Translation

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A beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God. 2Just as it is written by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold! I send my
messenger before your countenance, who will prepare your way; 3A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the
way of the Lord, make his worn path direct,’” 4John appeared in the wilderness baptising and proclaiming a baptism
of repentance regarding forgiveness of sins. 5And the whole of Judea and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going
forth towards him, and after they had confessed their sins, they were being baptised by him in the Jordan river. 6And
John was wearing camel’s hair and a leather belt around his hip, while eating locusts and wild honey. 7And he was
preaching, saying, “After me, he who is stronger than me is coming, of whom I am not sufficient enough to stoop down
to untie a strap of his sandals. 8I, I baptised you by water, but he will baptise you in a holy spirit.”

Structure
Mark is the second book of the New Testament in canonical order, however chronologically

it was written eleventh between c. 65-73 CE.1 Mark 1:1-8 is part of the introduction of the book,

where it gives itself credibility by referencing a past prophet and begins a contrast between the

power of Jesus and the power of man.

Comments

1 Ἀρχὴ, “A beginning”. In the context of the rest of the sentence, the noun does not translate

as smoothly to English as it would with ‘This is a/the beginning’ or ‘Here begins’. Although

translating verse 1 with either of those alternatives would remove the jarring nature of a noun

without an introductory word (such as an article), and the meaning of the verse would remain the

same, these changes would be unfaithful to the original Greek. First, adding the demonstrative

pronoun ‘this’ (‘οὗτος’) supplies an extra, not clearly implied word. Second, Ἀρχὴ is a noun while

‘Here begins’ transforms Ἀρχὴ into a verb and supplies an adverb. I chose not to supply extra words

because the meaning is comprehensible without them.

1
Perkins, Reading the New Testament: An Introduction (New York: Paulist Press, 1988).
2 ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ, “by the prophet Isaiah”. ἐν followed by the dative case is

commonly translated as ‘in’ throughout the New Testament, but the context demonstrates that what

was written is being credited to Isaiah, so “by” conveys the meaning most clearly. Additionally, the

prepositional phrase includes an attributive adjective use where the noun προφήτῃ acts as an

adjective, matching Isaiah in case and number (dative singular). τῷ accompanies προφήτῃ because

this noun, while first declension, takes a masculine article.

πρὸ προσώπου σου, “before your countenance”. I translate προσώπου as ‘countenance’ as

opposed to its other possible glosses (such as face or front) because countenance is more in depth,

bringing to mind the expression of a face, thereby emphasising that the messenger will be perceived

by and reacted to by the receiver.

ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου, “who will prepare your way”. The relative pronoun ὃς refers

to τὸν ἄγγελόν in the first clause of the sentence, matching in number and gender (singular,

masculine), but as the actor of the second clause ὃς is nominative. The accusative noun τὴν ὁδόν

means “way” or “road”. I chose the gloss “way” because the context refers to a figurative path one

goes down spiritually, not physically.

Part of this verse through verse 3 is spoken: ἰδοὺ…αὐτοῦ, (“Behold!...direct,”). I provided

quotation marks beginning after προφήτῃ· and ending in verse 3 after αὐτοῦ,. The author is

repeating what was written by Isaiah (evident by the first clause of verse 2), hence quotations are

appropriate to illustrate which portion of the verses are brought over from Isaiah. The major stop

within the sentence (·) following προφήτῃ signifies that what comes after is quoted.

3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ,

“A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his worn path

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direct.’” Verse three is entirely spoken, continuing the quotes that began in verse 2. However, there

are additional quotation marks within the initial set included because there are spoken words within

the author’s quoting of Isaiah. The second set (placed from ἑτοιμάσατε to αὐτοῦ,) is necessary

because it is clear that another entity is speaking within Isaiah’s words, as is demonstrated by the

clause’s content and punctuation, which once again ends with a major stop within the sentence. The

quotations end after the directions are given by the voice because the content of the next verses is

separate.

