Prologue (1:1–13)
Mark opens his Gospel with a prologue that provides the reader with privileged information unavailable to the characters in the story other than Jesus. A transcendent voice from offstage announces that John’s ministry fulfills divine prophecy and then identifies Jesus as the beloved Son and the conveyor of the Spirit. Next, Mark shows Jesus confronting and defeating Satan, living at peace with the wild animals, and being served by angels.
JUDEA
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ (1:1). “Gospel” refers to the story about Jesus narrated in the text, but it also includes the oral tradition that supplements the text. It comprises Jesus’ words, deeds, death, and resurrection as God’s direct intervention into history; it challenges an imperial cult propaganda that promotes a message of good tidings and a new age of peace through the Roman emperor.
This opening line may serve as the introduction to the opening segment of Mark (1:1–13) or may be the title Mark gives to his Gospel or the summary of its contents. If the latter, it explains why Mark abruptly ends the story with the women fleeing the tomb (16:8). The Gospel is open-ended. The reader knows that their flight and silence are not the end of the matter but is not given the details of how their fear was vanquished or their mouths opened. The end, therefore, serves as a beginning to a story to be continued (cf. Acts 1:1–2).
The Son of God (1:1). With the title “Son of God,” Mark affirms that a profound relationship exists between Jesus and God, but this term’s long history in the ancient Near East and the Old Testament meant it had a variety of associations. It would not necessarily have implied divinity or preexistence as it does for most today. The Old Testament applied the term to angelic figures4 and to Israel as chosen and protected by God.5 The expression was also used for the individual righteous Jew;6 and in Joseph and Asenath, Joseph was called firstborn “son of God” because of his beauty.7 Most relevant is God’s declaration that the one who ascends the royal throne is “my son.”8 These enthronement passages invited the use of “son” as a title for the royal Messiah. Though it was only rarely employed in Palestinian Judaism, evidence exists for its usage as a messianic title in pre-Christian Judaism.9 Clearly, the high priest’s query, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (14:61), treats “Christ” and “Son of God” as equivalent.
The title had a variety of connotations in the Greco-Roman world. It was applied to figures such as Heracles, who shared the characteristics of a heroic mortal and of a god. The emperor Augustus received the title divi filius, the son of the deified one (Julius Caesar). The Roman emperors and members of their family were deified posthumously, while Gaius Caligula (and later Commodus) sought to emphasize his own divinity during his lifetime. The idea of bestowing divine honors and titles on human beings, however, was more accepted in the East, which was accustomed to ruler cults. An inscription on a stele in Pergamum identifies Augustus as “emperor Caesar, Son of God, God Augustus.”10 In this context, the expression would have been deemed fitting for a king or ruler as well as a divine figure (see Acts 14:11).
Mark’s doubling of terms such as “Christ, the Son of God” serves as a two-step progression in which the second element has the effect of sharpening and heightening “the meaning of what precedes.”11 “Son of God” therefore means more than that Jesus is the Messiah or a royal ruler. Mark’s narrative does not simply present Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah but as one who is God’s Son in a unique way. The unclean spirits possess supernatural knowledge and recognize that Jesus is the Son of God who has come to destroy them (3:11; 5:7; see 1:24). They attest to his divine nature, authority, and power, not that he is Israel’s Messiah. Mark also describes Jesus doing what only God can do. He battles Satan, calls disciples with the power of God, casts out demons, heals fever, cures leprosy, forgives sins, controls the sea, raises the dead, walks on the waves, and miraculously feeds thousands; and his death unleashes apocalyptic events. His coming signifies not the advent of some earthly messianic rule but the advent of the reign of God that will subjugate principalities and powers, things present and things to come, things above the earth and things beneath the earth, and even death.
