Mark 1:9

1:9-13 Christ's baptism was his first public appearance, after he had long lived unknown. How much hidden worth is there, which in this world is not known! But sooner or later it shall be known, as Christ was. He took upon himself the likeness of sinful flesh; and thus, for our sakes, he sanctified himself, that we also might be sanctified, and be baptized with him, Joh 17:19. See how honourably God owned him, when he submitted to John's baptism. He saw the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. We may see heaven opened to us, when we perceive the Spirit descending and working upon us. God's good work in us, is sure evidence of his good will towards us, and preparations for us. As to Christ's temptation, Mark notices his being in the wilderness and that he was with the wild beasts. It was an instance of his Father's care of him, which encouraged him the more that his Father would provide for him. Special protections are earnests of seasonable supplies. The serpent tempted the first Adam in the garden, the Second Adam in the wilderness; with different success indeed; and ever since he still tempts the children of both, in all places and conditions. Company and conversation have their temptations; and being alone, even in a wilderness, has its own also. No place or state exempts, no business, not lawful labouring, eating, or drinking, not even fasting and praying; often in these duties there are the most assaults, but in them is the sweetest victory.

Mark 1:9-11 . It came to pass in those days — Of John’s baptism at the river Jordan; that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee — Where he lived for many years in a retired manner, with his parents; and was baptized of John in Jordan — Near Bethabara. John 1:28 . See on Matthew 3:13-17 .

Mark 1:9-11 . See on Matthew 3:13-17 ; Luke 3:21 f. εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην ] Conception of immersion . Not so elsewhere in the N. T. εὐθύς ] usual form in Mark; we must, with Tischendorf, read it here also. It belongs to ἀναβ .: immediately (after He was baptized) coming up . A hyperbaton (Fritzsche refers εὐθ . to εἶδε ) just as little occurs here as at Matthew 3:16 . εἶδε ] Jesus, to whom also ἐπʼ αὐτόν refers (see on Matt. l.c. ). Mark harmonizes with Matthew (in opposition to Strauss, Weisse, de Wette), who gives a further development of the history of the baptism, but whose ἀνεῴχθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ οὐρ . presents itself in Mark under a more directly definite form. In opposition to the context, Erasmus, Beza, Heumann, Ebrard, and others hold that John is the subject. σχιζομένους , conveying a more vivid sensuous impression than Matthew and Luke. Lange’s poetically naturalizing process of explaining ( L. J. II. 1, p. 182 ff.) the phenomena at the baptism of Jesus is pure fancy when confronted with the clearness and simplicity of the text. He transforms the voice into the sense of God on Christ’s part; with which all the chords of His life, even of His life of hearing, had sounded in unison, and the voice had communicated itself sympathetically to John also.

The dove which John saw is held to have been the hovering of a mysterious splendour, namely, a now manifested adjustment of the life of Christ with the higher world of light; the stars withal came forth in the dark blue sky, festally wreathing the earth (the opened heaven). All the more jejune is the naturalizing of Schenkel: that at the Jordan for the first time the divine destiny of Jesus dawned before His soul like a silver gleam from above, etc. See, moreover, the Remark subjoined to Matthew 3:17 .

9–11 . 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. by John. Comp. Luke 14:8 , “when thou art bidden of (=by) any man;” Php 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 ).

Ver. 9-11. Christ, who, Luke 2:51 , went with his parents to Nazareth, and was subject to them, after he had been disputing with the doctors in the temple, now goes from Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to that part of Galilee near Jordan, or rather to Bethabara, where John was baptizing, and was baptized: See Poole on "Matthew 3:13" . See Poole on "Matthew 3:16" . See Poole on "Matthew 3:17" . See Poole on "John 1:28" , where this piece of history is more fully related. Luke addeth, that Christ was now about thirty years of age.