Mark 1:1-8 relates the story of the preaching of John the Baptizer.
I begin with a theological consideration of the text.
This beginning is the way Mark chooses to be clear about the identity of Jesus. We know the identity of Jesus, we know his relationship with John, and we know the purpose of his mission is to baptize with the Holy Spirit. There is only one non-New Testament reference to John the Baptist. [1] He identifies this book as good news or gospel (εὐαγγελίου), a word that suggests the joy and goodness of this news, adding that this joyful good news is regarding Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Verses 2-3 provided a scripture setting for the ministry of John in Ex 23:20, Mal 3:1, and Isa 40:3, even though the text identifies only Isaiah as the source. These passages share an interest in a messenger, in the location of the wilderness and in a similar message of preparation. In a comparable way, John will precede Jesus in his preaching and in his death. Verses 4-8 specifies the significance of John. The appearance of John in the wilderness has a scriptural setting. The desert had been the place where the Lord called Israel after Egyptian slavery in the exodus. The wilderness was where Israel lost its way in the 40-year wandering. John invites Israel back into the wilderness to repent. One would have to break normal traveling patterns to hear him. Yet, many people in his day went through all of that to hear what John had to say to them. People felt drawn to him, not only because of who he was and what he said, but also because of what he offered them - a chance to come clean. Judaism had an internal debate regarding how to respond to the challenges of its historical setting. That setting included Gentile rule. Some aligned themselves comfortably with Roman rules, represented in the New Testament by those around Herod and tax collectors. Some had a pious devotion to Torah and as long as they could practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath, follow dietary restrictions, and offer sacrifices in the Temple, they would wait for God to act at the end of this age to defeat the enemies of Israel. The Pharisees and the Essenes represented different versions of this thinking. Still others accepted the pattern established by Judas Maccabeus (I and II Maccabees) of violent confrontation with Rome and thereby achieving a measure of political independence. Sometimes, but not always, this view had messianic interpretations that included a descendant of King David leading the way. Such views were held by zealots. John and Jesus would overlap with the views of the Pharisees and Essenes. The message John proclaimed, a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins, contains an important connection that will hold true in the rest of the New Testament. [2] Such a theme is consistent with the prophetic tradition. It also is a difference between John and Jesus, for the latter did not baptize.[3] Baptism among Jewish sects like that of the Essene community, which practiced it daily, was a form of ritual purification, water symbolizing the purification of life. Yet, baptism by John was different. Something new is happening, and therefore, we must change. Repentance involves a turning around, a radical change of direction, involving the heart and will. Repentance involved the whole being of the repentant one. Repentance is the hopeful word of John, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around. We need to experience the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[4] Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[5] People left the comfort of the villages and cities to draw near to hear this message. Such persons joyfully participated in preparations for the coming of the Lord. Such preparation can only mean the rule of God is near. Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. Such confession took place before or during baptism. The good news as found in the preaching of John is that forgiveness of sin is already available. Thus, the first step is simple honesty. Repentance is the admission that in our sin we need to receive forgiveness. Yet, the first step has a close relation to the second step, in which we acknowledge that God forgives. The good news begins in Mark as John invites people to receive forgiveness. We can receive the gift of washing, cleansing, and new birth. We can start over, fresh, like a newborn infant. God forgives. Such is the beginning and end of the good news. For all sin, God forgives. Since John baptize Jesus of Nazareth, his baptism will always be significant for Christians. God forgives sin, brings deliverance, and gives the gift of salvation. It means acceptance of daily repentance so that a new self will arise to live with God.[6] Repentance is the journey of discipleship and the only way to continue in the path. Anything else is foolishness and self-delusion. Repentance suggests a form of both brute honesty and joyfulness that we will need for the spiritual journey. Mark then describes the ascetic life of John shown in his clothing and in what he ate. Mark the describes the prophetic message of John as that of the proclamation of one who is coming who is more powerful than him, to whom he is unworthy to act as a servant. He also expresses the difference between his ministry of baptism with water and the ministry of the coming one as baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5, 11:16, but with the addition of fire in Matthew and Luke). The difference between baptism by John and Christian baptism is Jesus, whose ministry will be anointed by the Spirit and through whom will come the outpouring of the Spirit. Christian baptism knew only one baptism, which was administered with water and the gift of the Spirit normally linked to it. [7]Mark has set the stage with a tantalizing presentation of a new Elijah and a transforming new experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to come. The good news, already present in John, will come forth in a dramatic way with the coming of Jesus. Further, the church in its word and deed a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and baptizing with water. The church is not worthy to unloose the shoes of its Lord. The church has the duty of summoning people to knowledge of Christ and readiness for baptism with the Spirit.[8]
