Markus 1:2

1:2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ¹ 

“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way, ² 

Markus 1:4

1:4 In the wilderness ³  John the baptizer ⁴  began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ 

Markus 1:31

1:31 He came and raised her up by gently taking her hand. Then the fever left her and she began to serve ⁶  them.

Markus 3:11

3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits ⁷  saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

Markus 4:10

The Purpose of Parables

4:10 When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

Markus 4:12

4:12 so that although they look they may look but not see,

and although they hear they may hear but not understand,

so they may not repent and be forgiven.” ⁸ 

Markus 4:32

4:32 when it is sown, it grows up, ⁹  becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds ¹⁰  can nest in its shade.” ¹¹ 

Markus 5:7

5:7 Then ¹²  he cried out with a loud voice, “Leave me alone, ¹³  Jesus, Son of the Most High God! I implore you by God ¹⁴  – do not torment me!”

Markus 9:7

9:7 Then ¹⁵  a cloud ¹⁶  overshadowed them, ¹⁷  and a voice came from the cloud, “This is my one dear Son. ¹⁸  Listen to him!” ¹⁹ 

Markus 9:28

9:28 Then, ²⁰  after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

Markus 10:15

10:15 I tell you the truth, ²¹  whoever does not receive ²²  the kingdom of God like a child ²³  will never ²⁴  enter it.”

Markus 12:7

12:7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’

Markus 13:29

13:29 So also you, when you see these things happening, know ²⁵  that he is near, right at the door.

Markus 14:40

14:40 When he came again he found them sleeping; they could not keep their eyes open. ²⁶  And they did not know what to tell him.

Markus 14:61

14:61 But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest questioned him, ²⁷  “Are you the Christ, ²⁸  the Son of the Blessed One?”

Markus 15:39

15:39 Now when the centurion, ²⁹  who stood in front of him, saw how he died, ³⁰  he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

Markus 15:43

15:43 Joseph of Arimathea, a highly regarded member of the council, ³¹  who was himself looking forward to ³²  the kingdom of God, ³³  went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ³⁴ 

[1:2]  ¹ tc Instead of “in Isaiah the prophet” the majority of mss read “in the prophets” (A W ˹³ Ï Ir^lat). Except for Irenaeus (2nd century), the earliest evidence for this is thus from the 5th (or possibly late 4th) century (W A). The difficulty of Irenaeus is that he wrote in Greek but has been preserved largely in Latin. His Greek remains have “in Isaiah the prophet.” Only the later Latin translation has “in the prophets.” The KJV reading is thus in harmony with the majority of late mss. On the other hand, the witnesses for “in Isaiah the prophet” (either with the article before Isaiah or not) are early and geographically widespread: א B D L Δ Θ Ë¹ 33 565 700 892 1241 2427 al sy^p co Ir. This evidence runs deep into the 2nd century, is widespread, and is found in the most important Alexandrian, Western, and Caesarean witnesses. The “Isaiah” reading has a better external pedigree in every way. It has the support of the earliest and best witnesses from all the texttypes that matter. Moreover it is the harder reading, since the quotation in the first part of the verse appears to be from Exod 23:20 and Mal 3:1, with the quotation from Isa 40:3 coming in the next verse. The reading of the later mss seems motivated by a desire to resolve this difficulty.

[1:2]  ² sn The opening lines of the quotation are from Exod 23:20; Mal 3:1. Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.

[1:4]  ³ tn Or “desert.”

[1:4]  ⁴ tn While Matthew and Luke consistently use the noun βαπτίστης (baptisths, “[the] Baptist”) to refer to John, as a kind of a title, Mark prefers the substantival participle ὁ βαπτίζων (Jo baptizwn, “the one who baptizes, the baptizer”) to describe him (only twice does he use the noun [Mark 6:25; 8:28]).

[1:4]  ⁵ sn A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was a call for preparation for the arrival of the Lord’s salvation. To participate in this baptism was a recognition of the need for God’s forgiveness with a sense that one needed to live differently as a response to it.

[1:31]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verb is taken ingressively here.

[3:11]  ⁷ sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[4:12]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[4:32]  ⁹ tn Mark 4:31-32 is fairly awkward in Greek. Literally the sentence reads as follows: “As a mustard seed, which when sown in the earth, being the smallest of all the seeds in the earth, and when it is sown, it grows up…” The structure has been rendered in more idiomatic English, although some of the awkward structure has been retained for rhetorical effect.

[4:32]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[4:32]  ¹¹ sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.

