Day 292: Mark 1-3

(The New Testament began with four accounts of Jesus' time on earth. The second of these Gospel Accounts was written by St. Mark. Mark was also called John Mark. It was believed this account was written about thirty years after Christ's death. Mark was not a Disciple. Many believed the author wrote his account based on the perspective of Simon Peter, whom John Mark traveled with after Jesus' ascension into heaven. This Gospel was more focused on the deeds and actions of Christ and less on His words. This Gospel Account moved very fast. It was also one of the more chronologically accurate Gospel Accounts. Matthew's Gospel Account recorded some events in a different order because Matthew's Gospel Account tend toward grouping events topically. I believe this is the best book of the Bible for a person new to the Bible to read first. Consequently, our comments in this Gospel will tend to reference the other Gospels for details.)

Mark 1
¹ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

(Mark began when Jesus' ministry on earth began: Jesus' Baptism.)

² Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, Who shall prepare thy way.
³ The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight;

(Mark referenced Isaiah 40:3.)

⁴ John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins.

(John the Baptist preached repentance.)

⁵ And there went out unto him all the country of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem; And they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
⁶ And John was clothed with camel's hair, and had a leathern girdle about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey.

(2 Kings 1:8 gave a physical description of Elijah and it was similar to this physical description of John the Baptist.)

⁷ And he preached, saying, There cometh after me he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

(John realized that Jesus was greater than him.)

⁸ I baptized you in water; But he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

(Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.)

⁹ And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in the Jordan.
¹⁰ And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him:
¹¹ And a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.

(Jesus' Baptism, all three parts of the Trinity were shown:
-Spirit (Holy Spirit),
-Him (Jesus),
-Voice from heaven (God the Father).

Matthew 3 gave more dialogue between Jesus and John the Baptist.)

¹² And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness.

(Immediately the Spirit drove (sent out) Jesus into the wilderness.)

¹³ And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; And he was with the wild beasts; And the angels ministered unto him.

(Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, was tempted of Satan, and angels ministered to Him. Mark explained this in one sentence. Matthew's account (Matthew 4) had many more details.)

¹⁴ Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
¹⁵ and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.

(John was imprisoned by Herod and was eventually martyred. Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was "at hand" (to bring near) and to repent and believe the gospel.)

¹⁶ And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishers.
¹⁷ And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
¹⁸ And straightway they left the nets, and followed him.

(Jesus called Simon (Peter) and Andrew and they immediately followed Jesus. This was the traditional response to a Rabbi calling students. This also may explain why Mark's Gospel began with this event: Peter was present.)

¹⁹ And going on a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets.
²⁰ And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.

(Jesus called James and John and they immediately followed Jesus. Notice, they did not leave their father alone. He was with the "hired servants." As we saw in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (during the explanation of Matthew 3:15), the Disciples were teenagers who became students of Jesus in order to become Rabbi's. Leaving their fathers' trade and joining Jesus would have been an honor, to the disciples and their families.)

²¹ And they go into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught.
²² And they were astonished at his teaching: For he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.

(On the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. Jesus was expected to teach in the synagogue because He was a Rabbi. They were astonished at His Doctrine because He taught with authority. Jesus was a Semikah Rabbi. The scribes were the Torah teachers (the first five books of the Old Testament). They did not have authority to teach new Doctrine. They taught what the Torah said, not the why.)

²³ And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
²⁴ saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
²⁵ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
²⁶ And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
²⁷ And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

(Jesus cast an unclean spirit from a man (in the synagogue) and the people were amazed. They said, "What is this? a new teaching!")

²⁸ And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.

(Jesus' fame spread immediately.)

²⁹ And straightway, when they were come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
³⁰ Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and straightway they tell him of her:
³¹ and he came and took her by the hand, and raised her up; and the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.

(Jesus and the four disciples He was with went to Simon and Andrew's house. Simon's mother-in-law had a fever. Jesus healed her and she served them. Simon was the oldest of the disciples and was already married.)

