Mark 1:1-8

Preaching of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ¹the Son of God.

2 ²As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "³BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER ^[a]AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;

3 ⁴THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.' "

4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness ^[b]5preaching a baptism of repentance for the ⁶forgiveness of sins.

5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

6 John was clothed with camel's hair and wore ⁷a leather belt around his waist, and ^[c]his diet was locusts and wild honey.

7 And he was ^[d]preaching, and saying, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.

8 "I baptized you ^[e]with water; but He will baptize you ^[f]with the Holy Spirit."

Mark 1:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MARK

This is the title of the book, the subject of which is the Gospel; a joyful account of the ministry, miracles, actions, and sufferings of Christ: the writer of it was not one of the twelve apostles, but an evangelist; the same with John Mark, or John, whose surname was Mark: John was his Hebrew name, and Mark his Gentile name, Ac 12:12,25, and was Barnabas's sister's son, Col 4:10, his mother's name was Mary, Ac 12:12. The Apostle Peter calls him his son, 1Pe 5:13, if he is the same; and he is thought to have wrote his Gospel from him {a}, and by his order, and which was afterwards examined and approved by him {b} it is said to have been wrote originally in Latin, or in the Roman tongue: so say the Arabic and Persic versions at the beginning of it, and the Syriac version says the same at the end: but of this there is no evidence, any more, nor so much, as of Matthew's writing his Gospel in Hebrew. The old Latin copy of this, is a version from the Greek; it is most likely that it was originally written in Greek, as the rest of the New Testament.

{a} Papias apud Euseb. Hist. l. 3. c. 39. Tertull. adv. Marcion. l. 4. c. 5. {b} Hieron. Catalog. Script. Eccles. p. 91. sect. 18.

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 4:3
• 2. Mark 1:2-8: {Matthew 3:1-11; Luke 3:2-16}
• 3. Malachi 3:1; Matthew 11:10; Luke 7:27
• 4. Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23
• 5. Acts 13:24
• 6. Luke 1:77
• 7. 2 Kings 1:8

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "before your face"
• [b]. Or "proclaiming"
• [c]. Lit "he was eating"
• [d]. Or "proclaiming"
• [e]. The Gr here can be translated "in, with" or "by"
• [f]. The Gr here can be translated "in, with" or "by"