TEXT [Commentary]

B. The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus (1:9-15; cf. Matt 3:13-17; 4:1-11; Luke 3:21-23; 4:1-13)

9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him[*] like a dove. 11 And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

12 The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, 13 where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.

14 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News.[*] 15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

NOTES

1:10 he saw. According to Mark, the descent of the Holy Spirit was seen only by Jesus. It was not a public event but God’s private affirmation of Jesus.

the heavens splitting apart. Mark uses a very graphic term to describe how the Spirit came upon Jesus. First, he speaks of the heavens splitting apart (schizomenous [TG4977, ZG5387]), or being torn open as if God were coming in from outside the earth’s sphere and invading its space (BDAG 981). The same verb is used to describe how the veil of the Temple was ripped during the crucifixion (15:38). Many find the background for this in Isa 64:1[63:19b] (TDNT 7:962). Isaiah appealed to God to tear the sky apart and come down to deliver his people. For Mark, the Spirit’s descent upon Jesus began to answer that call. One of Mark’s key terms, “immediately” (euthus [TG2117, ZG2317]), is not translated here in the NLT but should be noted as present in this verse. This is the first of 41 times that Mark uses this word (out of 51 NT uses). Mark notes that the splitting open of the sky happened as soon as Jesus emerged from the water during the baptism.

the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. The Spirit descended like the gentle flight of a dove. Mark’s point is not that the Spirit looked like a dove but that the Spirit approached him as a dove would.

1:11 a voice from heaven. This is God’s voice; Mark’s prologue continues to emphasize actions from beyond this world. This is not the Jewish bat qol, or “daughter of the voice,” which is understood as a heavenly substitute for God’s voice (Strack-Billerbeck 1922:125-132). This is God directly speaking in the first person about his Son.

dearly loved Son. The citation fuses two OT texts: Ps 2:7 and Isa 42:1. The psalm portrays a king who has a unique relationship to God as his Son. Isaiah describes the Lord’s servant as the chosen focus of God’s special love. The Gr. word agapētos [TG27, ZG28] can have the force of “only” or “unique” (BDAG 7; Gen 22:2, 12, 16) and could mean “the one dear Son.”

bring me great joy. God is especially pleased with this person. The remark is an endorsement and a call to be what Jesus is, a Servant-King.

1:12 compelled. This is strong language. The Spirit “compelled Jesus to go” to the wilderness, where he met Satan, another cosmic figure. The encounter was not accidental, but would show Jesus’ superiority to Adam as a representative of humanity.

1:13 Satan. He is the great “adversary,” as his name indicates. Satan does not play a major role in Mark, although demonic conflict does. After this scene, he is mentioned only in the dispute over the source of Jesus’ healing power (3:23, 26), in the parable of the seed (4:15), and in the rebuke to Peter about Jesus suffering (8:33).

forty days. It is hard to establish whether this number is symbolic: The Israelite nation wandered for forty years (Num 14:34), and Elijah’s fast (1 Kgs 19:8) and Moses’s time on Mount Sinai (Exod 34:28) both lasted forty days.

among the wild animals. Once again, it is unclear if this detail is symbolic. In Judaism, wild animals were associated with threat or evil; their subjection could represent the defeat of evil and the arrival of the new era (Isa 13:21-22; Ezek 34:5, 8; Testament of Issachar 7:7; Testament of Benjamin 5:2; Testament of Naphtali 8:4; for animals as hostile to people, see Apocalypse of Moses 10:1–12:2). Alternatively, wild animals at peace picture an idyllic state (see discussion in France 2002:86) and could be part of a paradise motif (Isa 11:6; 2 Baruch [Syriac Apocalypse] 73:6; Guelich 1989:38-39). Interestingly, animals are juxtaposed with angels in Ps 91:11-13 (Hooker 1991:50-51).

angels. The angels show God’s support of Jesus during this time. Angels also provided sustenance for Elijah (1 Kgs 19:1-8) and, traditionally, for Adam and Eve (b. Sanhedrin 59b; cf. Apocalypse of Moses 29:1-6; Life of Adam and Eve 4:2). This divine care also hints that the new era of restored creation was present in Jesus.

1:14 Good News. The Gr. word euangelion [TG2098, ZG2295], repeated in 1:15, forms an inclusio with 1:1 and concludes the introduction.

