Mark 1:2-3 Commentary: The Prophesied, Preparing Messenger From the Wilderness

Mark 1:2-3 Text & Translation

2 Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ.
Ἰδοὺ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου,
ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου¹

just as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send my messenger before you, who will prepare your way” (Mk 1:2, AT)

φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ,
Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου,
εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ,²

A voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight“ (Mk 1:3, AT)

• Not Just a Dash (–)
• The Divine Blueprint, the Master’s Master Plan
  • It is Written
  • Testimonium
  • Exodus 23:20
  • Malachi 3:1
  • Isaiah 40:3
• Preparing the Way
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Not Just a Dash (–)

In case one missed it in our previous commentary on Mark 1:1, the author’s translation of the first verse is: [The] beginning of the Gospel of Jesus [The] Christ, Son of God — . The dash (–) is important.

For the word translated just as (καθώς | kathōs) normally does not begin a new sentence, but links the text that has come before it with the text that comes after it.³

Therefore, seeing Mk 1:2 as a new sentence — and Mk 1:1 as a disconnected title — is likely misleading.

The Divine Blueprint, The Master’s Master Plan

It is Written

This formula is actually written in the perfect tense (lit. “it has been written”), emphasizing that the word written in the past has importance for the present.⁴

In Roman world, this formula was used in legal documents. When quoting/citing the Old Testament, it is used to indicate divine authority.⁵

Mark doesn’t quote the Old Testament as much as other Gospel writers⁶ — likely because he is writing to a Roman Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) audience.⁷

Nonetheless, from the outset, Mark emphasizes that this is all a part of God’s prophesied plan.⁸ As one scholar writes:

The story begins with a voice offstage, reading from Scripture. While John and Jesus may seem to appear out of the blue, this citation of Scripture makes it clear that they appear out of the blueprint of God’s plan…⁹

Testimonium

Jewish teachers would often combine several Scriptures — especially ones with common words¹⁰ or themes.¹¹

Mark likely does so here, employing a testimonium: “a collection of OT texts used to demonstrate the divine character of the Gospel story by portraying it as a fulfillment of various scriptural oracles”.¹²

In such testimoniums, the most prominent author would typically be cited; Isaiah was seen as the most prominent of the prophets.¹³

In Mark 1:2-3, Mark combines texts from the Torah (Exodus), the Major Prophets (Isaiah), and the Minor Prophets (Malachi).¹⁴ These Scriptures likely include Exodus 23:20, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3.¹⁵

Exodus 23:20

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. (Ex 23:20, NIV).¹⁶

Behold means more than “look”, it means “pay attention!”¹⁷

In both Hebrew (מַלְאָך | malʾāk) and Greek (ἄγγελος | angelos) messenger is actually the same word as angel. Angels are divine messengers.

In this Scripture’s context, during the exodus from Egypt, God promises to send an angel/messenger to prepare the way for Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land.¹⁸

Angel/messenger and way are themes also found in the passage cited from Malachi (a name that actually means “my messenger”).

Malachi 3:1

I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. (Mal 3:1, NIV).¹⁹

In Malachi 3, God Himself is coming to judge and “set matters straight among his people”.²⁰ People will be purified — as if they had had an encounter with a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap (Mal 3:2f.).

Mark subtly but importantly changes the pronouns in this quotation. In Malachi, The LORD says He will send His messenger before Himself (“Me“).

In Mark, it says the messenger will prepare your way (referring to Jesus’ way).²¹ Jesus is being equated with the LORD.

Isaiah 40:3

For some more context:

3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Is 40:3-5, NIV).²²

One can see how the imagery of preparing the way entails leveling the landscape so that the glory of the Lord will be visible to all.

This prophecy foretells the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon²³ as a second exodus.²⁴ In Isaiah 40, the LORD is coming to restore His people,²⁵ to reign over them, and to protect them.

This prophecy had not been fully realized.²⁶ As one scholar points sums it up:

These opening verses depict in broad strokes the entire sweep of Israel’s history after the exodus. The messenger of Exodus 23:20 had come, and over a period of two hundred years the people of Israel had gained control of the land. They lost the land in a series of wars with Assyria and Babylon in the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries b.c. In 587 b.c. Jerusalem was completely destroyed, and Babylon became the new cultural center for the people of Judah. The messenger of Isaiah 40 had prophesied that the exiles would return from Babylon, that Jerusalem would be restored and that God would once again become the king and protector of Judah. This prophecy was one of several that encouraged the hope that God would restore the sovereignty of the royal house and extend the borders of Judah to the boundaries of the kingdom of David. In 538 b.c. the first exiles returned to Jerusalem, but the people of Judah did not regain their independence until 140 b.c. They lost it again in 63 b.c., when Jerusalem surrendered to Roman General Pompey. Yet by the end of that century the work of rebuilding Jerusalem was complete except for the construction of a new temple on the scale of the one Solomon had built.²⁷

Wilderness (ἔρημος | erēmos) refers to that which is “uninhabited”,²⁸ “abandoned, deserted”. ²⁹ Wilderness appears four times in the prologue (Mk 1:3, 4, 12, 13), emphasizing this location’s importance.

“Lord” in Greek (κύριος | kyrios) refers to the LORD (YHWH/Yahweh, the divine name of God³⁰ cf. Ex 3:13-15). Thus, to call Jesus “Lord” is to call Jesus God.³¹.

Jesus is crucified after He refers to Himself with a divine title³² (“Son of Man“: Mk 14:61-64 cf. Dn 7:13-14).

As with Malachi 3:1, Mark engages in some slight pronoun-modification to clarify the point.

In Isaiah, it reads “a highway for our God“; in Mark, it says make His paths straight (referring to Jesus).³³

Again, Jesus is being equated with God.³⁴

Preparing the Way

All three of the cited texts (Ex 23:20, Mal 3:1 and Is 40:3) speak of a way, and the latter two speak of preparing the way of the coming LORD Himself. But what does it mean to prepare the way for the LORD?

When I was growing up, when company was about to come over to visit, we had to clean virtually the entire house. Everything had to be spick-and-span!

Along the same lines, preparing a way meant not constructing a road but making it suitable for a VIP.³⁵ It meant rolling out the red carpet.³⁶

Straight (εὐθύς, euthys), which is one of Mark’s favorite words (as we’ll see), is not merely “eliminating curves, but doing everything necessary to make travel easy and rapid”.³⁷

If one wanted to prepare a way here in Philadelphia, one would likely go around filling in all of these potholes!

In Mark, the way ultimately refers to the “way of salvation made possible by God” – a way that leads to the cross.³⁸

Interestingly, the early Christian movement was called “The Way” (cf. Ac 9:2).³⁹

For example, Paul says: I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison (Ac 22:4, NIV cf. Ac 19:9, 23; 24:14).⁴⁰

Conclusion

Though Mark does not quote the Old Testament as much as the other gospel writers, he begins with a combination (testimonium) of three Old Testament quotations which foretell of a messenger sent by the LORD — who will prepare the way of the LORD.

This person will be calling out in the wilderness in order to metaphorically roll out the red carpet for God Himself — who will save and reign over His people as King.

No wonder that we will soon read of John the Baptist who appears in the wilderness prophetically proclaiming a preparatory baptism of repentance in preparation for the greater baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ (Mk 1:4-8).

One can see the divine blueprint. This is all a part of the Master’s Master Plan.

For more commentary on Mark, see the Book Study Overview page. Sources cited in the entire series can be found in the bibliography.