This book begins with the superscription. It is good news or gospel (εὐαγγελίου), a word that suggests the joy and goodness of this news, coming to mean books about the life and ministry of Jesus, an extension of the basic use of the word to indicate the broader message about Jesus as the promised Jewish Messiah, the starting point of a literary genre, a comprehensive presentation of the Jesus tradition.[9] He adds that this joyful good news is regarding Jesus Christ (χριστοῦ), who, in a phrase omitted in some ancient manuscripts, is the Son of God (Υἱοῦ Θεοῦ). This beginning is the way Mark chooses to be clear about the identity of Jesus. It focuses on those who prepare themselves for the arrival of the good news. Literary analysis would suggest the book begins in medias res, or “in the middle of the action.” It may be a literary style. It may also be an indication that the early transmission process lost an opening prologue.
Most scholars recognize the abruptness of the beginning. This is removed if one does not view this as a superscription, but connects it with verses 2-3, which would make Jesus the one who is the messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord. Neither Matthew nor Luke go this direction, using the imagery to refer to John as preparing the way of the Lord, who is Jesus.
Mark 1:2-8 (Matt 3:1-12, Luke 3:1-18) is story about the ministry of John the Baptist.
Historical information about John the Baptist is sparse, both within and outside of the Bible. Historical information about John the Baptist is sparse, both within and outside of the Bible. The only non-New Testament reference is in Josephus, where he ascribes the defeat of the army of Herod to the judgment of God upon Herod for killing John. It was a mark of divine displeasure with Herod. This historical note leads Josephus to describe his understanding of the ministry of John among the Jewish people. Josephus describes John as a good man who called upon the Jews to exercise virtue, which he defines as righteousness toward others and piety toward God. He called them to baptism, which he understood as a remission of sin and purification of the body. He supposed that righteousness purified the soul. He notes that many people came to him and found his words pleasing. Herod feared the influence of John over the thinking of the people and that he might persuade them to rebel. His influence was great enough that the people who baptized him would do anything he advised. He thought it best to have John killed to prevent any mischief he might cause. Herod also seemed concerned that John might persuade him to repent! Herod was a suspicious man. He had John killed at a castle called Macherus.[10]
Applied to today, we might consider that the evangelical address of the church is in the situation and function of John the Baptist, which is also a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and baptizing with water. The church is not worthy to unloose the shoes of its Lord. The church has the duty of summoning people to knowledge of Christ and readiness for baptism with the Spirit.[11]
Mark 1:2-3 (Matthew 3:1-6, Luke 3:4-6) John preached that the end of the age was at hand and called on people to repent.[12] Mark invites us to view the arrival of John as a fulfillment of the message of the prophets in Ex 23:20, Mal 3:1, and Isa 40:3, even though the text identifies only Isaiah as the source. These passages share an interest in a messenger, in the location of the wilderness and in a similar message of preparation. In a comparable way, John will precede Jesus in his preaching and in his death. He is following the LXX, except that preparing the way of God becomes preparing the way of the Lord. For Mark, John is preparing the people for the coming of the Lord, which for Mark and his readers would mean the coming of Jesus. John is the forerunner preparing the way for Jesus. He was to proclaim the coming of Jesus and to prepare people for it by calling people to repent.[13] He derives this notion of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus from Jesus, who used this image in Mt 11:10=Lk 7:27. John reminds us that the advent of the Lord is a revelation of who we are. The book begins by launching us into the wilderness with John. Such an opening is also typical of the gospel and its fond use of “immediately.”[14]
Mark 1: 4-8 specifies the significance of John. The appearance of John in the wilderness has a scriptural setting. The desert had been the place where the Lord called Israel after Egyptian slavery in the exodus. The wilderness was where Israel lost its way in the 40-year wandering. John invites Israel back into the wilderness to repent. One would have to break normal traveling patterns to hear him. Yet, many people in his day went through all of that to hear what John had to say to them. People felt drawn to him, not only because of who he was and what he said, but also because of what he offered them - a chance to come clean.
