Mark

An Introduction And Commentary

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Eckhard Schnabel

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781783595044
• eBook ISBN: 9781783593101
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Commentaire biblique

New exegetical commentary on the Gospel of Mark for preachers, Bible teachers, non-specialistsMark wrote his Gospel to explain why and how Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God who fulfils God's promises as he proclaims and embodies the coming kingdom of God. Mark emphasizes Jesus's authority and also his suffering and death as God's will for his messianic mission. Eckhard Schnabel's commentary seeks to help today's Christian disciples communicate the significance of Jesus and the transforming power of the good news.

COMMENTARY

1. THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL (1:1–13)

Mark’s account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection begins with a heading (1:1) which identifies Jesus Messiah and Son of God as the subject of the following narrative, followed by a scriptural comment (1:2–3) which links Jesus and John the Baptist, whose ministry is described in the next section (1:4–8), followed by an account of Jesus’ baptism and of his testing in the wilderness (1:9–13). The prologue introduces the main dramatis personae: Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee, the crowds and the people of Jerusalem (John the Baptist is not a major actor after 1:13). And the prologue takes the readers behind the scenes of the following story: Jesus is identified from the outset as Messiah and Son of God (1:1), by God himself (1:11), an identity that is evident in the fact that his ministry is the fulfilment of Scripture (1:2–3) and that he is endowed with and directed by God’s Spirit in the fulfilment of his messianic calling, himself dispensing the Spirit (1:8), which in the Old Testament only Yahweh himself does.

A. Heading (1:1)

Context

The first sentence of Mark’s Gospel can be taken as the heading to the scriptural quotation in 1:2–3, to the account of John the Baptist in 1:2–8, to the prologue (1:1–13) or to the entire book. The connection of 1:2 to 1:1 renders the scriptural quotation in 1:2–3, formally, a comment on 1:1. At the same time, 1:2–3 introduces the account of John the Baptist in 1:4–8, which in turn introduces the account of Jesus’ baptism in 1:9–11 in which the title ‘Son of God’ from 1:1 is taken up. However, 1:1 is not merely the introduction to the prologue: the term ‘good news’ (euangelion) in 1:1 is repeated in 1:14, 15, which begins the account of Jesus’ public life, and occurs again in 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9. The prologue is only the ‘beginning’ of the ‘good news’ (1:1) which, in terms of its content, comprises Jesus’ public life and ministry, whose account fills the rest of the book.

Comment

1. The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. The beginning (archē) of Mark’s book is the ministry of John the Baptist (1:4–8) which initiates the fulfilment of messianic expectations (1:2–3) and leads to Jesus’ baptism and testing (1:9–13). At the same time, these words announce the beginning of the book’s central theme: the good news about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, who is the promised Messiah. The suggestion that beginning echoes the opening phrase of Genesis 1:1 (lxx: en archē, ‘in the beginning’; cf. John 1:1) is not convincing: while Genesis and John refer to the beginning of all things, Mark speaks of the beginning of the good news about Jesus.

The term euangelion (‘good news’)1 is used in the New Testament as a quasi-technical term for the message of Jesus’ followers. Traditionally euangelion was translated in English versions as ‘gospel’ (from Old English godspel, ‘glad tidings’), while newer versions (niv, nlt, nrsv) have ‘good news’. Since both the noun and the verb euangelizomai are used in Greek texts for (the announcement of) good news in a variety of contexts, the assumption of an anti-imperial background – in the sense of a response to the emperor cult in which the terms were used for the announcement of the emperor’s birthday or accession to the throne – is unnecessary. More important is the use of the verb in the lxx as the translation for Hebrew biśśēr (‘to announce, tell, deliver a message’): key passages use the term to describe God’s kingly reign, his victory over his enemies and the arrival of salvation.2 In Isaiah, the ‘herald of good news’ announces and inaugurates the new era of God’s kingly rule (Isa. 40:9–11; 52:7). Mark states that the content of his book is God’s good news for God’s people, conveyed in and through Jesus, who is the promised Messiah. It is the content of the book which is euangelion. It is possible, however, that Mark intended the term as a reference to the written narrative about the life of Jesus.3

Mark gives an account of the good news which is about Jesus the Messiah. In its Greek form (Iēsous), the name Jesus is the Hebrew name Yĕhôšû‘a (Joshua, meaning ‘Yahweh saves’, ‘Yahweh is salvation’; the Aramaic form is Yēšû‘a). ‘Jesus’ was a popular name among Jews.4 The Greek term Christos has traditionally been rendered with the transliteration ‘Christ’, which is easily misunderstood as a proper name. The Greek term is an adjective which renders the Hebrew term māšîaḥ (‘anointed’) which, by the first century, was used as a title for the promised king from the Davidic dynasty who would appear in the last days (Hebr. ha-māšîaḥ; Aramaic mešiḥa’; ‘the Anointed One’).5 In 8:29, 9:41, 12:35, 13:21, 14:61, 15:32, Christos has clearly a titular meaning, emphasizing Jesus’ perceived or claimed role as the Messiah.

