Mark 1:12-22

12 And straight away the Spirit sent him out into the waste land.

13 And he was in the waste land for forty days, being tested by Satan; and he was with the beasts; and the angels took care of him.

14 Now after John had been put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news of God,

15 And saying, The time has come, and the kingdom of God is near: let your hearts be turned from sin and have faith in the good news.

16 And going by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, putting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen.

17 And Jesus said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

18 And they went straight from their nets, and came after him.

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

20 And he said, Come after me: and they went away from their father Zebedee, who was in the boat with the servants, and came after him.

21 And they came to Capernaum; and on the Sabbath he went into the Synagogue and gave teaching.

22 And they were full of wonder at his teaching, because he gave it as one having authority, and not like the scribes.

Mark 1:12-22 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.