Mark 1:1-10

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

2 As it is written in Isaias the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee.

3 A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.

4 John was in the desert, baptizing and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins.

5 And there went out to him all the country of Judea and all they of Jerusalem and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

6 And John was clothed camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and he ate locusts and wild honey.

7 And he preached, saying: There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.

8 I have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

9 And it came to pass, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in Jordan.

10 And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit as a dove descending and remaining on him.

Mark 1:1-10 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.