Mark

Believers Church Bible Commentary

Timothy J. Geddert

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780836191400
• eBook ISBN: 9780836197976
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Timothy J. Geddert views Mark as a profound theologian and accomplished writer, not a mere compiler of traditions. Mark’s text provokes careful reflection on its subtle and challenging message of hope and its call to faithfully follow Jesus on the way.

Mark’s Gospel speaks plainly, yet sometimes in riddles, of God as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God. Mark presents God’s reign, its present hiddenness and future glory, and its surprising way of coming. Mark is also about Jesus and his followers crossing barriers to pass God’s grace on to those formerly excluded. Mark’s resurrection message is open-ended. Readers supply their own ending, not just in words, but by following their resurrected Lord.

Includes essays on themes useful for teaching, preaching, and Bible study; bibliographies; charts; two maps; and an index of ancient sources.

Part 1

Ministry in and Around Galilee

Mark 1:1-15

Preparing the Way

PREVIEW

Mark’s Gospel is much more than a historical report of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is a proclamation of good news, an interpretation of Jesus and his message, a challenge to faithful discipleship, a theological and a literary masterpiece.

On the surface of the text is a clear and simple message. It has led many to faith and has challenged believers to know Jesus and follow him more closely. Yet there is much more here as well. Mark’s Gospel is loaded with subtle hints that more is going on than meets the eye.

The recurring calls to see and to hear are not only Jesus’ challenges to his disciples within the story; they are also Mark’s challenges to his readers. At times Mark’s readers are told things that the disciples in the narrative do not know. At times we learn that Jesus has explained things to them, but the explanations are not reported to us. So we learn with the disciples, sometimes going ahead, sometimes trying to catch up. We learn from Jesus as we listen to his teaching. And we learn from Mark as he guides the narrative.

The main subject of the book is Jesus. The opening verse of Mark’s narrative makes that clear. The following narrative confirms that central focus. At the outset the reader is told that Jesus is both Christ and Son of God (1:1). We begin with an advantage over those within the narrative whom Jesus will call to follow him. They will only gradually come to understand who Jesus is.

Mark’s Gospel contains no birth narratives and no reports of Jesus’ childhood. There are only a few hints about his human origins (6:3). Mark moves quickly to Jesus’ ministry. In only seven verses, Mark reports how the way for Jesus was prepared by prophets of old (1:2-3) and by John the Baptizer (1:4-8). In another seven verses, Mark shows how the adult Jesus is inaugurated into his ministry. He is baptized by John (1:9), affirmed and commissioned by God (1:1011), and tempted by the devil (1:12-13). Then Jesus steps onto the Galilean stage to announce the arrival of God’s kingdom and to call people to repentance and faith (1:14-15).

These first 15 verses, Mark’s prologue, are about “Preparing the Way.” The OT prophets, John the Baptist (Jesus’ forerunner), Jesus himself, the Galilean population, and the reader all participate in various ways as the way is prepared for the arrival of God’s reign.

The word euangelion (gospel/good news, RSV/NRSV) marks off this section. Mark’s announcement of good news to the readers (1:1) and Jesus’ announcement of good news to the Galileans (1:15) form a bracket around the preparatory events. Other commentators make the first major break after verse 8, verse 13, or verse 20. The NRSV makes at least minor breaks at all those places.

All major breaks, however, are mixed blessings. They are created to make commentary writing (and reading) more manageable. Mark did not create these breaks. He carefully constructed a unified narrative, with transitions holding major units together. Thus, as the comments below reflect, verses 14-15 are transitional, closing off the prologue and leading directly into the next unit.

OUTLINE

The Beginning of the Good News, 1:1

Preparing the Way in the Wilderness, 1:2-3

John’s Baptism and Message, 1:4-8

Jesus’ Baptism and Commissioning, 1:9-11

The Temptation of Jesus, 1:12-13

Announcing the Kingdom, 1:14-15

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The Beginning of the Good News 1:1

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The opening seven (Greek) words of Mark’s Gospel are loaded with significance, ambiguity, and difficulty.

Beginning (arche) is the first word. Mark’s Gospel opens just as the Hebrew Scriptures do: “In the beginning” God created (Gen. 1:1). Now Mark announces a new beginning.

It is good news that begins here. This word euangelion, usually translated gospel, is not a title for the book; Gospel is not yet a label for a type of literature (Gospel of Mark, of Matthew, of Luke, of John). Instead, Mark is telling us that the material to follow should be understood as good news. At times in the story, dark clouds loom; Mark wants his readers to remember that God’s sunshine beyond all tragedy creates silver linings, keeping hope alive. A persecuted church needs to remember that. So also do commentators who are sometimes tempted to call Mark’s Gospel depressing.