It is written in Isaiah the prophet (1:2). The gospel message continues a longer story stretching back to Isaiah. Mark quotes from three texts: the law (Ex. 23:20 LXX), the greater prophets (Isa. 40:3), and the minor prophets (Mal. 3:1, the last of the prophets) to attest that God initiates the action.12 Postbiblical Judaism tended to combine Old Testament texts in much the same way that modern hymnals conflate various texts in responsive readings. No simple device, such as footnotes, existed to identify all of the texts cited. By singling out Isaiah as the source, Mark informs the reader that the story “is to be understood against the backdrop of Isaian themes.”13
John came, baptizing in the desert region (1:4). John chooses to preach and baptize in the desert for its symbolic associations. (1) For Israel, the desert was the place of new beginnings and renewal.14 (2) It was also the place one went to elude persecution and to flee iniquity, since it was beyond the control of the cities.15 According to the Martyrdom of Isaiah 2:7–11, the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Ananias, Joel, Habbakuk, and Josab, his son, abandoned the corruption of Judah for the desert. They clothed themselves in sackcloth, lamented straying Israel, and ate wild herbs as an act of symbolic judgment. The covenanters at Qumran cited Isaiah 40:3 as warrant for separating themselves from sinners “to walk to the desert in order to open there His path.”16 (3) The desert was also viewed as the mobilizing area for God’s future victory over evil and the place where Elijah (Mal. 4:5) and the Messiah were thought to appear (Matt. 24:26). On the other side of the Jordan (John 1:28), John draws the people away from Jerusalem to the place where Israel had once stood prior to entering the Promised Land.
THE JUDEAN WILDERNESS
Jebel Quruntul, a mountain in the desert near Jericho associated with the temptation of Jesus.
The monastery of the Mount of Temptation.
A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (1:4). John demands that everyone who comes for his baptism seal his or her pledge of repentance. A Jewish tradition claimed that Israel was prepared on Sinai for receiving salvation by means of immersion.17 According to the prophets, Israel’s cleansing was preparation for receiving God’s Spirit.18
Ritual immersion was a common practice in Judaism, so common that the wealthier inhabitants of Jerusalem had their own immersion pools built in their houses. Nearly 150 of them have been found. Immersion pools had to contain forty seahs of water (a seah equals a little less than two gallons). They were to be one cubit square and three cubits deep to enable people standing in it to immerse themselves completely by bending their knees.19 This standard Jewish practice probably means that John did not immerse each person but served as the priestly mediator supervising the people as they submerged themselves by bending forward into the water.
John’s baptism differs significantly from normal Jewish immersions for ceremonial purification because it is done only once and does not need repeating. It is not simply a rite of cleansing but an initiatory rite in which the one baptized repents and accepts God’s offer of forgiveness to be saved from the coming fiery judgment. Josephus’s description of John’s baptism as only a purificatory rite and his statement that “they must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they committed” suggests that he found this idea offensive.20
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist (1:6). John’s clothing conjures up images of the prophet Elijah, who wore the same things.21 According to 2 Kings 2:5–14, Elijah was taken up on the banks of the Jordan near Jericho. John may have deliberately chosen this site for his baptism because of its associations with Elijah and with Elisha’s request for a double share of his spirit.
And he ate locusts and wild honey (1:6). The diet conveys asceticism and piety. Locusts were ritually clean and therefore permitted for Jews to eat (Lev. 11:20–23). They could “be cooked in salt-water, or roasted on coals, then dried, reduced to powder, and eaten with salt.”22 Josephus also refers to an abundance of bees in this region that would have produced ample honey.23
The thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie (1:7). John preaches that a more powerful person is coming who will baptize with the Spirit. The “strong one” is a name for God in the Greek Old Testament (LXX). John’s water baptism is only preparatory as people plunge into the Jordan, signifying their repentance to ready themselves for God’s coming kingdom. The Spirit’s baptism will be definitive. John comes as a voice crying, a servant unworthy to perform even the demeaning task of stooping to loosen the sandals of the one who comes after him. A rabbinic commentary takes Leviticus 25:39, “do not make him work as a slave” to mean:
A Hebrew slave must not wash the feet of his master, nor put his shoes on him, nor carry his things before him when going to the bathhouse, nor support him by the hips when ascending steps, nor carry him in a litter or a sedan chair as slaves do. For it is said: “But over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, over one another, with rigor” (Lev. 25:46).24
He saw heaven being torn open (1:10). The heavens are usually described as “opening” as a sign that God is about to speak or act.25 Mark says they are “torn” at Jesus’ baptism, just as the temple veil is “torn” at his death (15:38). Joshua (Josh. 3:14–17), Elijah (2 Kings 2:8), and Elisha (2:14) each parted the Jordan river, and the false prophet Theudas promised to do it.26 By contrast, when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, the heavens are parted, recalling the longing expressed in Isaiah 64:1, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!”
The Spirit descending on him like a dove (1:10). This detail recalls the image of the Spirit’s hovering over the waters at the beginning of creation (Gen. 1:2), as well as a rabbinic tradition that describes the Spirit’s hovering like a dove.27 God’s Spirit swooping down on Jesus signifies the beginning of a new creation. The image confirms that Jesus’ ministry will be Spirit directed (Isa. 11:2).
