Mark 1:9

The Baptism of Jesus

9. in those days i. e. towards the close of the year a. u. c. 781, or a. d. 28, when our Lord was thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), the time appointed for the Levite's entrance on "the service of the ministry" (Numbers 4:3).

came from Nazareth where He had grown up in peaceful seclusion, "increasing in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:52), in a town unknown and unnamed in the Old Testament, situated among the hills which constitute the southern ridges of Lebanon, just before they sink down into the Plain of Esdraelon.

baptized of i. e. byJohn. Comp. Luke 14:8, "when thou art bidden of(=by) any man;" Philippians 3:12, "I am apprehended of (by) Christ;" Collect for 25th Sunday after Trinity, "may of(=by) Thee be plenteously rewarded."

in Jordan Either (i) at the ancient ford near Succoth, which some have identified with the Bethabara or rather Bethany of St John (John 1:28); or (ii) at a more southern ford not far from Jericho, whither the multitudes that flocked from Judæa and Jerusalem (Mark 1:5) would have found a speedier and more convenient access. From St Matthew we learn that (i) the purport of the Saviour's journey from Galilee was that He might be thus baptized (Matthew 3:13); that (ii) His Forerunner instantly recognised His superhuman and stainless nature; that (iii) he tried earnestly to prevent Him; that (iv) his objections were overruled by the reply that thus it became Him to "fulfil all righteousness," i. e. every requirement of the Law. St Luke tells us that the Baptism of our Lord did not take place till "all the people had been baptized" (Luke 3:21).