account of what the apostles had witnessed. We should remember that Christ did not command his disciples to write anything. He simply instructed them to proclaim the good news everywhere. And for the first forty years Jeshua’s followers did so orally. Mark’s composition, written on a long scroll, appeared in one continuous stream of letters without spaces between the words or punctuation, paragraphs, and chapters. It served as evidence of what may be called “the great tradition” among Christian churches. To be able to read it you had to know Greek and the oral tradition of the good news that had already spread among the early Christian churches. It’s good to keep these things in mind when interpreting the story.
Peter summarized the teaching and acts of Jeshua when preaching in the temple (Acts 2:22–24), and also when speaking to Cornelius in Caesarea (Acts 10:37–42). Paul did as much when preaching in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:23–31). Trochme tells us (Formation of the Gospel, pp. 6–31) that the first generation of Christians felt the need for a continuous account of the ministry of Jeshua, and so “Mark composed” his gospel to meet the needs of the church of his day. The religious world of Mark’s community was in shock because the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE seemed to be putting an end to Judaism and Christianity. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was a time of enormous upheaval. Mark responded to this upheaval with his coherent story of Jeshua, which became in effect a new Christian genre. He composed his account with the needs of the Christian community of his day in mind.
Mark was the first to call the whole account a euaggelion. Later, longer accounts were then called by the same title (e.g., the euaggelion according to Matthew, Luke, and John). All of these accounts were written for people who lived in various communities during the later decades of the first hundred years of the Christian century. Four of these accounts, scholars agree, were accepted as authentic. This acceptance was a gradual, informal process that occurred under the influence of Christian worshipers, bishops, and theologians.
In classical Greek, euaggelion referred to a ruler’s act of amnesty granted at his accession to power. Often it was an act of freeing political prisoners. Similarly, to the first Christians, Jeshua of Nazareth’s whole life appeared like an act of amnesty—good news for all that extended God’s forgiveness to all those open to the gospel. For those who accepted the euaggelion, it became indeed the good news that assured them of God’s reign as Jeshua had proclaimed it, lived it, suffered and died for it. It was the same for those who received spiritual freedom from Jeshua’s promise of God’s presence, forgiveness, and eternal life.
The word gospel in English comes from the Old English word GodSpell—God’s News. This is not “good news” in the sense of only happy factual information. For the early Christians it meant news of profound significance for the meaning of their life, like the way in which a euaggelion of a new governor meant the release of political prisoners and the easing of tensions between factions or between the ruler and his new subjects, hence, giving hope to all.
In the thirteenth chapter of Mark we read how Jeshua told his disciples their mission was to spread the good news everywhere (13:10). This instruction implied amnesty for those willing to turn from evil desires or actions, to God. That is why the first verses of Mark’s account cites the preaching of John the Baptist, and why John’s cry to all from the waters of the Jordan echoes earlier scriptural calls (e.g., Exod 23:20; Isa 40:1; Mal 3:1) for listeners to repent of their sins, to turn to God, and be washed clean. The good news, then, was first announced by John the Baptist as though he were an angel, a messenger sent from heaven to prepare the way of God for all. So it was also for Jeshua, who made his first public act one of support for John’s call to all, to repent and be baptized. Jeshua approved and replied to John’s call that we should all be baptized and turn to God with our whole heart.
For the Jews, washing with water was a way to purify the body from possibly harmful things. The book of Leviticus, for instance, prescribed such washing after contact with dead animals or human cadavers, or with anything or anyone who might become a source of contagion, such as individuals having leprosy or another disease. Washing was eventually required by Jewish law for anyone recently involved in sexual intercourse outside of marriage. It was required also of converts to the Jewish faith, especially those coming from among the goyim, the Gentiles. What was new about John the Baptist’s baptism was that he called not only public sinners or converts, but everyone, to be baptized.
Mark’s account of the good news gives us graphic details about John. The story begins with an invocation from the prophet Isaiah telling his people that God would send a messenger to prepare the way for the coming of the promised one, one awaited since the days of Moses. John then appeared, dressed and prophesying like Elijah, the great Jewish prophet. John came calling people to reform their lives, to be baptized—to be cleansed—in the Jordan River. He called them to turn to God, to prepare their hearts for the coming of one greater than he, one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit (1:8).
Then the great event occurred. Jeshua came from the northern village of Nazareth in Galilee into the company of his cousin, John. Jeshua stepped into the river and signaled to John that he wanted to be baptized. John hesitated at first, but finally baptized Jeshua. Then we read of the revelation that came to Jeshua when he emerged from the water. He saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending upon him like a dove. Then he heard the voice from heaven: “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased” (1:11).
This is the profound revelation at the beginning of the good news ascribed to Mark. It sets the tone and meaning for everything that follows. At the very end of Jeshua’s life, as described in Mark’s gospel, we hear of another separation, like the opening of the heavens at Christ’s baptism, and that was the veil in the temple sanctuary. The evangelist who wrote this account of the baptism of Jeshua would have had to use (in translating the original Aramaic version of the story into Greek) the Aramaic word for spirit, ruha, which is feminine (cf. DeConick, Holy Misogyny, p.21). While this account compares the descent of the Spirit upon Jeshua to that of a dove, in Greek “spirit” implies fatherhood, a masculine noun. In the Greek translation of Mark’s gospel, we have only the masculine gender for both the Father in heaven and the Spirit. Latin translations of Mark’s account also use these masculine forms when describing the baptism of Jeshua. For those concerned with the use of gender for expressing all three persons within the Godhead consider these distinctions food for thought.
Jeshua left John the Baptist at the Jordan River and then went into the desert nearby. After John’s imprisonment, however, Jeshua came out of the desert and began preaching as John had done, calling all to repent of their sins and to turn to God. Jeshua proclaimed the reign of God was still closer. It was “at hand,” there among them. Then the phrase “the reign of God” appears no less than fourteen times in Mark’s account of the good news.
Jeshua’s entrance into public life as a preacher implied that the reign of God was spiritual, and that it included also a frontal attack on the powers of evil. To oppose these powers, Jeremiah had foretold how God would summon fishermen to fish his people from the depths where they lay (16:6). Simon would become the leader of those fishermen. His name is also cited frequently in Mark’s gospel—seven times in all. Jeshua gave Simon the nickname, Kepha, meaning bedrock, which was translated into Greek as Petros. Simon Peter subsequently appears as the leader of the twelve apostles.
Jeshua called these fishermen to join him in the battle against evil. During many centuries preceding John the Baptist there had been a silence of prophesy on earth—no outstanding prophet appeared among the Jews during those centuries. Now, however, God had spoken to them through John the Baptist. And after John’s imprisonment, prophesy inspired by God was fulfilled in Jeshua, whom God declared his beloved son. Here was the good news for which John had been preparing God’s people. Mark’s gospel shows how God kept his promise. John had foretold the coming of God’s reign on earth through one greater than he, one who would baptize his people with the fire of the Spirit. Then, after Christ’s baptism, we read that Jeshua was driven by the Spirit into the desert (1:12). The phrase, short though it