[5:7]  ¹² tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[5:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “What to me and to you?” (an idiom). The phrase τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί (ti emoi kai soi) is Semitic in origin, though it made its way into colloquial Greek (BDAG 275 s.v. ἐγώ). The equivalent Hebrew expression in the OT had two basic meanings: (1) When one person was unjustly bothering another, the injured party could say “What to me and to you?” meaning, “What have I done to you that you should do this to me?” (Judg 11:12, 2 Chr 35:21, 1 Kgs 17:18). (2) When someone was asked to get involved in a matter he felt was no business of his own, he could say to the one asking him, “What to me and to you?” meaning, “That is your business, how am I involved?” (2 Kgs 3:13, Hos 14:8). These nuances were apparently expanded in Greek, but the basic notions of defensive hostility (option 1) and indifference or disengagement (option 2) are still present. BDAG suggests the following as glosses for this expression: What have I to do with you? What have we in common? Leave me alone! Never mind! Hostility between Jesus and the demons is certainly to be understood in this context, hence the translation: “Leave me alone….”

[5:7]  ¹⁴ sn Though it seems unusual for a demon to invoke God’s name (“I implore you by God”) in his demands of Jesus, the parallel in Matt 8:29 suggests the reason: “Why have you come to torment us before the time?” There was an appointed time in which demons would face their judgment, and they seem to have viewed Jesus’ arrival on the scene as an illegitimate change in God’s plan regarding the time when their sentence would be executed.

[9:7]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[9:7]  ¹⁶ sn This cloud is the cloud of God’s presence and the voice is his as well.

[9:7]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And there came a cloud, surrounding them.”

[9:7]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “my beloved Son,” or “my Son, the beloved [one].” The force of ἀγαπητός (agaphtos) is often “pertaining to one who is the only one of his or her class, but at the same time is particularly loved and cherished” (L&N 58.53; cf. also BDAG 7 s.v. 1).

[9:7]  ¹⁹ sn The expression listen to him comes from Deut 18:15 and makes two points: 1) Jesus is a prophet like Moses, a leader-prophet, and 2) they have much yet to learn from him.

[9:28]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[10:15]  ²¹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[10:15]  ²² sn On receive see John 1:12.

[10:15]  ²³ sn The point of the comparison receive the kingdom of God like a child has more to do with a child’s trusting spirit and willingness to be dependent and receive from others than any inherent humility the child might possess.

[10:15]  ²⁴ tn The negation in Greek (οὐ μή, ou mh) is very strong here.

[13:29]  ²⁵ tn The verb γινώσκετε (ginwskete, “know”) can be parsed as either present indicative or present imperative. In this context the imperative fits better, since the movement is from analogy (trees and seasons) to the future (the signs of the coming of the kingdom) and since the emphasis is on preparation for this event.

[14:40]  ²⁶ tn Grk “because their eyes were weighed down,” an idiom for becoming extremely or excessively sleepy (L&N 23.69).

[14:61]  ²⁷ tn Grk “questioned him and said to him.”

[14:61]  ²⁸ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[14:61]  sn See the note on Christ in 8:29.

[15:39]  ²⁹ sn A centurion was a noncommissioned officer in the Roman army or one of the auxiliary territorial armies, commanding a centuria of (nominally) 100 men. The responsibilities of centurions were broadly similar to modern junior officers, but there was a wide gap in social status between them and officers, and relatively few were promoted beyond the rank of senior centurion. The Roman troops stationed in Judea were auxiliaries, who would normally be rewarded with Roman citizenship after 25 years of service. Some of the centurions may have served originally in the Roman legions (regular army) and thus gained their citizenship at enlistment. Others may have inherited it, like Paul.

[15:39]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the way he breathed his last”; or “the way he expired”; or “that he thus breathed no more.”

[15:43]  ³¹ tn Grk “a councillor” (as a member of the Sanhedrin, see L&N 11.85). This indicates that some individuals among the leaders did respond to Jesus.

[15:43]  ³² tn Or “waiting for.”

[15:43]  ³³ sn Though some dispute that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, this remark that he was looking forward to the kingdom of God and his actions regarding Jesus’ burial suggest otherwise.

[15:43]  ³⁴ sn Asking for the body of Jesus was indeed a bold move on the part of Joseph of Arimathea, for it clearly and openly identified him with a man who had just been condemned and executed, namely, Jesus. His faith is exemplary, especially for someone who was a member of the council that handed Jesus over for crucifixion (cf. Luke 23:51). He did this because he sought to give Jesus an honorable burial.