Many have commented that the “shadow of the cross” hangs over the whole book; that the Gospel paints a “negative portrait of discipleship”; or that “fear and failure” characterize the Gospel’s ending. But Mark views his own work as a declaration of good news. Interpretations of Mark that do not preserve that attitude are suspect. As we work our way through this amazing book, we often need to remind ourselves that the secret of the kingdom (4:11) is the key to the optimism Mark asks us to share with him. On the surface, things may look dark; but we are asked to look deeper.

Good news of Jesus brings us to the first of many expressions in Mark with double meanings. We might take this phrase to mean the good news (the arrival of God’s reign) that Jesus is proclaiming (as subjective genitive in Greek). Or the phrase might be taken to mean the good news about Jesus that Mark is proclaiming (as objective genitive). In the first option, Jesus is the proclaimer, Mark’s role is to preserve the original words and works of the historical Jesus, and Mark’s book is primarily a historical record. In the second option, Jesus is the proclaimed one, Mark’s role is to interpret the meaning of Jesus’ advent for his readers, and the book is primarily a theological and literary work.

Some interpreters defend one of these options and reject the other. However, the path of wisdom is to recognize an intentional double meaning: Mark presents Jesus as the proclaimer and the proclaimed one. Mark often creates such double meanings. They function to prevent oversimplification, to provoke deeper reflection, and to create irony. Mark is a subtle writer, and he provides frequent hints that not all the meaning is on the surface (6:52).

The NRSV’s ambiguous of Jesus is a good translation (1:1). Translations that choose one of the two options (e.g., the good news about Jesus, or the good news that Jesus proclaimed) impoverish the text. Mark is preserving Jesus’ traditions for a later generation (subjective genitive); Mark is also interpreting and proclaiming Jesus (objective genitive). He is challenging readers to respond to the good news that can be theirs not only because Jesus came, but also because he is still calling people to respond to the gospel of the kingdom.

Appended to the name Jesus are two titles, Christ and Son of God, the two most important titles for Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Some early manuscripts do not include the second title, probably from a copying oversight: in Greek, each of the last six words of this verse ends with -ou, and one could easily miss a few similar words [Textual Criticism of Mark]. Both titles for Jesus were likely part of Mark’s original text.

Our familiarity with the phrase Jesus Christ often obscures the fact that Jesus is the name and Christ is the title (at least for Mark). In this opening verse, readers are told who Jesus is, something the characters within the story will be struggling to discover. These two key titles help us understand Jesus’ identity and mission.

For the average first-century Jew, the title Christ (Messiah) meant a great political ruler, the expected coming king from the line of David. These associations triggered thoughts of political liberation from Rome, with freedom and prosperity for national Israel. Suffering and death would not fit into the picture. Son of God, especially for Gentile readers, would raise expectations of a great miracle-worker, a link between heaven and earth, one who appears human but is really one with God (or the gods). Again, the idea of suffering and death would be absent.

Mark’s first verse uses both titles to tell us who Jesus is. The rest of the Gospel will clarify what it means to be Christ and Son of God. For Mark, both titles are tightly linked to Jesus’ passion and death. When Jesus’ disciples first confess that he is Christ (8:29, RSV; Messiah, NRSV), Jesus begins to teach about the coming passion, about the road of discipleship that leads to Golgotha (8:31). When Jesus completes his own journey from popularity and success to rejection and suffering (15:37), we hear the first human in this Gospel proclaim: Truly this man was God’s Son! (15:39). Jesus is sentenced to death for confessing that he is the Messiah and God’s Son (14:6162). For Mark, there is no true confession of Jesus that is not interpreted in the light of the cross (8:29-34).

Mark’s Gospel gives readers an interpretive key with the first verse: Jesus is the Messiah; Jesus is God’s Son. That is something the disciples of Jesus (according to Mark) do not know at the beginning. But readers of the Gospel dare not glory in their superior knowledge; just like Jesus’ disciples, we need to learn the meaning of truly confessing Christ as the divine Son. According to Mark’s Gospel, that insight is hidden from those who do not walk the way of the cross.

One major question must still occupy us as we consider Mark’s opening verse: To what does the beginning of the good news refer? Many possibilities come to mind:

1. The beginning is narrated in verses 2 and 3: “It all began when the prophets of old announced in advance that a messenger would prepare the way for God to come.”

