Mark 1:1-20

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.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 ³¹Now after John was arrested, Jesus ³²came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,

15 and saying, ³³"The time is fulfilled, and ³⁴the kingdom of God is at hand; ³⁵repent and believe in the gospel."

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

16 ³⁶Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become ³⁷fishers of men."

18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.

20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Mark 1:1-20 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
• 31. Matthew 4:12; Matthew 14:3; Luke 3:20; [John 3:24]
• 32. Matthew 4:17, 23
• 33. Daniel 9:25; Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10; [Luke 21:8; John 7:8]
• 34. See Matthew 3:2
• 35. Acts 19:4; Acts 20:21; Hebrews 6:1
• 36. For ver. 16-20, see Matthew 4:18-22; [Luke 5:2-11; John 1:40-42]
• 37. Matthew 13:47

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