<>
(Download Audio)
Mark's Presentation of Jesus
Mark 1:2-8
Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 1
September 4, 2018
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
1901 ASV
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;
4 John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins.
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.
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.
8 I baptized you in water; but he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
- I. Textual Comment.
- A. The reading behind the ASV has an "A" rating in Metzger's A Textual Commentary on The Greek New Testament. The text of the Textus Receptus is "in the prophets" and it lends itself to being considered an emendation because the reading of the Nestle/Aland 26 is far more difficult to explain. One of the "canons" of textual criticism is "the more difficult reading is more likely than the easier reading" on the basis that a textual alteration is generally considered on the merits of why a copiest would make a change. Since, "in the prophets" is far easier to explain, since part of Mark's quote comes from Malachi than "in Isaiah the prophet", it is more likely that Mark wrote "in Isaiah the prophet" and some well-meaning, but ignorant, copiest decided to eliminate the "difficulty" by smoothing the reading into "in the prophets" (a true statement, but not likely Mark's statement).
- 1. At issue is not whether the various textual traditions express "truth". The vast majority of textual emendations do nothing to alter the actual content of "truth"; they simply complicate our understanding by tossing "stones of stumbling" in our way.
- 2. At issue is what the author of the text actually wrote so that our minds can run in the same path. When anyone changes an author's words, they change that author's ability to direct our thoughts down the path he wants to take us. In fact, they impose upon us a path that is a "rabbit trail" that will lead us off into issues not significant to the author's intention.
- B. The facts, however, do not introduce a significant problem since the quote, though being in the general form (it is not an exact quote) of the Septuagint text of Malachi 3:1, is not the beginning of the prophetic utterances regarding a forerunner for the Christ. The text of Isaiah 40:3 is a strong precursor to Malachi 3:1 in that the "voice" that is "crying in the wilderness" is the forerunner of the Lord Who requires that a "highway" be built in the wilderness. Then, there is the prophecy of the coming of Elijah in Revelation 11 to fulfill Malachi 4:5 and the prophecy of the "angel"/"messenger" of Revelation 14:6 that proclaims "the everlasting Gospel" in direct fulfillment of the Malachi 3:1 prophecy. At issue is the concept of "type of meaning" wherein a certain "meaning" resides in multiple places with the characteristics required for that type of meaning. Since Isaiah 40:3 specifically predicts John's arrival on the scene, Mark simply attributes both Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 to "Isaiah" because he refers to this type of meaning as it relates to Mark's "most preeminent element of the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