The term Son of God here is not a synonym for Messiah, which is possible in the light of 2 Samuel 7:14, Psalm 2:7 and several Qumran passages,6 but describes Jesus’ identity in terms of divine dignity: Jesus is the unique, messianic Son of God, twice declared by the voice of God himself (1:11; 9:7), who shares God’s power and glory (cf. 3:11; 5:7; 13:32; and note Jesus’ miracles and exorcisms).

Theology

Mark’s book relates the beginning of the good news about Jesus, who is the promised Messiah and indeed the unique Son of God. The appearance and the ministry of both John the Baptist and Jesus are not one more phase in the divinely guided history of salvation: John and Jesus mark a new beginning – the beginning of the promised, and long-awaited, salvation of Israel and of the world. The ‘good news’ that the prophets spoke and wrote about has become a reality, beginning with John and focused on Jesus. When the entire book is understood as a ‘beginning’, Mark asserts that the ‘good news’ continues in the churches in which his book is being read and heard by Jesus’ followers who are in the process of taking the good news to all nations (13:10).

B. Jesus and John the Baptist (1:2–8)

Context

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah (1:1) is linked with the ministry of John which Mark introduces as constituting a fulfilment of Scripture (1:2–3). Mark’s description of John’s preaching focuses consistently on what he says about the One coming after him (1:7–8). Matthew and Luke elaborate John’s preaching about repentance and the imminence of judgment (Matt. 3:7–10; Luke 3:7–9), and Luke includes John’s reply to those who question him about what he is doing (Luke 3:10–14). Assuming that Tiberius’ fifteenth year mentioned in Luke 3:1 is reckoned from the beginning of his co-regency with Augustus in ad 11/12, and assuming that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection took place in ad 30, John’s ministry can be dated to ad 26/27.7

Comment

2–3. The ‘beginning of the good news’ of Jesus the Messiah fulfils Scripture. Mark prefaces the quotation with the traditional formula it is written; the perfect tense underlines that Israel’s Scriptures are not texts that are relevant only for the past, but are God’s living word in the present. The following quotation combines Exodus 23:20; Malachi 3:1; and Isaiah 40:3.8 The ascription to Isaiah is not a mistake, but a deliberate device that places the story of John the Baptist and of Jesus in the context of Isaiah’s vision of Israel’s and the world’s restoration and renewal in the last days (Watts, New Exodus, p. 89). The first sentence of the quotation comes from Exodus 23:20a (lxx), which speaks of the angel whom God promised to go before Israel in the wilderness at the time of the exodus: I will send my messenger ahead of you (lit. ‘before your face’). The second sentence of the quotation comes from Malachi 3:1a: who will prepare your way. Mark’s change from ‘my way’ (Mal.) to ‘your way’ allows for a messianic interpretation, and also implies that Jesus, who is thus directly addressed by Yahweh, is the embodiment of Israel’s God. The third sentence is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3 (lxx): a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ Isaiah predicts a new exodus when the Lord (kyrios), Yahweh, the God of Israel, will return and lead his people out of the Babylonian exile into the Promised Land. The voice in the wilderness is the voice of John the Baptist, who calls God’s people to repentance (1:4), thus preparing a path for the coming of the Messiah. Mark changes the phrase ‘the paths of our God’ in the lxx text to ‘paths for him’ (niv) or ‘his paths’ (nrsv), referring to Jesus. The promised coming of God has taken place in the coming of Jesus. Where and when Jesus acts, God acts.

4. John is called John the Baptist. The title ‘the Baptist’ (ho baptizōn), which can be translated as ‘the One who Baptizes’ (nrsv ‘the baptizer’), is the more functional equivalent of the title ho baptistēs in 6:25; 8:28. The Greek verb baptizō means ‘to plunge, dip, immerse’ – used, for example, of a knife that is plunged into a sacrificial animal, a ship that is submerged in water or fabric that is dipped into dye; in its metaphorical use it describes, for example, a person immersed in debt, overcome by an argument or overpowered by passions (Schnabel, ‘Meaning’). Here, the meaning is ‘immersion’. In Second Temple Judaism, self-administered and recurring ablutions such as hand-washing and immersion in water (in rivers or in miqwāôt, stepped immersion pools) were regularly practised by the pious, primarily to cleanse from impurity and to maintain purity. At Qumran immersion signified purification from defilement due to sin and initiation into the community as the true or pure Israel.

The location in the wilderness refers to an uncultivated and uninhabited country. The specific reference to the Jordan river in verse 5 identifies the valley between the lake of Galilee and the Dead Sea as the geographical region in which John was active. The crowds who came from Judea and Jerusalem suggest the southern part of the valley, not far from where the Jordan meets the Dead Sea near Jericho. The location of John’s activity in the wilderness has theological signif...

Table of contents

• GENERAL PREFACE
• AUTHOR’S PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INTRODUCTION
• ANALYSIS
• COMMENTARY