³² And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were sick, and them that were possessed with demons.
³³ And all the city was gathered together at the door.
³⁴ And he healed many that were sick with divers diseases, and cast out many demons; and he suffered not the demons to speak, because they knew him.
³⁵ And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed.
³⁶ And Simon and they that were with him followed after him;
³⁷ and they found him, and say unto him, All are seeking thee.

(Jesus' popularity was growing.)

³⁸ And he saith unto them, Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth.
³⁹ And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.
⁴⁰ And there cometh to him a leper, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
⁴¹ And being moved with compassion, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou made clean.
⁴² And straightway the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean.

(Jesus healed many people. A leper asked Jesus to heal him if it was Jesus' will. Jesus said "I will; be thou made clean" and the man was immediately healed. Jesus stated His own will (faith) and then made a statement where the object of the healing was the subject of the statement.)

⁴³ And he strictly charged him, and straightway sent him out,
⁴⁴ and saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

(Jesus told the man not to tell anyone but to follow the Law.)

⁴⁵ But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to spread abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.

(However, the man began to publish what happened and the people all the more came to Jesus.)




Mark 2
¹ And when he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was noised that he was in the house.
² And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door: and he spake the word unto them.
³ And they come, bringing unto him a man sick of the palsy, borne of four.
⁴ And when they could not come nigh unto him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay.

(Many people gathered at the house to meet Jesus. So much that a man sick with palsy was lowered through the roof. Since this occurred in Peter's hometown of Capernaum and this Gospel was from Peter through Mark, the implication was that this was Peter and Andrew's house. Also, in Luke's and John's Gospel Accounts, they stated this was Jesus' second visit to Capernaum. During the first visit, He healed the multitude. Here, we see the only person in Capernaum who needed healing was the one person who may not have had time to arrange for transportation to Jesus during His first visit.)

⁵ And Jesus seeing their faith saith unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven.

(Jesus saw their faith and forgave the man's sins. Notice, this engineering project also required the faith of friends of the man with palsy.)

⁶ But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
⁷ Why doth this man thus speak? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but one, even God?

(Certain scribes reasoned within themselves that Jesus was blaspheming by forgiving sins.)

⁸ And straightway Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, saith unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

(Jesus knew they were reasoning about this and He asked, "Why reason ye these things in your hearts?" Jesus couldn't state this unless He knew for sure, otherwise He could have been wrong. I believe this implied Jesus could see a person's thought process.)

⁹ Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
¹⁰ But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy),
¹¹ I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house.

(Jesus told the man with palsy to arise. Jesus stated that He did this so that the scribes would know that Jesus had authority to forgive sins. Jesus was teaching the scribes.)

¹² And he arose, and straightway took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

(The man arose in response to a statement where the object of the healing was the subject of the statement.)

¹³ And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.
¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

(Jesus' call to Levi, who was also known as Matthew and was the author of the previous Gospel, hence the possible issue with chronology in Matthew's Gospel Account.)

¹⁵ And it came to pass, that he was sitting at meat in his house, and many publicans and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.

(Jesus went to Matthew's house among many publicans and sinners.)

¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?

(The scribes of the Pharisees questioned why Jesus was eating and drinking with those people.)

¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

(Jesus answered that He came to call sinners to repentance.)

¹⁸ And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting: and they come and say unto him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?
¹⁹ And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

(Jesus indirectly referred to Himself as the "bridegroom.")

²⁰ But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day.
²¹ No man seweth a piece of undressed cloth on an old garment: else that which should fill it up taketh from it, the new from the old, and a worse rent is made.
²² And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins; else the wine will burst the skins, and the wine perisheth, and the skins: but they put new wine into fresh wine-skins.
²³ And it came to pass, that he was going on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears.
²⁴ And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

(Jesus' teaching about the wineskins was this: the wineskins represented people, the wine was Doctrine, the old and new wineskins were people of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, respectively. The new Doctrine would burst the people of the Old Covenant if they did not become people of the New Covenant. The Pharisees questioned the disciples when they gathered corn on the Sabbath.)

²⁵ And he said unto them, Did ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry, he, and they that were with him?
²⁶ How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the showbread, which it is not lawful to eat save for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him?

