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Barnes’ Notes on the BibleThe beginning of the gospel – The word “gospel” literally signifies good news, and particularly the good tidings respecting the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have understood the word “gospel” here to mean “history” or “life – the beginning of the history,” etc.; but Mark says nothing of the early life of the Saviour. The word “gospel” here has reference rather to the preaching of John, an account of which immediately follows, and means the beginning of the good news, or annunciation respecting the Messiah. It was very customary thus to prefix a title to a book.
The Son of God – This title was used here to attract attention, and secure the respect of those who should read the gospel. It is no common history. It does not recount the deeds of man – of a hero or a philosopher – but the doctrines and doings of the Son of God. The history, therefore, “commands” respect.
Clarke’s Commentary on the BibleThe beginning of the Gospel – It is with the utmost propriety that Mark begins the Gospel dispensation by the preaching of John the Baptist, he being the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and the first proclaimer of the incarnated Messiah. Gospel – for the meaning of the word see the preface to Matthew.
Son of God – To point out his Divine origin; and thus glancing at his miraculous conception. This was an essential character of the Messiah. See Matthew 16:16; Matthew 26:63; Luke 22:67, etc.
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire BibleThe beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,…. Not that the Gospel first began to be preached at this time, for it was preached by Isaiah, and other prophets before; and long before that, was preached unto Abraham; yea, it was preached as early as the times of our first parents, in Eden’s garden; and is indeed that mystery, which was hid in God before the creation of the world; and was ordained before that was, to the glory of the saints: but the sense is, that this narrative Mark was about to write, began with the ministry of John the Baptist, and of Christ; which was a Gospel one, and was the beginning of the Gospel dispensation, in distinction from the legal one: the law and the prophets were until John, and they ceased and ended in him; when the , “the world to come”, the kingdom of God, or Gospel state, took place. The design of this evangelist, is not to give an account of the genealogy of Christ, of his conception and birth, of what befell him in his infancy, or of any actions and sayings of his from thence, to his appearance in Israel; but to give an account of his ministry and miracles, sufferings and death: which is introduced with the preaching and baptism of John his forerunner, and which he chiefly intends by “the beginning of the Gospel”: he first points out Christ, who is the author and substance, as well as the great preacher of the Gospel; the sum of which is, that he is Jesus, the Saviour and Redeemer of lost sinners; the Christ, the Messiah, that was to come; the Mediator between God and man, the prophet that has declared the whole mind and will of God; the great high priest, who has offered himself a sacrifice for his people, made peace, procured pardon, brought in everlasting righteousness, and obtained eternal redemption, and now lives to make intercession for them; and King of saints, who reigns over them, protects and defends them, and is no other than
the Son of God; equal with his Father; of the same nature with him, possessed of the same perfections, and enjoying the same glory; and which is a grand article of the Gospel, and without which he could not be an able Saviour, nor the true Messiah. Mark begins his account of the Gospel, and which he calls the beginning of it, with the same article of the divine sonship of Christ, as the Apostle Paul began his ministry with, Acts 9:20. Matthew began his Gospel with the humanity, Mark with the divinity of Christ: the one calls him the son of David, the other the Son of God, both true: Christ is the son of David according to his human nature, the Son of God according to his divine nature; so a testimony is bore to the truth of both his natures, which are united in one person.
Vincent’s Word StudiesBeginning (ἀρχὴ)
without the article, showing that the expression is a kind of title. It is ‘the beginning, not of his book, but of the facts of the Gospel. He shows from the prophets that the Gospel was to begin by the sending forth of a forerunner.
Geneva Study BibleThe beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
People’s New Testament1:1 The Beginning of the Ministry of Christ
SUMMARY OF MARK 1:
The Mission of John the Baptist. His Preaching in the Wilderness. His Baptism in the Jordan. The Baptism of Jesus and the Anointing. The Temptation. Christ’s Ministry in Galilee Begun. The Call of Four Apostles. An Unclean Spirit Cast Out. The Increased Fame of Jesus. Peter’s Wife’s Mother. Solitary Prayer. Preaching Throughout Galilee. Healing the Leper.
The beginning, etc. This is a sort of title. The whole history of Jesus is an unfolding of the gospel.
Gospel. Good news.
Jesus. The personal name given by the angel (Mt 1:21), meaning Savior.
Christ. The official title of the Lord. It means the anointed. Kings and priests were anointed in Israel, and Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed (see 1Sa 24:10) is our Priest and King. They were anointed with oil; Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Ac 10:38).
Wesley’s Notes1:1 The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – The evangelist speaks with strict propriety: for the beginning of the Gospel is in the account of John the Baptist, contained in the first paragraph; the Gospel itself in the rest of the book. Mt 3:1; Lu 3:1
Scofield Reference NotesSCOFIELD REFERENCE NOTES (Old Scofield 1917 Edition)
Book Introduction
The Gospel According to St. Mark
WRITER. The writer of the second Gospel, Mark, called also John, was the son of one the New Testament “Marys”, and nephew of Barnabas. He was an associate of the apostles, and is mentioned in the writings of Paul and of Luke Acts 12:12,25 15:37,39 Col 4:10 2Tim 4:11 Phile 1:24.
