Nov 27 2008
Notes on Mark 1:1
I’ve posted previously on this verse, see here.
1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Scholars note that this first verse is in fact a title. Whereas authors today separate the title of their work from the text in some visual and spatial fashion (i.e., a title page), ancient Greek authors separated their titles from the text with certain literary markers. Titles, for example, never contained a verb, either explicitly or implied; nor did they ever open with a definite article. This and other factors identify verse 1 as a title.
The word beginning in Greek is arche, which has a number of meanings, including “source,” “rule,” or “foundation.” St Mark isn’t giving us the entire Gospel in his writing, rather, he is giving us what he considers foundational. Essentially, what is foundational is the proper understanding of what it means that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. The importance of understanding what it means that Jesus is the Messiah (Christ) can be seen in the fact that Peter’s confession of that Messiahship is found at the center of the Gospel (8:22-31), and opens its second major half, which focuses on the theme of His suffering and its implications for discipleship. Son of God or its equivalent is the predominant title in this Gospel. Jesus’ sonship is declared at the beginning (1:11), the middle (9:7) and the end (15:39). The nature of that sonship is brought out in various ways, as I hope to point out in these notes.
Concerning the name Jesus, see the Catechism HERE. For Christ see HERE. For Son of God see HERE.
Other people see the first verse as part of the prologue, consequently, they interpret the verse as meaning that the beginning of the Gospel is rooted in Old Testament prophecy (see verses 2-3, 1 Peter 1:10-12), and by extension, the ministry of the Baptist. “The traditional starting-point of the Kerygma (proclamation) is the preaching of John the Baptist (see Acts 1:22; 10:37)-New Catholic Commentary On Holy Scripture.
” What the reference of the New Testament is to the Old, and its coherence with it. The gospel of Jesus Christ begins, and so we shall find it goes on, just as it is written in the prophets (Mar_1:2); for it saith no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said should come (Act_26:22), which was most proper and powerful for the conviction of the Jews, who believed the Old Testament prophets to be sent of God and ought to have evidenced that they did so by welcoming the accomplishment of their prophecies in its season; but it is of use to us all, for the confirmation of our faith both in the Old Testament and in the New, for the exact harmony that there is between both shows that they both have the same divine original.”Matthew Henry Commentary (Protestant).
“The simplest and most natural construction he is (this is) the beginning of (or here begins) the gospel, &c. It is then a title or a description of the whole book, such as we often find in the first sentence of ancient writing, (Compare the liturgical formula, “Here beginneth such a chapter; here endeth such a lessn’) Some interpreters connect it with the next verse, the beginning of the gospel, (was) as it is written in the prophets; others with verse 4, ‘the beginning of the gospel was John baptizing.’ But these constructions seem too artificial, and the facts which they are meant to indicate, though not expressed here, are suggested by the context, namely, that the ministry of Christ was introduced by John’s, and that both had been predicted in the ancient Scriptures. According to the syntax first proposed, the verse describes the whole book, or the book describes itself, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.”- (The Gospel According To Mark, Joseph Addison Alexander. Protestant).
