Mark 1:1-13

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God;

2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee;

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

4 John was baptizing in the wilderness, and preaching the baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins.

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

6 And John was clothed with camels hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey;

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

8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

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

10 And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.

11 And there came a voice from heaven, [saying], Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

12 And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan: and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered 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.