2. The beginning is narrated in verses 2-8: “It all began with the ministry of John, the forerunner (just as the prophets had said it would).”

3. The beginning is narrated in verses 9-13: “It all began with Jesus’ baptism, commissioning, and temptation.” That is where the time of preparation (1:2-8) shifts into the time of fulfillment (1:14f.).

4. The beginning is narrated in verses 14-15: “It all began when Jesus announced the arrival of God’s kingdom.” Verses 2-13 reveal how this came about.

5. The beginning is narrated in verses 1-20: “It all began when Jesus first recruited followers to join him as people of the kingdom (having himself gone through the stages of preparation for this ultimate mission).”

Each of these options is possible, but Mark likely intended something broader than all of them. For Mark, the whole Gospel narrative is the beginning of the good news. Mark writes a narrative so that the Christians in his day will know how it all began. It all began with Jesus’ life and ministry, death and resurrection. That is what makes discipleship and mission possible.

The meaning of Mark’s opening line influences how we understand his closing lines (16:7-8). The resurrection call to meet Jesus in Galilee is an invitation to go back once more to the beginning. It is an invitation to begin again, to experience insight after blindness, victory after defeat, renewed discipleship after failure. It is an invitation to recognize the true nature of the Christ, the Son of God, in the light of the passion and resurrection. On this reading, Mark 1:1 is not only a way of getting the narrative started. It is a way of summarizing its message and its impact (16:7-8, notes).

Preparing the Way in the Wilderness 1:2-3

Long before the advent of Jesus, God’s people were taught to look forward to a coming one who would usher in the age of salvation. Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 (the two main sources of the quotation Mark here attributes to Isaiah) both speak of a messenger who will prepare for God’s coming. Mark modifies the prophetic texts slightly but significantly. In Malachi, the “LORD of hosts” announces that a messenger will precede the Lord’s own coming to purify the temple. In Isaiah, the voice prepares a highway for God.

Slight modifications to both texts make it possible for Mark’s text to be a prediction of Jesus’ forerunner. Thus Jesus is the one bringing salvation. Jesus accomplishes what the prophets said God would do. This is the first of many hints that Mark considers Jesus to be truly one with God (4:41; 6:50; 14:62).

Moreover the reference to wilderness is transposed. In Isaiah, the voice spoke of a “way in the wilderness.” In Mark, the voice (of John) is in the wilderness, but the way of the Lord is not only there. For Mark, the way will symbolize much more than simply what John prepares. It will ultimately become the way of the cross (see TBC, below).

John’s Baptism and Message 1:4-8

John’s baptizing begins the fulfillment of prophecies by Malachi and Isaiah. Those waiting for God’s Messiah are called into the desert to prepare their hearts for his arrival. Baptism, usually reserved for proselytes to Judaism, is here administered to Jews, who consider themselves already members of the covenant people. John is inviting them to reenter the covenant, to rejoin the people of God. They are to come as repentant sinners and prepare their hearts for what is to come.

John’s ministry seems incredibly successful. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem come to be baptized. This hyperbole highlights the eagerness of the Jews to welcome the coming one (1:7-8; cf. 3:8, notes); it serves as a contrast to the later overwhelming rejection of Jesus, when people discover who he is, how he comes, and what it will cost to follow him.

John is portrayed as one who lives the nomadic life of a desert wanderer. He eats locusts and wild honey, is dressed in camel’s hair clothing, and wears a leather belt. On a deeper level, he is portrayed as Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 1:8; Zech. 13:4), whose coming is to precede “the great and terrible day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5). Jesus later identifies John as the Elijah who must come first (9:12-13).

Here it is John’s voice that Mark wants to stress. Thus emphasis falls on John’s message in 1:7-8. John’s task is to announce the coming of Jesus, the more powerful one, the more worthy one, the one who baptizes with a greater baptism. John’s baptism is with water (a repentance baptism and only preparatory). Jesus’ baptism will be with the Spirit; he is the one endowed with the Spirit, the one who does the work of God’s Spirit in bringing end-time salvation.

If R. Gundry is correct, then the Spirit-baptism John predicts is not a Pentecost-type event in which Jesus gives the Spirit to others. Instead, John is referring to what Jesus will be doing from now on: acting in th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Abbreviations
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1: Ministry in and Around Galilee
• Part 2: Journey to Jerusalem, the Cross, and Beyond
• Outline of Mark
• Essays
• Maps for Mark
• Bibliography
• Selected Resources
• Index of Ancient Sources
• The Author