DATE. The date of Mark has been variously placed between A.D. 57 and 63.
THEME. The scope and purpose of the book are evident from its contents. In it Jesus is seen as the mighty Worker, rather than as the unique Teacher. It is the Gospel of Jehovah’s “Servant the Branch” Zech 3:8 as Matthew is the Gospel of the “Branch. . .unto David” Jer 33:15.
Everywhere the servant character of the incarnate Son is manifest. The key verse is Mk 10:45. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” The characteristic word is “straightway,” a servant’s word. There is no genealogy, for who gives the genealogy of a servant? The distinctive character of Christ in Mark is that set forth in Phil 2:6-8.
But this lowly Servant, who emptied Himself of the “form of God,” “and was found in fashion as a man,” was, nevertheless, “the mighty God” Isa 9:6 as Mark distinctly declares (Mk 1.1) and therefore mighty works accompanied and authenticated His ministry. As befits a Servant-Gospel, Mark is characteristically a Gospel of deeds, rather than on words.
The best preparation of the heart for the study of Mark is the prayerful reading of Isa 42:1-21 50:4-11 52:13-53:12 Zech 3:8 Phil 2:5-8.
Mark is in five principal divisions:
I. The manifestation of the Servant-Son, 1.1-11.
II. The Servant-Son tested as to His fidelity, 1.12,13.
III. The Servant-Son at work, 1.14-13.37.
IV. The Servant-Son “obedient unto death,” 14.1-15.47.
V. The ministry of the risen Servant-Son, now exalted to all authority, 16.1-20.
The events recorded in this book cover a period of 7 years.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible CommentaryTHE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK Commentary by David Brown
INTRODUCTION
That the Second Gospel was written by Mark is universally agreed, though by what Mark, not so. The great majority of critics take the writer to be “John whose surname was Mark,” of whom we read in the Acts, and who was “sister’s son to Barnabas” (Col 4:10). But no reason whatever is assigned for this opinion, for which the tradition, though ancient, is not uniform; and one cannot but wonder how it is so easily taken for granted by Wetstein, Hug, Meyer, Ebrard, Lange, Ellicott, Davidson, Tregelles, &c. Alford goes the length of saying it “has been universally believed that he was the same person with the John Mark of the Gospels.” But Grotius thought differently, and so did Schleiermacher, Campbell, Burton, and Da Costa; and the grounds on which it is concluded that they were two different persons appear to us quite unanswerable. “Of John, surnamed Mark,” says Campbell, in his Preface to this Gospel, “one of the first things we learn is, that he attended Paul and Barnabas in their apostolical journeys, when these two travelled together (Ac 12:25; 13:5). And when afterwards there arose a dispute between them concerning him, insomuch that they separated, Mark accompanied his uncle Barnabas, and Silas attended Paul. When Paul was reconciled to Mark, which was probably soon after, we find Paul again employing Mark’s assistance, recommending him, and giving him a very honorable testimony (Col 4:10; 2Ti 4:11; Phm 24). But we hear not a syllable of his attending Peter as his minister, or assisting him in any capacity.” And yet, as we shall presently see, no tradition is more ancient, more uniform, and better sustained by internal evidence, than that Mark, in his Gospel, was but “the interpreter of Peter,” who, at the close of his first Epistle speaks of him as “Marcus my son” (1Pe 5:13), that is, without doubt, his son in the Gospel-converted to Christ through his instrumentality. And when we consider how little the Apostles Peter and Paul were together-how seldom they even met-how different were their tendencies, and how separate their spheres of labor, is there not, in the absence of all evidence of the fact, something approaching to violence in the supposition that the same Mark was the intimate associate of both? “In brief,” adds Campbell, “the accounts given of Paul’s attendant, and those of Peter’s interpreter, concur in nothing but the name, Mark or Marcus; too slight a circumstance to conclude the sameness of the person from, especially when we consider how common the name was at Rome, and how customary it was for the Jews in that age to assume some Roman name when they went thither.”