The rabbis relegated the Spirit’s activity to the past because their authority was based on their ability to interpret previous revelation. To protect that authority, they undermined any who acted unconventionally and claimed more direct links to the divine through the Spirit.28 A rabbinic tradition says that the Holy Spirit came to an end in Israel when the last prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) died. From then on, one could only hear the heavenly messages from an echo, the daughter of the voice (bat qôl). It continues that the sages were gathered in an upper room when the heavenly voice said, “There is a man among you who is worthy to receive the Holy Spirit, but his generation is unworthy of such an honor.” They assumed that the person was Hillel the elder.29 Significantly, Mark begins his gospel by featuring the work of the prophet John the Baptizer and the descent of the Spirit on Jesus. The Spirit has not come to an end in Israel but is breaking loose in a new, momentous way.
The Spirit sent him out into the desert (1:12). The Spirit does not induce a state of inner tranquility but drives Jesus deeper into the desolate desert, where wild beasts prowl, and into the clutches of Satan. The desert was also known as God’s proving grounds for the people. Jesus emerges victorious over Satan, and his healing ministry continues his onslaught on Satan’s realm.
Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry (1:14–15)
After John was put in prison (1:14). The announcement that John was “delivered up” (the literal meaning of “put in prison”) foreshadows how the fates of John and Jesus will be intertwined. Jesus also will be delivered up.30 John is Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, conflict with earthly authorities, and death (6:7–13; 9:11–13).
Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near” (1:14–15). With the forerunner’s work completed, Jesus’ work now begins as he returns victoriously from his battle with Satan. He announces God’s timely intervention into the present. The time of waiting is over, and the decisive moment has arrived when God’s rule will be established.31
Calling of the First Disciples (1:16–20)
Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake (1:16). Jesus calls Peter and Andrew as they are casting nets from the shoreline. Early church tradition suggests that this scene took place in the cove of Tabgha, west of Capernaum. Warm mineral springs flowed into the lake there, attracting schools of fish.32 We should not presume that they were too poor to own a boat. In the winter, a type of fish called musht “move closer to the shore in schools to seek warmer waters.” One expert notes that “twentieth-century fisherman continue to use this spring, now known as Ein Nur, for these purposes.”33 The throw net was eighteen to twenty-five feet in diameter, with a rope in its center and lead sinkers on its circumference. It was cast by one person standing in a boat or on a rock near the lakeshore. The net was laid on one arm and shoulder and was then thrown with a large swing of the other arm. The net sank to the bottom like an opened parachute capturing the fish. The fisherman then had to pull out the fish one by one or carefully draw all the lead weights together and haul the catch to shore or into a boat.
“Come, follow me” (1:17). Jesus’ first act creates a community of followers by calling some to follow him. Prophets did not call people to follow them, but to follow God. The teachers of the law had disciples who came to them to be instructed in the law, but none ever said to anyone, “Come, follow me.” The disciple, rather, always chose the master and moved on when he believed that he had learned as much from him as possible about the tradition. Jesus does not wait for volunteers but chooses his own disciples and requires absolute obedience. Mark shows Jesus calling disciples with divine authority, just as God called the prophets in the Old Testament and expected the relationship to be permanent. He also does not call them to a house of study but to an itinerant ministry.
I will make you fishers of men (1:17). In the Old Testament, the metaphor of fishing for men is associated with gathering people for judgment.34 For Jesus, the imagery has to do with a messianic gathering of the people. In Joseph and Asenath, Joseph’s new wife prays a psalm of thanksgiving after her conversion and says that her husband “grasped me like a fish on a hook.”35 The disciples are called to be agents who will bring a compelling message to others, one that will change their lives beyond recognition.
He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets (1:19). After each outing, fishing nets required mending, washing, drying, and folding, and Jesus finds John and James engaged in this task. Three types of nets were used in New Testament times: the seine net (Matt. 13:47–48), the cast net (Mark 1:16), and the trammel net, which could stretch to five hundred feet and required two boats working together. Owning a boat does not indicate that Zebedee and his sons are well-to-do, any more than owning a yoke of oxen or a flock of sheep indicates that a farmer is well-to-do. Note how both the boat owner and the hired laborers are pictured working side by side. Fish suppliers had to lease their fishing rights, and these fishermen are probably part of a fishing cooperative that has contracted to deliver fish to wealthier middlemen.