1:15 The time promised by God. This phrase renders the idea of an appointed time being fulfilled. In 1:2, Scripture as written by Isaiah is fulfilled; here the appointed and predicted time described by that Scripture is realized. What was written had now come to pass. The conceptual connection forms another inclusio between the beginning and the end of the introduction.

has come at last. This rendering reflects a context in which the “time is fulfilled” and appears to indicate an event that had already been accomplished. The ambiguity of the Gr. image of “is near” suggests that although the Kingdom had come, its power had not yet been fully manifested (Cranfield 1959:63-68).

Kingdom of God. This is the subject of Jesus’ preaching and of the Gospel. It designates the rule of God in which he enacts his redeeming power and presence as he had promised (basileia, BAGD 134-135; Bock 2001:28-60). In Jesus, this reality has drawn so near as to be in the process of coming to pass (engizō, BAGD 213).

Repent of your sins and believe the Good News. Those who heard Jesus were called to turn from sin and embrace forgiveness as John prepared them to do. They must then believe that the Kingdom had approached and embrace it in faith. Sin could be dealt with because the Promised One of God had appeared in the person of Jesus.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Three short, significant scenes conclude the introduction to Mark’s Gospel. John the Baptist’s preparatory role in Mark concludes with his baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River. John makes only a cameo appearance here; the stars in the baptism are the voice of God and the astonishing appearance of his Spirit descending through the heavenly canopy to invade human space. The transcendent God gave the Spirit to his Son so he could fulfill his call. In a private experience between Father and Son that underscored Jesus’ uniqueness, God called Jesus his beloved Son, one on whom his divine pleasure rested. The Spirit’s coming marked Jesus as the one equipped for the task.

Mark’s report gives his readers a glimpse of the previously hidden inner circle of divine interaction between Father, Son, and Spirit at the commencement of Jesus’ ministry. As Son and Servant, Jesus would proclaim God’s deliverance and bring it into reality. However, that deliverance would come in ways his audience did not anticipate and with much suffering. Mark will later highlight this unique aspect of Jesus’ mission, but he is not to that point yet. Mark’s point here is that the Father showed who the “greater” one to come was. The one who would baptize with the Spirit had been equipped by the Spirit. Jesus’ submission to this baptism showed how he desired to identify with humanity and its desperate need for forgiveness and new life. Jesus’ baptism thus reinforced John’s preparatory message even as it set the stage for a decisive new act. The one who possessed God’s Spirit would bring John’s role to an end.

From this high moment of divine intimacy, Jesus was “compelled” to go into the wilderness to face the hostile forces of a fallen creation. Here he met another cosmic player—Satan, the great adversary. In a tantalizingly brief summary, we are told only that Satan tempted him for forty days, that he was among the wild animals, and that angels cared for him. It is left implicit that the temptations mentioned failed to bring down this new representative of humanity. It is often commented that Mark does not note Jesus’ victory, but such a reading fails to penetrate the subtlety of Mark’s text. If Satan had to pursue Jesus during forty days of temptation, the only reason the effort continued was because Satan failed. Nothing in the hostile environment overcame Jesus. Neither was he entirely alone, as the angels were continually caring for him (the Gr. is in the imperfect tense), indicating God’s support. This is the only place in Mark where angels are said to help Jesus (Witherington 2001:81). Jesus emerged from the scene a victorious second Adam, succeeding where the first Adam had failed (a motif which Paul uses in Rom 5:12-19, and which John Milton chose as the theme of his second epic poem, Paradise Regained).

Mark then notes that John was arrested. Matthew and Luke tell us that the arrest came because John rebuked Herod Antipas for his divorce and remarriage to the divorced Herodias. After John’s arrest, Jesus began to preach. The perfect tense used here (peplērōtai [TG4137A, ZG4444], “it has been fulfilled”) points to a past act that continues to have effect at the time of writing (Guelich 1989:43). The appointed time was fulfilled! Jesus’ message was also good news (euangelion [TG2098, ZG2295]) about what God was doing. The genitive “of God” in the Greek is probably plenary here: the message is from God, but it is also about his kingdom-rule that had come at its appointed time. Jesus’ use of the idea of the appointed time makes it clear that he was referring to the rule God had promised he would bring to earth one day. As that kingdom-rule approached, two things were required as a response: repentance (a change of direction) and belief that the Kingdom had arrived. In a real sense, these two responses are really one. The new era of the Kingdom cannot be embraced without the need to share in it. Attachment to a previous way of life must be released to allow for participation in the new Kingdom and its benefits. Jesus would secure the means necessary for entrance into the forgiveness, life, and power of God’s presence and rule. However, once again, this takes us ahead of Mark’s story.