(Jesus reminded the Pharisees about David and his men (1 Samuel 21:3-6). The Pharisees glorified David, yet accused Jesus' disciples, which was hypocrisy.)

²⁷ And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
²⁸ so that the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath.

(From the commentary for Genesis 2, we saw that rest meant "to cease from the occupation of being a first cause." For six days, people could do whatever they wanted as long as they did not violate the Law. On the Sabbath, man was supposed to only do what God told him to do through the Law for his benefit. Jesus was testifying His disciples were being guided by Him. This also showed that the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that time, didn't understand the meaning of rest.)




Mark 3
¹ And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there who had his hand withered.

(Again, Jesus was recognized by everyone of His time as a Rabbi. This was the only point about Jesus on which everyone agreed. Even people who wanted to destroy Him recognized Him as a Jewish Rabbi. Some Jewish scholars confirmed that Jesus was the Greatest Jewish Rabbi. The conflict was whether a person believed Jesus was the Son of God.)

² And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

(Jesus entered the synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand. The scribes and Pharisees watched to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath so they could accuse Him.)

³ And he saith unto the man that had his hand withered, Stand forth.
⁴ And he saith unto them, Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? to save a life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
⁵ And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth; and his hand was restored.

(Jesus asked a question to see if the scribes and Pharisees understood the meaning of the Sabbath, that people were supposed to be guided by God through the Law to do good. Jesus was angry because He was grieved over the hardness of their hearts. Jesus healed the man.)

⁶ And the Pharisees went out, and straightway with the Herodians took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.

(The Pharisees began to conspire how to destroy Jesus...because He healed people, was growing in fame, and had authority to widen Doctrine.)

⁷ And Jesus with his disciples withdrew to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and from Judaea,
⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and beyond the Jordan, and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came unto him.
⁹ And he spake to his disciples, that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd, lest they should throng him:
¹⁰ for he had healed many; insomuch that as many as had plagues pressed upon him that they might touch him.
¹¹ And the unclean spirits, whensoever they beheld him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
¹² And he charged them much that they should not make him known.

(It seemed Jesus' popularity was growing too fast.)

¹³ And he goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto him whom he himself would; and they went unto him.
¹⁴ And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out demons:

(Unclean spirits stated a fact: Jesus was the Son of God. They did not do this from faith (belief in unseen). They did it because they spiritually saw Jesus was the Son of God before He was born into this world. Jesus ordained the twelve Disciples and gave them authority, the Holy Spirit. From this point on, we will refer to these twelve as Disciples and all others that followed Jesus as disciples.)

¹⁶ and Simon he surnamed Peter;
¹⁷ and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and them he surnamed Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder:
¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,
¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. And he cometh into a house.

(…the twelve Disciples. Judas was the only one not from Galilee, which was the site of the "Harvard" of rabbinical teaching.)

²⁰ And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
²¹ And when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
²² And the scribes that came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the demons casteth he out the demons.
²³ And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?
²⁴ And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
²⁵ And if a house be divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
²⁶ And if Satan hath rise up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.
²⁷ But no one can enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
²⁸ Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
²⁹ but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin:

(Jesus used the principle of non-contradiction to show that He was not casting out devils with the power of the devil. He concluded this by talking of the unpardonable sin: blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Jesus did this because they said He had an unclean spirit. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is intentionally attributing a work of the Holy Spirit to Satan or his demons without an explanation as an effect of understanding. It is stated as a fact and is divination, the person attempting to replace God as a first cause. For more explanation, look at the commentary for Matthew 12:32.)

³⁰ because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
³¹ And there come his mother and his brethren; and, standing without, they sent unto him, calling him.
³² And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.
³³ And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren?
³⁴ And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren!
³⁵ For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

(Whosoever does the Will of God is Jesus' brother, sister, and mother. This was Jesus' definition of "family." God’s Will is that all are saved.)

(This post covered the first three chapters which documented the beginning of Jesus' Ministry, His immediate increase in fame because of the healings, and the immediate attacks from the Pharisees.)

Day 293