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. See Matthew 14:33
• 2. For ver. 2-8, see Matthew 3:1-11; Luke 3:2-16
• 3. Matthew 11:10; Luke 1:17, 76; Luke 7:27; Cited from Malachi 3:1
• 4. John 1:23; Cited from Isaiah 40:3
• 5. Luke 1:76
• 6. John 1:6, 7
• 7. Joshua 15:61; [Judges 1:16]
• 8. Acts 2:38
• 9. ver. 15
• 10. Matthew 26:28; [Luke 1:77]
• 11. Acts 19:18
• 12. [2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4; Hebrews 11:37]
• 13. [2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4; Hebrews 11:37]
• 14. Leviticus 11:22
• 15. 1 Samuel 14:26
• 16. John 1:15, 27; John 3:30, 31; Acts 13:25
• 17. John 1:26; Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16
• 18. See John 1:33
• 19. For ver. 9-11, see Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21, 22; [John 1:32-34]
• 20. Matthew 2:23
• 21. Acts 7:56
• 22. Isaiah 64:1
• 23. John 1:32, 33; [Luke 4:18, 21; Acts 10:38]
• 24. John 12:28
• 25. [Mark 9:7; Psalms 2:7; Isaiah 42:1; Ephesians 1:6; Colossians 1:13; 2 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:9]
• 26. See Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13
• 27. [See ver. 12 above]
• 28. [Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15]
• 29. See 1 Chronicles 21:1
• 30. Matthew 26:53; Luke 22:43

Footnotes

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