The Man with an Unclean Spirit (1:21–28)
When the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach (1:21). The remains of a limestone synagogue visible today in Capernaum date from the late second to third century or perhaps as late as the fifth century. Religious structures were normally rebuilt in the same sacred area, and an earlier building made of rough black basalt stones has been discovered beneath it. It is probable that the synagogue in Jesus’ day was located in the same spot, and its outline fits the plan of early synagogues found at Masada, Herodium, Gamla, and Magdala. It measures 4,838 square feet and is the largest of the synagogues found from this era.36
CAPERNAUM
Remains of basalt homes. The modern structure in the background is built over the top of the site identified as the home of Peter.
Remains of the home of Peter in Capernaum. The property was converted into a church during the 2d–4th centuries A.D.
The Palestinian synagogues dating from the third and fourth centuries with their external and internal ornamentation, Torah niches, and raised platforms may mislead us to expect first-century synagogues to look much the same. By contrast, the synagogues of the first century “were functional and plain.”37 Synagogues became more official institutions in the second and third centuries after the temple’s destruction created a desire to create an organization for nonsacrificial worship.38
A man … possessed by an evil spirit (1:23). Mark uses the term “unclean [akatharton] spirit” rather than “evil [ponēron] spirit.” This is not a medical diagnosis, but a religious term. In the Old Testament, that which is unclean has evaded the control of the divine holiness and causes humans to be banished from God’s presence.39 Jesus, endued with the Holy Spirit, has come to purify what is unclean.
Mark draws a distinction between those who are demonized and those who are sick (1:32, 34). Unlike the sick, those identified as controlled by demons have extraordinary strength (5:4) and suffer violently (5:5; 9:22). The demons, agitated by Jesus’ presence, usually howl their alarm (1:24; 5:7) and often do some kind of harm when they depart. The possession is caused by an evil power that requires a greater power to expel it.
“I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (1:24). The unclean spirit assumes that knowledge is power and tries to fend off its impending defeat with the exorcist’s trick of pronouncing the name of the opponent. In the ancient magical papyri, names were used as incantations because it was believed that pronouncing the name of the power or enemy gave one a tactical advantage in manipulating and defeating it. The cry (lit.) “What between you and me?” (1:24) is the same cry used by the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:18) and the king of the Ammonites (Judg. 11:12) as a defensive maneuver. A magical papyri drawn up to ward off demons illustrates the strategy: “I know your name which was received in heaven, I know your forms…. I know your foreign names and your true name…. I know you Hermes, who you are and whence you came.”40
Unlike other exorcisms recorded in the ancient world, Jesus uses no incantations, chants, rites, noises, pharmaceutical recipes, knots, or other magical devices. In Tobit 8:2–3, for example, Sarah drives off the demon Asmodeus with the help of the angel Raphael by burning a fish’s liver and heart, whose stench “repelled the demon … to the remotest parts of Egypt.” Jesus makes no appeals to a supernatural power and does not rattle off a litany of powerful names. He simply commands, and the demons flee.
Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law (1:29–34)
They went … to the home of Simon and Andrew (1:29). Archaeologists have uncovered a house that may well have been Peter’s home. Inside the building, numerous coins, pottery, and oil lamps dating to the first century have been discovered, along with artifacts that include several fish hooks. It is located only one hundred feet south of the city’s synagogue on the main street of the town and consists of a large, circular cluster of rooms around a spacious courtyard. An open area between the street and the doorway leading to the courtyard would have allowed space for a large number of people to “gather at the door” (1:33; cf. 2:1–3).
This site was venerated by later Christians from the inscriptions and symbols found in the debris. In the late first century, it was changed into a house for religious gatherings; and in the fourth century, it was enlarged and set apart from the rest of the town through an imposing enclosure wall. The pilgrim Egeria (ca. 383–95) wrote that “the house of the chief of the apostles has been turned into a church.” In the second half of the fifth century, an octagonal church was built over the large room, probably to serve pilgrims, and remained in use until the seventh century, when Capernaum was conquered and destroyed by invading Muslim forces.