Mark intentionally uses common phrases for the essence of the message John preached. In Zech 13:4 prophets had “a hairy mantle,” while II Kings 1:8 describes Elijah the Tishbite as a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. Malachi 4:5-6 looks forward to the expectation that Elijah would return at the end of the age. Everything about John reflects the fulfillment of scripture related to the eschatological appearing of Elijah. John's concern for his own basic needs was so insignificant that he was content to subsist on whatever he could lay his hands on in that open country, which in this case was locusts and honey from wild bees. Bedouins also eat such food. John represents a wilderness ascetic movement of this time prior to 30 AD. The apocalyptic fervor of the day fueled his preaching. He may have had some connection with the Essenes, a Jewish sect that authored and housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, texts that combined apocalyptic thought and an ascetic way of way of life.
People came from Jerusalem, Judea, and along the Jordan River, responding to the moral summons to turn away from sin (ἁμαρτίας) by receiving baptism in the Jordan, receiving washing, cleansing, and new life. This baptism with water is the initial eschatological cleansing that mediates the blotting out of sins and conversion, like the washing to become part of the Essene community.[15] Such a response requires the honesty of admitting sin, wandering, and lying. Sin is missing the mark, although at its heart, it is a refusal to become fully human. It is anything that interferes with the opening of the whole heart to God, to others, to creation, and to the self. Sin is estrangement, disconnection, sterility, and disharmony. Such honesty discloses consciousness of darkness within.
Judaism had an internal debate regarding how to respond to the challenges of its historical setting. That setting included Gentile rule. Some aligned themselves comfortably with Roman rules, represented in the New Testament by those around Herod and tax collectors. Some had a pious devotion to Torah and if they could practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath, follow dietary restrictions, and offer sacrifices in the Temple, they would wait for God to act at the end of this age to defeat the enemies of Israel. The Pharisees and the Essenes represented different versions of this thinking. Still others accepted the pattern established by Judas Maccabeus (I and II Maccabees) of violent confrontation with Rome and thereby achieving a measure of political independence. Sometimes, but not always, this view had messianic interpretations that included a descendant of King David leading the way. Zealots held such views. John and Jesus would overlap with the views of the Pharisees and Essenes.
John the Baptist came to the desolate and hilly region of Judea, stretching from the ridge of Palestine to the Jordan valley and the Red Sea. People left the comfort of the villages and cities to draw near to hear this message. Such persons joyfully participated in preparations for the coming of the Lord. The message John proclaimed, a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins, contains an important connection that will hold true in the rest of the New Testament. [16] His message underscores the significance of his appearance. However, this significance is not because of his call to repent, which the prophets and even King Solomon urged upon people (I Kings 8:46-53; Isaiah 1:27; Ezekiel 14:6; 18:30). Such repentance involves renunciation of sin, regret over a past life that leads to a conversion to a new way of life. It involves turning around or a change of direction. Since divine judgment is so close, repentance is the one task set before humanity. Since God is turning toward humanity, John offers the prophetic summons to humanity to turn to God. In Judaism, repentance meant throwing off sin and fulfilling the commandments. The significance of this moment gives his preaching its urgency. His call to the baptism of repentance is a call to purification that involves the remission of sin and conversion, fashioning a community who are given a place in the coming salvation God will bring.[17] These are the pre-conditions for receiving the salvation offered through the rule of God. It also is a difference between John and Jesus, for the latter did not baptize.[18] Repentance is John’s hopeful word, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around, to experiencing the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[19] Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[20]
