Mark 1:1-13

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ¹the Son of God. ^[a]

2 ²As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ^{[b] 3}“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,

3 ⁴the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ⁵‘Prepare^[c] the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, ’”

4 ⁶John appeared, baptizing in ⁷the wilderness and proclaiming ⁸a baptism of ⁹repentance ¹⁰for the forgiveness of sins.

5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, ¹¹confessing their sins.

6 Now John was ¹²clothed with camel’s hair and ¹³wore a leather belt around his waist and ate ¹⁴locusts and ¹⁵wild honey.

7 And he preached, saying, ¹⁶“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

8 ¹⁷I have baptized you with water, but ¹⁸he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. ”

The Baptism of Jesus

9 ¹⁹In those days Jesus ²⁰came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he ²¹saw ²²the heavens being torn open ²³and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

11 And ²⁴a voice came from heaven, ²⁵“You are my beloved Son; ^[d] with you I am well pleased. ”

The Temptation of Jesus

12 ²⁶The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

13 ²⁷And he was in the wilderness forty days, being ²⁸tempted by ²⁹Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and ³⁰the angels were ministering to him.

Mark 1:1-13 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. 1:1 See Matt. 14:33
• 2. 1:2 For ver. 2-8, see Matt. 3:1-11; Luke 3:2-16
• 3. 1:2 Matt. 11:10; Luke 1:17, 76; 7:27; Cited from Mal. 3:1
• 4. 1:3 John 1:23; Cited from Isa. 40:3
• 5. 1:3 Luke 1:76
• 6. 1:4 John 1:6, 7
• 7. 1:4 Josh. 15:61; [Judg. 1:16]
• 8. 1:4 Acts 2:38
• 9. 1:4 ver. 15
• 10. 1:4 Matt. 26:28; [Luke 1:77]
• 11. 1:5 Acts 19:18
• 12. 1:6 [2 Kgs. 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Heb. 11:37]
• 13. 1:6 [2 Kgs. 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Heb. 11:37]
• 14. 1:6 Lev. 11:22
• 15. 1:6 1 Sam. 14:26
• 16. 1:7 John 1:15, 27; 3:30, 31; Acts 13:25
• 17. 1:8 John 1:26; Acts 1:5; 11:16
• 18. 1:8 See John 1:33
• 19. 1:9 For ver. 9-11, see Matt. 3:13-17; Luke 3:21, 22; [John 1:32-34]
• 20. 1:9 Matt. 2:23
• 21. 1:10 Acts 7:56
• 22. 1:10 Isa. 64:1
• 23. 1:10 John 1:32, 33; [Luke 4:18, 21; Acts 10:38]
• 24. 1:11 John 12:28
• 25. 1:11 [ch. 9:7; Ps. 2:7; Isa. 42:1; Eph. 1:6; Col. 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:17; 1 John 5:9]
• 26. 1:12 See Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13
• 27. 1:13 [See ver. 12 above]
• 28. 1:13 [Heb. 2:18; 4:15]
• 29. 1:13 See 1 Chr. 21:1
• 30. 1:13 Matt. 26:53; Luke 22:43

Footnotes

• [a] 1:1 Some manuscripts omit 'the Son of God'
• [b] 1:2 Some manuscripts 'in the prophets'
• [c] 1:3 Or 'crying: Prepare in the wilderness'
• [d] 1:11 Or 'my Son, my' (or 'the') 'Beloved'