Regarding the Evangelist Mark, then, as another person from Paul’s companion in travel, all we know of his personal history is that he was a convert, as we have seen, of the Apostle Peter. But as to his Gospel, the tradition regarding Peter’s hand in it is so ancient, so uniform, and so remarkably confirmed by internal evidence, that we must regard it as an established fact. “Mark,” says Papias (according to the testimony of Eusebius, [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39]), “becoming the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately, though not in order, whatever he remembered of what was either said or done by Christ; for he was neither a hearer of the Lord nor a follower of Him, but afterwards, as I said, [he was a follower] of Peter, who arranged the discourses for use, but not according to the order in which they were uttered by the Lord.” To the same effect Irenæus [Against Heresies, 3. 1]: “Matthew published a Gospel while Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the Church at Rome; and after their departure (or decease), Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, he also gave forth to us in writing the things which were preached by Peter.” And Clement of Alexandria is still more specific, in a passage preserved to us by Eusebius [Ecclesiastical History, 6.14]: “Peter having publicly preached the word at Rome, and spoken forth the Gospel by the Spirit, many of those present exhorted Mark, as having long been a follower of his, and remembering what he had said, to write what had been spoken; and that having prepared the Gospel, he delivered it to those who had asked him for it; which, when Peter came to the knowledge of, he neither decidedly forbade nor encouraged him.” Eusebius’ own testimony, however, from other accounts, is rather different: that Peter’s hearers were so penetrated by his preaching that they gave Mark, as being a follower of Peter, no rest till he consented to write his Gospel, as a memorial of his oral teaching; and “that the apostle, when he knew by the revelation of the Spirit what had been done, was delighted with the zeal of those men, and sanctioned the reading of the writing (that is, of this Gospel of Mark) in the churches” [Ecclesiastical History, 2.15]. And giving in another of his works a similar statement, he says that “Peter, from excess of humility, did not think himself qualified to write the Gospel; but Mark, his acquaintance and pupil, is said to have recorded his relations of the actings of Jesus. And Peter testifies these things of himself; for all things that are recorded by Mark are said to be memoirs of Peter’s discourses.” It is needless to go farther-to Origen, who says Mark composed his Gospel “as Peter guided” or “directed him, who, in his Catholic Epistle, calls him his son,” &c.; and to Jerome, who but echoes Eusebius.
This, certainly, is a remarkable chain of testimony; which, confirmed as it is by such striking internal evidence, may be regarded as establishing the fact that the Second Gospel was drawn up mostly from materials furnished by Peter. In Da Costa’s Four Witnesses the reader will find this internal evidence detailed at length, though all the examples are not equally convincing. But if the reader will refer to our remarks on [1393]Mr 16:7, and [1394]John 18:27, he will have convincing evidence of a Petrine hand in this Gospel.
It remains only to advert, in a word or two, to the readers for whom this Gospel was, in the first instance, designed, and the date of it. That it was not for Jews but Gentiles, is evident from the great number of explanations of Jewish usages, opinions, and places, which to a Jew would at that time have been superfluous, but were highly needful to a Gentile. We can here but refer to Mr 2:18; 7:3, 4; 12:18; 13:3; 14:12; 15:42, for examples of these. Regarding the date of this Gospel-about which nothing certain is known-if the tradition reported by Irenæus can be relied on, that it was written at Rome, “after the departure of Peter and Paul,” and if by that word “departure” we are to understand their death, we may date it somewhere between the years 64 and 68; but in all likelihood this is too late. It is probably nearer the truth to date it eight or ten years earlier.
CHAPTER 1
Mr 1:1-8. The Preaching and Baptism of John. ( = Mt 3:1-12; Lu 3:1-18).
1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God-By the “Gospel” of Jesus Christ here is evidently meant the blessed Story which our Evangelist is about to tell of His Life, Ministry, Death, Resurrection, and Glorification, and of the begun Gathering of Believers in His Name. The abruptness with which he announces his subject, and the energetic brevity with which, passing by all preceding events, he hastens over the ministry of John and records the Baptism and Temptation of Jesus-as if impatient to come to the Public Life of the Lord of glory-have often been noticed as characteristic of this Gospel-a Gospel whose direct, practical, and singularly vivid setting imparts to it a preciousness peculiar to itself. What strikes every one is, that though the briefest of all the Gospels, this is in some of the principal scenes of our Lord’s history the fullest. But what is not so obvious is, that wherever the finer and subtler feelings of humanity, or the deeper and more peculiar hues of our Lord’s character were brought out, these, though they should be lightly passed over by all the other Evangelists, are sure to be found here, and in touches of such quiet delicacy and power, that though scarce observed by the cursory reader, they leave indelible impressions upon all the thoughtful and furnish a key to much that is in the other Gospels. These few opening words of the Second Gospel are enough to show, that though it was the purpose of this Evangelist to record chiefly the outward and palpable facts of our Lord’s public life, he recognized in Him, in common with the Fourth Evangelist, the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary1:1-8. Isaiah and Malachi each spake concerning the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the ministry of John. From these prophets we may observe, that Christ, in his gospel, comes among us, bringing with him a treasure of grace, and a sceptre of government. Such is the corruption of the world, that there is great opposition to his progress. When God sent his Son into the world, he took care, and when he sends him into the heart, he takes care, to prepare his way before him. John thinks himself unworthy of the meanest office about Christ. The most eminent saints have always been the most humble. They feel their need of Christ’s atoning blood and sanctifying Spirit, more than others. The great promise Christ makes in his gospel to those who have repented, and have had their sins forgiven them, is, they shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost; shall be purified by his graces, and refreshed by his comforts. We use the ordinances, word, and sacraments without profit and comfort, for the most part, because we have not of that Divine light within us; and we have it not because we ask it not; for we have his word that cannot fail, that our heavenly Father will give this light, his Holy Spirit, to those that ask it. |
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