Chapter One
Mk. 1:1. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
Mk. 1:2. As it is written in the prophets: Behold, I send My Angel before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.
Mk. 1:3. A voice crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. John, the last of the prophets, is presented by the evangelist as the beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God, because the end of the Old is the beginning of the New Testament. As for the testimony concerning the Forerunner, it is taken from two prophets — from Malachi: "Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me" (Mal. 3:1), and from Isaiah: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness" (Isa. 40:3) and so forth. These are the words of God the Father to the Son. He calls the Forerunner an Angel on account of his angelic and nearly bodiless life and on account of his announcing and pointing out the coming Christ. John prepared the way of the Lord, making ready the souls of the Jews through baptism for the reception of Christ. "Before Thy face" means that Thy Angel is close to Thee. By this is signified the kinship of the Forerunner to Christ, since before kings as well it is chiefly relatives who are honored. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," that is, in the wilderness of the Jordan, and even more so in the Jewish synagogue, which was a wilderness with respect to good. "The way" means the New Testament, "the paths" mean the Old, as repeatedly violated by the Jews. For the way, that is, for the New Testament, they had to prepare themselves, and the paths of the Old they had to make straight, for although in ancient times they had received them, afterwards they turned aside from their paths and went astray.
Mk. 1:4. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mk. 1:5. And all the land of Judea and the inhabitants of Jerusalem went out to him, and all were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. John's baptism did not have the remission of sins, but introduced only repentance for the people. But how then does Mark say here: "for the forgiveness of sins"? To this we answer that John preached the baptism of repentance. And to what did this preaching lead? To the remission of sins, that is, to the baptism of Christ, which already contained within itself the remission of sins as well. When we say, for example, that so-and-so came before the king, commanding that food be prepared for the king, we mean that those who carry out this command are rewarded by the king. So it is here as well. The Forerunner preached the baptism of repentance so that the people, having repented and accepted Christ, would receive the forgiveness of sins.
Mk. 1:6. And John wore clothing of camel's hair and a leather belt on his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey. We have already spoken about this in the Gospel of Matthew; now we shall say only what was omitted there, namely: that John's clothing was a sign of mourning, and the prophet was showing in this way that one who repents ought to weep, since sackcloth customarily serves as a sign of lamentation; and the leather belt signified the deadness of the Jewish people. And that this clothing signified lamentation, the Lord Himself speaks of this: "We sang dirges for you, and you did not weep," calling the life of the Forerunner a lamentation, because further He says: "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say: He has a demon" (Matt. 11:17–18). Likewise John's food, pointing here of course to abstinence, was at the same time a figure of the spiritual food of the Jews of that time, who did not eat the clean birds of heaven, that is, they did not contemplate anything lofty, but fed only on words that were elevated and directed upward, yet fell back down again. For the locust is an insect that leaps upward and then falls back to the ground again. In like manner the people also ate honey produced by bees, that is, by the prophets; but it remained with them uncultivated and was not increased by deeper study and right understanding, although the Jews thought that they understood and grasped the Scripture. They had the Scriptures as a kind of honey, but they did not labor over them and did not search them out.
Mk. 1:7. And he preached, saying: There comes after me One mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loose;
Mk. 1:8. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I, He says, am not worthy to be even the lowest servant of His, one who would untie the strap, that is, the knot on the strap of His sandals. However, it is also understood this way: all who came and were baptized by John were loosed through repentance from the bonds of their sins when they believed in Christ. Thus, John loosed the straps and bonds of sin in everyone, but in Jesus he could not loose such a strap, because in Him he did not even find this strap, that is, sin.
Mk. 1:9. And it came to pass in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Mk. 1:10. And when He came up out of the water, immediately John saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him.