Why is John baptizing at all? Such baptism was a ritual lustration with roots already established within Jewish practice. Ritual washings in mikva'ot (immersion baths or pools) were commonplace, and people believed that this practice cleansed the body of its chronic profanity and sanctified it for worship of God. Ritual purification with water was an important feature of Israelite religion, particularly regarding the impurity associated with various aspects of sexuality (e.g., intercourse and childbirth; see, e.g., Lev 15:18; Num 19:13). Ritual practices were widespread in Greco-Roman religion also, especially in cults associated with healing deities. Immersion in water, of either the whole body or parts, was a widely practiced means of ritual purification. Such rituals were part of the daily practice of the Essene community, and other groups used them more restrictively to mark significant transitions in life. There is also evidence that other groups in the region of the Jordan Valley were practicing forms of ritual immersion during this period, as well as evidence that a Jewish practice of proselyte baptism as part of an initiation ritual began sometime in the first century of the Common Era. Josephus suggests that people understood John’s baptism as precisely this kind of ritual purification, specifically of the body, because the soul had already been purified by righteous conduct.[21] Therefore, while the practice of ritual purification with water did not originate with John the Baptist.
However, John invited the Jewish people to submit to his baptism.[22] Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. It initiated people into a new community. Such confession took place before or during baptism. It involves a form of surrender, acknowledging you are on the wrong track, and ready to start a new life.[23]Something new is happening, and therefore, we must change. Repentance involves a turning around, a radical change of direction, involving the heart and will. Repentance involved the whole being of the repentant one. Repentance is the hopeful word of John, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around.
The good news as found in the preaching of John is that forgiveness of sin is already available. Thus, the first step is simple honesty. Repentance is the admission that in our sin we need to receive forgiveness. Yet, the first step has a close relation to the second step, in which we acknowledge that God forgives. The good news begins in Mark as John invites people to receive forgiveness. We can receive the gift of washing, cleansing, and new birth. We can start over, fresh, like a newborn infant. God forgives. Such is the beginning and end of the good news. For all sin, God forgives. Since John baptize Jesus of Nazareth, his baptism will always be significant for Christians. God forgives sin, brings deliverance, and gives the gift of salvation. It means acceptance of daily repentance so that a new self will arise to live with God.[24]Repentance is the journey of discipleship and the only way to continue in the path. Anything else is foolishness and self-delusion. Repentance suggests a form of both brute honesty and joyfulness that we will need for the spiritual journey.
Mark 1: 7-8 (Matthew 3: 11-12 (Luke 3:15-18) is an apocalyptic saying of John the Baptist that refers to the one to come. In applying the saying about the mightier one to Jesus, it stresses the inferiority of John to Jesus.[25] The attention shifts from the message of John to the identity of John, in which he clarifies that he is finding his identity in the coming One. John directs attention to the future. John animates his message with a poignant moving picture. Instead of waxing eloquent about the greatness of the One to come, John invokes the image of a relationship familiar to his listeners. In the first-century world of master-teachers, revered rabbis and their schools of loyal students and disciples, a seriously devoted student would dog his teacher's steps, following him wherever he went. Every aspect of a great rabbi's life was worthy of observation and emulation by a truly dedicated student. However, a well-known rabbinical saying drew a distinct line in the sand between the actions expected of a zealous disciple and the labors accorded to a common body slave. This saying proscribed that "every work which a slave performs for his lord, a disciple must do for his teacher, except loosening his shoe." John, of course, promptly capitalizes on that very distinction. He not only declares himself unworthy to perform that slave-like function of loosening his successor's sandal, but also finds himself too unworthy even to "carry his sandals."[26]
He also expresses the difference between his ministry of baptism with water and the ministry of the coming one as baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5, 11:16, but with the addition of fire in Matthew and Luke), thereby subordinating the baptism of John to Christian baptism.[27] The difference between baptism by John and Christian baptism is Jesus, whose ministry will be anointed by the Spirit and through whom will come the outpouring of the Spirit. The outpouring of the Spirit was expected in the messianic age (Isa 44:3, Joel 3:1-2). Christian baptism knew only one baptism, which was administered with water and the gift of the Spirit normally linked to it. [28] Baptism with the Spirit contrasts with the baptism of John himself, which is with water.[29] The idea of baptism “with the Holy Spirit” plays a minor role in the gospels (appearing only in this passage and its parallels and John 1:33). However, spiritual baptism played a significant role in the early Christian church, with baptism with water was the outward sign of this prior spiritual change (i.e., repentance), e.g., Peter’s question concerning the Gentile converts in Acts 10:47: “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” The book of Acts is also the only place outside the gospels that refers explicitly to baptism with the Holy Spirit (1:5; 8:16 [by negative inference]; 11:16; compare I Cor 12:13).
