Mark 1:1

ἀρχὴ, etc.: This verse may best be taken as the superscription of the whole Gospel, and as meaning: Here begins the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God. So viewed it should be made to stand apart, Mark 1:2 beginning a new section as in the Greek Testament of W. and H. [1] If we connect Mark 1:1 closely with Mark 1:2-4 it will contain the statement that the Gospel of Jesus Christ began with the ministry of the Baptist. On this view the connection of the sentences may be taken in two ways: either Mark 1:1 may be joined closely to Mark 1:2, the resulting sense being: the beginning of the Gospel (was) as it is written = was in accordance with the prophetic oracle predicting the introduction of Messiah by a forerunner, the story of the Baptist then following as the fulfilment of the prophecy; or Mark 1:2-3 may be bracketed as a parenthesis, and Mark 1:1 connected with Mark 1:4, yielding this sense: the beginning of the Gospel was or became (ἐγένετο) John the Baptist. All three ways give a perfectly good meaning. In favour of the first view is the absence of the article before ἀρχὴ; against it has been alleged (Holtzmann, H. C.) that καθὼς in Matthew and Mark always connects with what goes before, never introduces a protasis as in Luke 6:31. τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰ. Χ., the good news concerning, not preached by, Ἰ. Χ. being genitive objective; not quite the evangelic record, but on its way to that final meaning of εὐαγγέλιον. “Christ” here appears as a proper name, as in Matthew 1:1. υἱοῦ τ. Θεοῦ : this title, even if omitted, is implicit in the title Christ, but it is every way likely to have formed a part of the original text, as indicating the point of view in which Jesus is to be presented to readers of the Gospel. Without assuming any acquaintance on the part of the evangelist with the Gospel of the Infancy in Matthew and Luke we may say that this title takes the place of the opening Chapter s in these Gospels. It is all that Mark offers to gratify the curiosity to which these Chapter s owe their origin. Who is this remarkable Personage of whom you write? He is “the Son of God”. How much that was meant to convey cannot be certainly determined.

[1]W. and H. Westcott and Hort.