December 9th, 2023

Last week’s writing for the First Sunday in Advent was the official start of our journey through the entirety of the Gospel according to Mark (God willing). But we managed to look only at the first verse. This week’s gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Advent happens to be Mark 1:1-8, so it should be no surprise that we will be covering the next seven verses with this week’s writing.

Ultimately though, it is difficult to say everything that could be said even about just one small verse of the bible. That is why the books that are written about these books of the bible are called ‘commentaries’.  They may comment about this or that, but certainly there is so much more that could be said.

It is a good starting point, though, to say what the words of the text mean in a very basic way. Within these writings, the starting point I have chosen is an attempt at a literal translation of these very important words. There is a problem with such a literal translation, that one may not easily understand what the words are saying in some places. And God would want his words to be understood. These words, given in this special way, are meant to start a discussion that, as a second step, one may look to various comments from various sources—such as a study bible or a commentary. (Or I may be contacted if there are questions that are not answered in these other sources.) Because I am currently serving two congregations with services on Sunday mornings, these writings are currently taking the place of a Sunday morning bible class.

So, what follows is a somewhat-literal translation of Mark 1:2-8:

Just as it has been written in the Isaiah, the prophet: “Behold, I am sending the angel of me before face of you, who will prepare the way of you, a voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of Lord, straight make the paths of him.’”

He happened, John, the one baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance into forgiveness of sins. And it was going out toward him, all the Judean country and the Jerusalemites, all, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing the sins of them. And he was, the John, having been clothed in hairs of a camel and a belt, leather, around the waist of him, and eating locusts and honey, wild. And he was proclaiming, saying, “He comes, the one stronger of me, after me, of whom not I am worthy, stooping, to untie the strap of the sandals of him. I, myself, baptized you in water, now he, himself, will baptize you in Spirit, Holy.”

The writer of this gospel account, after the short introduction, goes immediately to the Old Testament for some support. A similar thing is done in all the other accounts, but definitely not as quickly.

It is interesting that not only do the three similar (synoptic) gospel accounts have the section of Isaiah that connects John the Baptist with a voice and a straight path, but this phrase is in the Gospel according to John as well (see John 1:23). And all four accounts say what that voice is saying, to prepare the way of the Lord, a straight path (see Matthew 3:3 and Luke 3:4).

It often happens that when there are similarities between the four gospel accounts, the Gospel according to Mark has the shortest text of all the accounts, but that is not the case this time. In fact, it is not entirely clear from where these extra words from the Old Testament are coming. The initial words in the Gospel according to Mark about sending an angel could be from either (or both) Exodus 23:20a and Malachi 3:1a. Here are those verses from the Greek translation, given somewhat literally:

And behold, I, myself, am sending the angel of me before face of you, in order that he may guard you in the way….

Behold, I am sending out the angel of me, and he will look upon a way before face of me….

Note that the words in Mark do not follow what is given in either Old Testament passage. Does not make it wrong? Certainly not.

You may wish to know that these references to another part of scripture may be why, in a few manuscripts of this gospel account, there is the option of reading, instead of ‘it has been written in the Isaiah, the prophet….’, that there is ‘it has been written in the prophets….’ This is an easy resolution to the problem. But that may not be the best one; and the manuscript evidence for this option is not very strong.

Perhaps a stronger answer would be to see the importance of the prophet Isaiah. He is the one, after all, who basically used the term ‘gospel’ with some incredible frequency in the Old Testament, when the text speaks of a herald or messenger of good news. The Old Testament text from Isaiah for this Sunday (40:1-11) has a progression toward this double use of the word ‘gospel’. The word had to do with a messenger that is appointed to deliver important news, often to a king.

By downplaying the presence of a messenger and emphasizing the voice of that messenger, an emphasis could be said to be on words instead of people—and also words instead of actions. The Gospel according to Mark will certainly emphasize the actions of Jesus, but those actions will essentially come to an end after his mission is over. And this gospel account will end quite abruptly.

Is the excitement over? Hardly. It will then be even more true that Jesus’ words are extremely important, especially since they come from such an extremely important messenger, with a very special message of good news. This is very different from the world’s definition of good news.

A messenger had flesh and blood. Jesus had flesh and blood. And he willingly separated his flesh and blood to make that very special sacrifice. And with that sacrifice comes the delivery of his good news, his gospel.
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That word ‘gospel’ is a very special word. And very special words make some very special people.