A Study of Mark Part 2: John the Baptist and the Beginning of Jesus' Ministry (Section One)

The introductory post in this series examined the first sentence from the Gospel of Mark. This post will continue from where we left off, covering Mark 1:2-20. I encourage you to read the entire section of text ahead of time, more than once and from multiple translations, before you read my analysis. If you don’t, you might find it difficult to hold the “flow” of the narrative, because I will be interrupting regularly to discuss or explain, sometimes on a verse-by-verse basis.

Where I do not work from the original Greek text, I will be using the NET Bible translation for most of my verse citations, a version which I think strikes a good balance between literal translation and equivalent meaning, and which also provides ridiculous amounts of footnotes to explain translator decisions, manuscript variants, linguistic features of the text, and exegesis. I would recommend reading the verses in the NIV (for “dynamic equivalency”) and the NASB (for literal rendering from the Greek). The Holman Christian Standard Bible also does a pretty good job of finding a balance between equivalent meaning and literal translation. All these versions are available on the YouVersion Bible app and on BibleGateway.

² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way,
³ the voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”

The author starts the narrative by quoting from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible). This quotation is actually blended from a couple of different places. The first half most likely comes from Malachi 3:1 – “‘I am about to send my messenger, who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,’...”

Only the 2^nd half of the quote comes from Isaiah (verse 40:3) – “A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God...’” It was very common for Christian writers to take pieces of verses out of context and reframe them or combine them to demonstrate the point they wanted to make (Matthew is best known for this, although it is done in multiple other NT books as well).

As I mentioned in the introductory post, Mark 1:1 could be interpreted as a title in more than one way. Following the “title” with these OT quotations could mean that the author of Mark is stating that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be found in the Old Testament prophets.

⁴ In the wilderness John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The quote about a voice crying out in the wilderness followed immediately by the statement that John was in the wilderness preaching repentance leaves absolutely no doubt that John is meant to be directly linked to the figure mentioned in the OT quotations. If we interpret Mark 1:1 as a title for the ministry of John the Baptist, then we can read John’s ministry as the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. With this viewpoint the gospel is the message of John the Baptist: repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

It is important to keep in mind that the audience hearing/reading this Gospel would have already been Christians. The main purposes of the Gospel of Mark are related to Christology (the identity of Jesus), discipleship (what it means to be a true follower), and the “gospel” message (the good news of salvation): it provides believers with a depiction of a Son of God who redefines Messiah and surpasses “divine men” by his suffering; it teaches the community about the cost of authentic discipleship; and it strengthens faith and hope in the face of persecution. As believers, the Markan community would have understood that forgiveness for sins would have come through Jesus. The author is not stating that John the Baptist was forgiving sins; rather, he was preaching repentance. This makes John’s preparation work for the Lord a call for people to recognize their need for the forgiveness of sins.