Mk. 1:11. And a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son, in Whom is My good pleasure. Jesus does not come to baptism for the remission of sins, for He committed no sin, nor for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, for how could John's baptism bestow the Spirit when it did not cleanse sins, as I have said? Nor does He go to be baptized for repentance, since He was "greater than the Baptist himself" (Matt. 11:11). So then, why does He come? Without doubt, so that John might proclaim Him to the people. Since many had gathered there, He was pleased to come so that it might be witnessed before many who He is, and also in order to fulfill "all righteousness," that is, all the commandments of the Law. Since obedience to the baptizing prophet, as one sent from God, was also a commandment, Christ fulfills this commandment as well. The Spirit descends not because Christ had need of this (for by nature He abides in Him), but so that you might know that the Holy Spirit descends upon you also at baptism. At the descent of the Holy Spirit, the testimony was immediately spoken as well. Since the Father spoke from above, "You are My Son," then, lest the hearers suppose that He was speaking of John, the Spirit descends upon Jesus, showing that this was said of Him. And the heavens are opened so that we might know that they are opened for us also when we are baptized.
Mk. 1:12. Immediately after that, the Spirit leads Him into the wilderness.
Mk. 1:13. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the Angels ministered to Him. Teaching us not to despair when we fall into temptations after baptism, the Lord goes to the mountain to be tempted, or rather, He does not go of His own accord but is led by the Holy Spirit, showing through this that we too should not throw ourselves into temptations but accept them when they come upon us. He goes to the mountain so that, because of the desolation of the place, the devil might take courage and be able to approach Him, for he usually attacks when he sees that we are alone. The place of temptation was so wild that beasts abounded there in great numbers. The angels began to minister to Him only after He had defeated the tempter. All of this is set forth more fully in the Gospel of Matthew.
Mk. 1:14. After John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God
Mk. 1:15. and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel." Hearing that John had been delivered into prison, Jesus withdraws into Galilee, in order to show us as well that we must not throw ourselves into temptations, but avoid them, and when we fall into them, endure them. Christ preaches, it would seem, the same thing as John, namely: "repent" and "the Kingdom of God has drawn near." But in reality it is not the same thing: John says "repent" in order to turn people away from sins, while Christ says "repent" in order that they might depart from the letter of the Law, which is why He also added: "believe in the Gospel," for he who wishes to believe according to the Gospel has already set aside the Law. The Lord declares that "the time" of the Law "has been fulfilled." Until now, He says, the Law was in effect, but henceforth the Kingdom of God begins, the life according to the Gospel. This life is rightly presented as the "Kingdom" of Heaven, for when you see that one who lives according to the Gospel conducts himself almost as though he were bodiless, how can you not say that he already possesses the Kingdom of Heaven (where there is neither food nor drink), even though it seems to be still far off.
Mk. 1:16. Walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Mk. 1:17. And Jesus said to them: Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.
Mk. 1:18. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Mk. 1:19. And going on from there a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending their nets;
Mk. 1:20. And immediately He called them. And they, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, followed Him. Peter and Andrew were first disciples of the Forerunner, and when they saw Jesus, to whom John had borne witness, they joined Him. Then, when John was betrayed, they sorrowfully returned again to their former occupation. So Christ calls them now a second time, for the present calling is already the second. Note that they were nourished by their own righteous labors and not by unrighteous occupations. Such men were worthy to be the first disciples of Christ. Immediately casting aside what was in their hands, they followed Him; for one must not delay, but must follow at once. After these He catches James and John. And these, although they themselves were poor, nevertheless supported their aged father. But they did not leave their father because abandoning parents is a good thing, but because he wanted to hinder them from following the Lord. So you too, when your parents hinder you, leave them and follow the Good One. It is evident that Zebedee did not believe, but the mother of these apostles believed and, when Zebedee died, also followed the Lord. Note also this, that first the active life is called, and then the contemplative, for Peter is the image of the active life, because he was of an ardent character and always went ahead of the others, which is characteristic of the active life, while John, on the contrary, represents in himself the contemplative life, for he was a theologian par excellence.
Mk. 1:21. And they come to Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath He entered into the synagogue and taught.
Mk. 1:22. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. From where did they come to Capernaum? From Nazareth, and moreover on the Sabbath day. When people usually gathered for the reading of the Law, then Christ also came to teach. For the Law also commanded the observance of the Sabbath so that people would occupy themselves with reading, assembling together for this purpose. And the Lord taught reprovingly, not with flattery, as the Pharisees did: He urged people to do good, and threatened the disobedient with punishment.
Mk. 1:23. A man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue, and he cried out:
Mk. 1:24. Let us alone! What have You to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of God.