And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals."
Mk 1:1-8
The first eight verses might seem to be devoted entirely to John the Baptist, but in fact they have much to say about the credentials of Jesus. For they treat John almost exclusively in his capacity as the forerunner of the Mighty One - or Messiah, though he was a considerable person in his own right and St Mark knew a good deal more about him (cf. 2:18 and 11:32).
In verses 2 and 3, passages are quoted from the Old Testament which show that the Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner, and then the subsequent account of John is almost exclusively directed to showing that he was that prophesied forerunner. Thus the point of mentioning that he lived and worked 'in the wilderness' is that he thereby fulfilled the prophecy. St Mark has no interest in locating the wilderness or helping his readers to do so; it is simply the wilderness of the prophecy.
The whole population came out to be baptized by him. This is hardly to be taken literally. The point is that nothing less than a national repentance would constitute the expected messianic preparation.
Even in v.6 the point is not simply historical. It was widely believed, on the basis of Malachi 4:5-6 that the prophesied forerunner would prove to be Elijah returned to earth, and so it is highly significant that the account of John's clothes is an almost exact echo of the account of Elijah's clothing in 2 Kings 1:8.
One historical fact about John which did not immediately tie up with the prophecies was yet too prominent to be omitted, namely the fact that he baptized. Yet even this is brought into conformity with the prophecies, for it is presented as something he “proclaimed” (v. 4). The prophecies had spoken of a 'messenger' or 'proclaimer', 'the voice of one who cries'. It is also noteworthy that when John is heard explaining his baptism, the only point he really makes about it is that it is no more than a preparatory rite, not to be compared with the baptism of the coming ‘mightier one'. That, and the explicit prophecy of the immediate coming of the mightier one, exhaust the teaching of John as reported by St Mark, though in fact John had his own message of social righteousness to proclaim and St Mark almost certainly knew of it. As a result, by the end of v. 8 the reader has the overwhelming impression that the herald of the Messiah has come and so the stage is fully set for the entry of the Messiah himself. Whoever next appears at that place and time must surely be the Messiah. And thus St Mark continues: “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John” (v. 9).
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH BELIEFS
The Jews looked back with yearning to the days of the prophets, for in their own day God seemed in some ways very remote. The Holy Spirit had not been sent since the days of the prophets and the voice of God which had spoken directly to the prophets was no longer. heard direct - even the holiest rabbis were allowed to hear only the echo of it, the 'daughter of the voice' (bath qol) as it was called. In the old days, it was believed, God had been in the habit of piercing through the heavens to come to men's assistance (cf. Pss. 18:9, 144:5, 2 Sam. 22:10), but now, despite entreaties (Is. 64:1), that seemed a thing of the past; the sky had become a fixed barrier between heaven and earth and seemed likely to remain so, as far as the ordinary course of history was concerned. If the Jews were not without hope, that was because, as we have seen, they looked for a decisive deliverance by the hand of God himself. The heavens would once again be rent asunder and the voice and Spirit of God would descend to earth.
EXEGESIS
v. 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God].
In another sensethe beginning is at 1:14.
Some MSS. (manuscripts) omit the words “the Son of God”, and it is hard to decide whether they are original. But the question is not of great importance, since St. Mark certainly believed that Jesus was the Son of God and that belief underlies the whole Gospel.
vv. 2-3. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’”
“In Isaiah the Prophet”: In fact verses 2 and 3 are a composite prophecy taken from Mal. 3:1 and Is. 40:3. The mistake may have arisen because the Malachi quotation was added later, or possibly St Mark took the texts, already combined, from a testimony-book, i.e. a collection of passages from the Old. Testament put together by the early Church as throwing light on the life and work of Christ.
In the Old Testament it was God himself for whom the forerunner was to prepare, and certain small changes have been introduced into the texts to make the quotations refer to Christ. This should not be taken as a sign of dishonesty or intention to deceive. Neither Christians nor Jews approached the Old Testament along the lines of modern historical or critical study. Both agreed that such passages as these referred to God's eschatological intervention, and if in the event, as Christians believed, God had chosen to intervene in the person of his Messiah, then it was right to rephrase the prophecy so as to put its precise application beyond doubt. It was their way of doing what we should perhaps do by means of an exegetical note.
vv. 4ff. John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
There is no need to attempt here the full account of John that St Mark does not attempt. Suffice it to say that he was certainly a historical character, famous for his powerful moral teaching. See Mt. 3:1ff, Luke 1:5-80, and the Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities, XVIII, 5, 2).
Despite Josephus, it is probably true that his life and teaching were controlled by expectations of the imminent coming of the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 3:1). What he promised was that, if men would truly repent of their sins, his cleansing of their bodies in water might be an effective sign of the cleansing of their souls from guilt, so that they could become members of the New Israel, cleansed and ready for the coming judg ment.
Where the Christian tradition may perhaps have exaggerated was in suggesting - St Mark does not actually say it - that already at this early stage John identified Jesus as the coming one he was expecting. The Church may also have sharpened somewhat the contrast John drew between the messianic baptism and his own. Perhaps in fact he merely faced people with the choice: “Either my ‘water baptism’ now for forgiveness, or, very soon, the Messiah's ‘fire-baptism' - i.e. the painful prospect of (condemning) judgment.
v. 4. John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
“Repentance”: The Greek word (metanoein) means literally 'to change one's mind', but as it is used in the New Testament, it comes very near to the Old Testament word shubh (' to turn back', cf. e.g. Joel2:12-13), implying a coming to one's senses, a deliberate turning away from one's sinful past towards God, with the corollary of a change in conduct. A. Richardson (A Theological Word Book oj the Bible, p. 192) states that 'in its New Testament usage it implies much more than a mere" change of mind"; it involves a whole reorientation of the personality, a "conversion".'
v. 6. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.
“Wild honey”:Honey from wild bees, though some think a plant product is meant.