Simon’s mother-in-law (1:30). When a woman married, she left her family and moved to the home and family of her husband. For this reason, daughters were not prized because they could not add to the family’s wealth or honor. They were destined to become part of another’s family, and a wife’s blood relatives were not counted as kin by her new family. A mother-in-law would normally be living in her husband’s house or, if he has died, in the home of a son. If she had no living sons, she would seek to return to her family. Otherwise, she would be destitute. Since Peter’s mother-in-law has apparently moved to the home of her daughter, she has no living sons, and Peter has consented to accept responsibility for her. Another possibility, however, is that the home belongs to Peter’s mother-in-law. Peter is said to come from Bethsaida (John 1:44), a few miles away; and he may have been visiting his mother-in-law.
An interesting ruling in the Mishnah insists that a man must tithe again any food that he gives his mother-in-law to prepare when he receives it back. It assumes that she will naturally want to exchange the produce given to her for something of better quality out of concern to improve the welfare of her daughter.41
In bed with a fever (1:30). A large segment of the ancient world considered fever to be an illness in and of itself caused by demons, divine beings, curses, or astrological phenomena.42 In Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:22, fever is a divine chastisement. Many believed that it could only be cured by God. A rabbinic tradition reads: “Greater is the miracle wrought for the sick than for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. [For] that of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah [concerned] a fire kindled by man, which all can extinguish; whilst that of a sick person is [in connection with] a heavenly fire, and who can extinguish that?”43 The answer is that none can extinguish it except God. It is therefore Christologically significant that Jesus can extinguish a heavenly fire—something only God or God’s agent could do.
She began to wait on them (1:31). Being able to serve others was a sign of physical and mental wholeness; it was not demeaning. “To wait on them” is the same verb (“to serve”) used to describe what the angels did for Jesus in 1:13. It is also a characteristic of discipleship as Jesus makes clear to his disciples (9:35; 10:41–45). The women who saw his death from afar are described as those who “in Galilee … followed him and cared for his needs” (15:41).
Prayer in a Lonely Place Before Going Out to the Whole of Galilee (1:35–39)
Jesus … went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (1:35). According to an ancient tradition, the “lonely place” was on the “ridge of hills” west of the village overlooking Tabgha and the Sea of Galilee.44
Healing a Leper (1:39–41)
A man with leprosy came to him (1:40). In the New Testament, leprosy does not refer to Hansen’s disease but to various kinds of skin diseases, such as dermatosis, psoriasis, burns, suspicious baldness, and white leprosy, where patches devoid of feeling develop on the skin. Four kinds of leprosy are distinguished in the Mishnah tractate on leprosy: bright white like snow, white like the lime of the temple, white as the skin of an egg, white like white wool.45 Every suspected leprosy sign must be brought to the priest for examination because only a priest may declare lepers clean or unclean (Lev. 13:3).46 The cases are described in detail in Leviticus 13–14 so that the priest can identify the presence or absence of particular physical signs, such as skin color change, hair color, infiltration, extension, or ulceration of the skin. There is no concern about a medical contagion; if it covers the whole body, he is considered clean of the disease (Lev. 13:13)!
The law prescribed that lepers be excluded from the community.47 As a result, lepers tended to be social derelicts. They were quarantined because they imparted ritual uncleanness to others, not because of any fear of physical contamination. Leprosy, like a corpse, imparts impurity to objects found within the same enclosure (known as the principle of a tent), so the leper is like a living corpse (see Num. 12:12).48 Lepers could attend a synagogue if a screen was erected, but they had to enter first and leave last.49 A different picture is presented in a later rabbinic text in which rabbis argue one should not pass within four cubits to the east of a leper or within one hundred cubits when a wind was blowing. Another tradition relates that when a certain rabbi saw a leper, he would throw stones at him and shout: “Go to your place and do not defile other people.”50
Leprosy was regarded as a telltale sign that the victim had committed some hidden sin for which God was punishing him measure for measure. Most believed that God alone could heal leprosy (see 2 Kings 5:1–27). Only after being forgiven by God, as evidenced by the healing, could the purification process begin to reintegrate the leper into society.
Jesus shows compassion by stretching out his hand and touching the leper. The touch contrasts with Elisha’s instructions to Naaman to go wash in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:10–11). The reader can only conclude that Jesus was so close to God that his touch could cleanse even the worst impurity.51 “Jesus’ power to cleanse is thus demonstrably greater than the power of the leprosy to contaminate.”52
But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing (1:44). Though the man has been cleansed of his disease, he remains in social limbo until he has been examined and declared clean by a priest and has offered the appropriate sacrifices (see Lev. 14:1–32). The “testimony to them” may refer to the proof to the community into which the leper is being restored.