have spent the majority of His childhood and youth years, and perhaps His early adulthood, in Nazareth (Matt 2:23; Luke 4:16). He does not begin His adult ministry until around age 30 (Luke 3:231

Galilee The northernmost region of Palestine. After the death of Herod the Great in 4 bc, his son, Antipas, administered Galilee1

heavens being split apart Evokes the language of Isa 64:1–2. Isaiah 64 is about the awesome arrival of God’s presence and the need for sinful people to be saved; the passage has in view both the Jewish people and the nations (the entire world). In culmination of Isa 64, Jesus’ baptism marks the arrival of God’s presence (compare Mark 1:15).

Spirit This connects Jesus to Isa 42:1, where God states that He will put His Spirit on His Servant. It portrays Jesus as the anointed Servant in Isaiah who is commissioned by God to establish justice on the earth (Isa 42:1, 4).1

Mark only mentions Jesus seeing the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending. John’s Gospel states that John the Baptist also saw the Spirit descend on Jesus from heaven (compare John 1:32–34). This suggests that Jesus’ identity is known to very few people at this point (see note on Mark 1:34).1

  Pneuma

Definition

Any movement of air including wind or breath; an animating life force; the immaterial inner essence of a human being; an incorporeal supernatural being

English Translation

Versions

spirit

nasb; niv; nlt; esv; leb; kjv

ghost

kjv; niv; nlt

wind

leb; nasb; esv; nlt; niv; kjv

breath

nasb; esv; nlt; niv; leb

life

nlt1

New Testament Occurrences

Gospels

104

Acts

72

Paul’s Letters

146

General Letters

37

Revelation

26

Total nt Uses

3851

  The term pneuma is frequently translated as “spirit” in the nt, but it literally means “wind” or “breath.” The features of the “wind” such as invisibility, unpredictability, and uncontrollable power are appropriately applied, in a metaphorical sense, to incorporeal supernatural beings and the immaterial “breath” that signified the essence of life. For example, Jesus describes the unpredictability and imperceptibility of the Holy Pneuma (John 3:8) and the violent, controlling power of an evil pneuma (Luke 9:42). Consequently, in addition to denoting “wind” and “breath, the term pneuma is used in Scripture to designate “spirit”—any non-material being or the power associated with that being. It can refer to various types of incorporeal beings: a ghost (Luke 24:37, 39), a good pneuma (Acts 23:8) or one that is evil (Matt 8:16).

The term pneuma is often specifically designated as “holy” and taken to refer to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the unseen manifestation of divine power, responsible for the conception of Jesus (Matt 1:18) and empowering Jesus’ earthly ministry (Luke 4:1).

Pneuma can describe an outside power that comes on a person and controls him, often suddenly (Acts 1:8), such as the pneuma given as a gift of God, enabling the apostles to speak in other languages (Acts 2:4). The controlling power of an evil pneuma is illustrated in Luke 2:42, where it says that a spirit seized a child, tortured him severely and threw him into convulsions, causing him to foam at the mouth.

Pneuma is also employed in Scripture to denote the dominate disposition or impulse of a person. Thus, Paul speaks of a gentle pneuma that should be characteristic of one who approaches a brother or sister in the faith who has sinned (Gal 6:1). Paul also exhorts the Corinthian believers that their entire being, body and pneuma, physical and emotional must be preserved undefiled (2 Cor 7:1). The pneuma was associated with specific emotions such as happiness (Luke 1:47) or distress (John 13:21; Acts 17:16).1

Jesus’ baptism links his future ministry to John’s program of national transformation and renewal. It also serves as a commissioning scene, identifying Jesus as the primary subject of the prophecy quoted in Mark 1:2–31

1:11

You are my beloved Son Drawn from Psa 2:7. Psalm 2 speaks about the role of the anointed one of Yahweh (the Messiah) and how the kings of the earth should fear Yahweh and His Son, for all nations will ultimately be His heritage (Psa 2:7, 11–12; compare Isa 52:15; 53:12).1