ἑτοιμάσατε is in the plural aorist imperative, which signifies that this voice is speaking to

multiple people, commanding them. The word order of ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου is the same as

the English translation (“Prepare the way of the Lord”), with the exception of an additional article.

κυρίου does not have an article, and in this case one must be supplied for the sentence to be

contextually correct in English, otherwise the clause would be “Prepare the way of a lord”. Articles

are often used to show that something is proper noun (e.g., ὁ θεος [God] versus θεος [a god]).

Hence, a translation that does not use context from the rest of the Bible might say “Prepare the way

of a lord/master”. Supplying an article and translating κυρίου as a proper noun acknowledges the

theological precedent set by the books that come before Mark.

4 ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης [ὁ] βαπτίζων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ κηρύσσων, “John appeared in the wilderness

baptising and proclaiming”. βαπτίζων on its own is, with little doubt a masculine nominative

participle in the present tense, translating as “baptising”. However, the NA28 includes, in brackets,

an article: [ὁ] βαπτίζων. When the article is taken into consideration the participle acts as a noun and

the sentence becomes: “John, the one who baptises, appeared in the wilderness also proclaiming a

baptism of repentance regarding forgiveness of sins.” If it weren’t for καὶ, this translation would be

preferable because it accounts for the article that is in some manuscripts. Without καὶ and with [ὁ]

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the verse is: “John, the one who baptises, appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of

repentance regarding forgiveness of sins.” The verse makes perfect sense here but is not coherent

with both καὶ and [ὁ]: “John, the one who baptises, appeared in the wilderness also proclaiming a

baptism of repentance regarding forgiveness of sins.” Hence, I translated βαπτίζων disregarding the

possible article because while there is doubt across manuscripts whether the article is present, there

is not doubt that καὶ is, and together they do not create a meaningful sentence.

εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, “a baptism of repentance regarding forgiveness of sins”. The

preposition εἰς is most commonly used to express movement into a place, but in Mark 1:4 εἰς instead

conveys the purpose of the baptism. As such, the gloss “regarding” communicates that the baptism

is in regard to forgiveness of sin, not that the baptism goes into forgiveness of sin as a physical

place.

5 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, “And the

whole of Judea and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going forth towards him”. ἐξεπορεύετο is a

third singular imperfect deponent verb meaning “he/she/it was going forth”. Both ἡ Ἰουδαία and οἱ

Ἱεροσολυμῖται are instruments of the verb, despite it being singular in form, because they are both in

the nominative case. χώρα means place, land, or country, but instead of “the whole place of Judea” I

simply translated it (with πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία) as “the whole of Judea” because “whole place” is clunky

and unnecessarily interrupts flow of the sentence in English. On the other hand, “the whole country

of Judea” would make sense, however Judea was not a country in the modern sense of the word so

that would be incorrect.

Verse 5 is a wonderful example of syntactic contrast between Koine Greek and modern

English. πρὸς αὐτὸν (“towards him”) is placed third in the sentence (after a conjunction and the

main verb), but because it is a prepositional phrase with the direct object, the phrase appears at the

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end of the sentence: “were going forth towards him”. The instruments are also placed after the verb,

such that an English translation directly following Greek syntax would be difficult to comprehend:

“And were going towards him the whole of Judea and the inhabitants of Jerusalem all”.

6 ζώνην δερματίνην, “a leather belt”. This is an attributive adjective use with the word order

noun-adjective, meaning that the adjective is not the crux of the sentence as it would be with a

predicative use (article-noun-adjective).

καὶ ἐσθίων ἀκρίδας καὶ μέλι ἄγριον, “while eating locusts and wild honey”. The third καὶ of

the sentence appears here before the participle phrase. “And” is not necessary for the sentence, so

καὶ is present to emphasise phrase. ἐσθίων conveys a simultaneous action of “eating” with what is

happening in the main verb (“wearing”). To translate the phrase with καὶ “even while eating” or

“also while eating” does not express added meaning to “while eating” in the context of the sentence

but does read oddly in English. Thus, I have omitted “also/even” from the phrase.