Despite his harsh appearance and demanding message, John’s preaching appears to have been popular with many of his contemporaries (Mark 1:5; 11:32; Matt 3:5), and the Jewish historian Josephus reports that many Jewish people had a high regard John (Antiquities 18.5). John’s practice of baptism, moreover, made the ritual of initiation into the body of the elect available to women as well as to men (who, through the ritual of circumcision, had formerly been the only full members of the covenant). Prostitutes and tax collectors, as well as soldiers, were among those who responded to John’s call to repentance and baptism (Matt 21:32; Luke 3:12; 7:29). As radical as his message appeared, John rooted his message firmly in the prophetic tradition of ancient Israel. The teaching of John finds it parallel in many ways by the collection of oracles and writings in the book of Isaiah. There is no question, however, that John intended his message of repentance to extend to all segments of Judean society without distinction, including the king (Mark 6:18). According to all three synoptic gospels (Matt 14:3-4; Mark 6:17-18; Luke 3:19-20), Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, had John imprisoned John because of his criticism of Herod. He was also tetrarch from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39 of Galilee and Perea (the area of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea centered around Jericho). From the complicated family history of the Herod's, the New Testament records that John had rebuked Herod for marrying (or desiring to marry) Herodias, wife of one Philip (but probably not Herod’s half-brother Philip, who was tetrarch of Batanea, Trachonitis and Auranitis, who was never married to Herodias). Herodias was the half-niece of Herod. Jewish law (Lev 18:6-16; 20:21) prohibited such a union. John’s repeated reminders of this fact (Matt 14:4, “John had been telling him”) resulted in his imprisonment and eventual execution (Matt 14:3-12 and parallels).
That John surrounded himself with a circle of disciples was neither remarkable nor unknown to the gospel writers (e.g., Matt 14:12), and John’s lifestyle, including his disciples, may have been the model for Jesus’ own ministry later. The circle of John’s disciples may also have furnished some of Jesus’ disciples, and the similarities between the two leaders may have caused some confusion and even rivalry among their followers.
Mark has set the stage with a tantalizing presentation of a new Elijah and a transforming new experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to come. The good news, already present in John, will come forth in a dramatic way with the coming of Jesus. Further, the church in its word and deed a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and baptizing with water. The church is not worthy to unloose the shoes of its Lord. The church has the duty of summoning people to knowledge of Christ and readiness for baptism with the Spirit.[30]
[1] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter 5, Section 2.
[2] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 240.
[3] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 240.
[4] Carl Jung
[5] Martin Luther King Jr.
[6] Martin Luther, Small Catechism.
[7] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 259-60
[8] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.3 [72.4] 854.
[9] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 455.
[10] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter 5, Section 2.
[11]
[12] Matthew differs from Mark to emphasize geography and historical data, while Mark is more interested in John's message.
[13] Michaelis, TDNT, V, 70.
[14]
[15] Goppelt, TDNT, VIII, 329
[16]
[17] Behm, TDNT, 1000-10001.
[18]
[19] Carl Jung
[20] Martin Luther King Jr.
[21] (Antiquities 18.117 [cf.18.5.2])
[22] (see further, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:584).
[23] Lewis, C.S. "The perfect penitent."
[24] Martin Luther, Small Catechism.
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
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