Difference between revisions of "Mark 1:1-5"

Revision as of 04:18, 27 February 2007

The New Testament > Mark > Chapter 1

Questions

Verse 3

• What does it mean to prepare "the way of the Lord"?
• What is "the way of the Lord"?
• What does it mean to make the Lord's path "straight"?

Verse 5

• How are we to read the claim that "all the land" came out and were baptized by John? Did most people really repent and come to John for baptism?

Lexical notes

Verse 1

• Archē: The Greek word "archē" can mean "beginning" (as it does in John 1:1) or "basic principles" (as it does in the Greek version (the Septuagint) of Ps 110:10).
• Christ: Though we often think of "Jesus Christ" as Jesus's name, to Mark's audience Christ meant "messiah" or "anointed one."

Verse 3

• Note this verse is a quote from Isa 40:3.

Exegesis

Verse 1

Beginning: The first verse of Mark is ambiguous. It could mean that he is going to start with the beginning of Jesus’s ministry: "This is how Jesus Christ’s preaching began." Or it could mean "Here are the basic principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ." The phrase can also mean, "the beginning of this book, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ." Part of this ambiguity is the result of the ambiguity of the the Greek word "archē" (see the lexical notes above).

Mark is the only evangelist to speak of “the gospel” without a qualifying adjective or pronoun. On that basis, however, we have come to describe the first four books of the Bible as gospels. Clearly Mark isn’t merely telling the story of Christ’s life. However we understand verse 1, Mark is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Verses 1-8

Mark places emphasis here on the need to prepare for the gospel. Mark's book is fairly short, and in terms of giving a history he very easily could have left out any information about John the Baptist. Instead, he devotes the first section of his book, the first eight verses, to someone who isn't a main character.

What Marks seems to be saying, then, is that the beginning of the gospel is repentance, as inextricably symbolized through baptism. For us today, Mark's writing seems to reinforce the belief that baptism isn't something optional, but something vital. As Mark puts it, this act of baptism is something that is demanded by the prophets that came before, and something that Jesus himself saw as an essential first step. Indeed, throughout the New Testament, conversion was always accompanied by baptism.

Verse 5

It is interesting that this verse notes that the gospel as taught by John the Baptist had appeal to all people, both the city dwellers and those living in the countryside. Mark may be telling us that the gospel isn't just for people of a certain class or certain background, but for everyone.

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