7 ἔρχεται ὁ ἰσχυρότερός μου, “he who is stronger than me is coming”. ἔρχεται is a deponent

third singular verb in the present tense. The gender of who or what is doing the action is not

specified in the verb itself, but instead by the gender of the adjective, which is masculine with a

masculine article in the nominative case to convey that the actor is the one described.

ὀπίσω μου, “After me”. While the adverbial phrase appears at the end of its clause, I

translated it with the phrase at the beginning to emphasise the use of ὀπίσω as a time relation as

opposed to its common use as physical movement (e.g., “back” or “backwards”).

ἱκανὸς, “sufficient enough”. ἱκανὸς often glosses as “sufficient” or “competent”. I supplied

“enough” to convey the text’s meaning more clearly. John is speaking of his undeserving nature

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compared to the status of Jesus. This may be communicated with “sufficient” by itself, however

“sufficient enough” stresses the comparison John makes to bolster the divinity of Jesus.

8 ἐγὼ ἐβάπτισα ὑμᾶς ὕδατι, “I, I baptised you by water”. ἐγὼ in addition to a first-person

singular verb adds weight to “I” but a second “I” is not always brought into the English translation.

I did include it because I find “I, I baptised” to be a more faithful translation which illustrates the

way the Greek is working to make the point that “I” is extra important in this sentence. ὕδατι is a

singular noun in the dative case, woodenly translated as “to/for water”. However, in some contexts

(such as this one) it makes more sense to use “by” to relate the noun to the verb: “by water”.

ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, “in a holy spirit.” This attributive adjective use centres around the noun

πνεύματι and within a prepositional phrase. πνεύματι is dative because it is linked to the preposition

ἐν. There is little doubt that πνεύματι is a spiritual thing by which Jesus baptises people (contrasting

with John’s physical baptisms in water) because of the presence of the adjective ἁγίῳ (“holy”). The

most basic gloss of πνεύματι is breath or wind, but in the New Testament the recurring adjective

phrase πνεύματι ἁγίῳ is standardly translated as “the Holy Spirit”. This translation has strong

precedent in the books written before Mark. 1 Thessalonians, written c. 51 CE (approximately 14-22

years before Mark), has four occurrences of πνεύμα (1:5, 4:8, 5:19, 5:23), all of which support an

abstract interpretation of the word as opposed to its literal meaning, “breath”.2 E.g., ὅτι τὸ

εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐγενήθη εἰς ὑμᾶς ἐν λόγῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν δυνάμει καὶ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ,

“because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit”.3

2
Perkins, Reading the New Testament.
3
Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed. (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012); Holy Bible: New International

Version 2011 (Belfast: Biblica Europe, 2011).

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 Despite πνεύματι most likely meaning “spirit”, there is a notable lack of articles in the

adjective phrase in Mark 1:8, and throughout 1 Thessalonians. As such, I translate the phrase not as

a proper noun (“the Holy Spirit”) but instead as “a holy spirit”. This does not deny the immaterial,

spiritual nature of the noun and its divine status (as some output of Jesus and God) but does not

support the recurring phrase as evidence of the Holy Spirit as an entity.

Explanation

Overall, the passage conveys that Jesus was sent to humanity by God, as his son, to make a

path towards salvation for man. John proclaims the first coming of Jesus in verse 7. His role in

baptism is mentioned, which serves as evidence of his spiritual power and worthiness.

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 Bibliography

Duff, Jeremy, and David Wenham. The Elements of New Testament greek. 3rd ed. Cambridge etc.:

Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Holy bible: New international version 2011. Belfast: Biblica Europe, 2011.

Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A greek-english lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1925.

Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012.

Perkins, Pheme. Reading the New Testament: An introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.

Scott, Robert, and Henry George Liddell. An intermediate greek-english lexicon: Founded upon the seventh

edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon / Henry George Liddell. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1889.

The Online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon. Accessed November 30, 2023.

https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/access.php.

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