Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1–8 CSB

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. 3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:1-4

The gospel of which Mark speaks is not a book, as it is for Matthew (1:1, “A record [Gk. biblos ] of the genealogy of Jesus Christ”). Rather, for Mark the gospel is the story of salvation in Jesus. The word for “gospel” (Gk. euangelion) literally means “good news.” In both the OT and in Greek literature euangelion was commonly used of reports of victory from the battlefield.

For Mark, the advent of Jesus is the beginning of the fulfillment of the “good news” heralded by Isaiah.

For Mark, the gospel refers to the fulfillment of God’s reign and salvation in the fullness of time (Isa 52:7; 61:1). In the appearance of Jesus in Galilee, a new age has dawned that requires repentance and faith. Mark’s written record of Jesus’ life is itself called a Gospel, and thus this same Jesus who overcame the grave in the resurrection from the dead is now the living Lord who is at work in the church and world, calling people to faith in the gospel.

In Mark’s understanding, therefore, the gospel is more than a set of truths, or even a set of beliefs. It is a person, “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The kingdom that God inaugurates is bodily present in Jesus of Nazareth.

Mark wastes no time in establishing the identity of his subject.

He abruptly and bluntly asserts that Jesus is the “Christ” and the “Son of God.”

Christos was a Greek word meaning “an anointed royal figure.” It was another way of referring to the “Messiah,” the one who would come and administer God’s rule on earth, and rescue Israel from all its oppressors and troubles. Not just a king, but The King.

But Mark does not just call Jesus the “Christ”; he goes further. “Son of God” is an astonishingly bold term that goes beyond the popular understanding of the Messiah at the time. It is a claim of outright divinity.

Mark then raises the stakes all the way and makes the ultimate claim. By quoting Isaiah’s prophetic passage, Mark asserts that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the “voice” calling out in the desert. Since Mark equates John with the one who would “prepare the way for the Lord,” by clear inference it means he is equating Jesus with the Lord himself, with God Almighty.

The Lord God; the long-awaited divine King who would rescue his people; and Jesus—they are somehow one and the same person.

ISAIAH QUOTE V. 2& 3

Isaiah 40:3 is quoted by all four Gospels with reference to John the Baptizer as the forerunner of Jesus (Matt 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 1:76; John 1:23).

thus introduce John as the divinely ordained precursor of Jesus, and Jesus as the manifestation of God. The quotation has the further effect of linking the life and ministry of Jesus to the OT. Jesus is not an afterthought of God, as though an earlier plan of salvation had gone awry. Rather, Jesus stands in continuity with the work of God in Israel, the fulfiller of the law and the prophets (Matt 5:17).

The introductory tapestry of OT quotations not only links the person and ministry of Jesus inseparably with the preceding revelation of God in the OT, but it makes the person and ministry of Jesus nonunderstandable apart from it.

From a Christian theological perspective, this unites the NT uniquely and inseparably to the OT. The gospel is understandable only as the completion of something that God began in the history of Israel. This excludes the possibility of Christians either dismissing or diminishing the importance of the OT, or of attempting to “purge” the gospel of its Jewish origins and context.

V. 4

John is introduced abruptly.

The immediacy of John’s introduction identifies him as the messenger of preparation for Jesus. The description of John in vv. 4–8 is more focused and defined than is the picture of John in the other Gospels.

John summons people away from the routines and comforts of their urban domiciles, and especially from the statutory temple hegemony of Jerusalem, “to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” in the wilderness.

As a symbol of moral and spiritual regeneration John calls people to baptism. The Greek word for “baptism,” from the root baptein, means “to dip fully, to plunge or immerse.”

It seems more likely that John’s baptism recalls and revives God’s foundational covenant with Israel at Sinai in which the entire people were summoned to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6; 23:22; also 1 Pet 2:9). This had been the unique and peculiar ideal (NIV, “treasured possession,” Heb. segullah) of all Israel from its inception, and not just of the priesthood descended from Aaron. The Israelites signified acceptance of their covenant relationship with God by washing their clothes and purifying themselves before entering into the covenant at Sinai (Exod 19:10). Such washing symbolized the moral and spiritual transformation necessary to enter into covenant relationship with God. John’s “baptism of repentance” for all Jews (and not just the religious elite) corresponds favorably with the essential elements of preparation for the day of the Lord in the original Sinai covenant.

“Repentance” (Gk. metanoia) is a compound word meaning “to change one’s mind” or “to alter one’s understanding,” thus connoting rational decision and willful act as opposed to emotive feeling.

It entailed, according to Mark’s brief report in v. 4, a turning away from sin, and also, according to Matt 3:8 and Luke 3:8, a sign or “fruit,” perhaps water baptism but more likely moral transformation. Above all, John’s call to repentance is more urgent than that of the prophets; it is the only thing necessary to prepare people for the imminent judgment of God. Nor can John’s call to repentance be compartmentalized. It lays claim to the totality of one’s life, and not just for notorious sinners (Luke 3:12–13) or Gentiles (Luke 3:14) but even for righteous Jews (Matt 3:7–10).

V. 7-8

7 Unlike Matt 3:7–10 and Luke 3:7–9, which call attention to John’s message of reform, Mark focuses on John’s preaching of the “one more powerful” to come. This description of Jesus anticipates the compact one verse parable in 3:27, where Jesus refers to himself as the only one powerful enough to bind the strong one, Satan. According to a metaphor of the day, John thought himself unworthy to untie the sandals of the Coming One. The loosing of sandals and washing of feet were duties of slaves, indeed of only Gentile slaves, in first-century Judaism. The metaphor bespeaks John’s humility and subordination in relation to the Messiah (see John 3:30).

8 John’s baptism was symbolic and provisional of a more permanent and powerful reality to come: “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” That is an extraordinary declaration, for in the OT the bestowal of the Spirit belongs exclusively to God. John’s declaration, according to Mark, transfers the bestowal of the Spirit to Jesus, once again indicating that, as the Greater One, Jesus will come in the power and at the prerogative of God. The spiritual power of the messianic baptism will thus supersede the symbol of water in human baptism.

Although Mark’s introduction of Jesus is considerably truncated in comparison to that of the other Gospels, its economy nevertheless testifies that the Christ-event is not a random and arbitrary occurrence. On the contrary, the dawn of the age of salvation in Jesus is the consummation of a purposeful history of revelation of God extending back to Israel’s inception at the Exodus. From Sinai onward, and particularly in the prophets, God has been preparing for a new beginning in Jesus Christ.