Mark 1 Footnotes

1:16-20 Mark gave only the briefest description of the events surrounding the call of Jesus’s disciples. Andrew and Peter had earlier contact with Jesus, according to Jn 1:35-42, and Peter’s call was more extended than Mark’s presentation of it, according to Lk 5:1-11. This does not undermine the historicity of Mark’s account; his narrative interest was not in the historical details but in the authority of Jesus. He was not concerned to tell us precisely how the disciples were called but rather that they were called and that they responded in complete submission to Jesus.

1:44 If Jesus was the Messiah, why did he not allow the man with the skin disease to spread the news about him? Jesus did not want his program co-opted by others (Jn 6:15; 7:3-6). He would reveal himself on his own terms when the time was right. Jesus’s purpose was not popularity and political insurrection but discipleship and ultimately the cross (Mk 10:43-45). This point is particularly central to Mark, so Mark includes several instances when Jesus ordered those whom he healed not to tell others about it.