Mark 1

Mark 1:1

When the evening was come - That is, after three o’clock; the time from three to six they termed the evening. Mark 15:42; Luke 23:50; John 19:38.

Mark 1:6

On the morrow, the day that followed the day of the preparation - The day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath, whereon they were to prepare for the celebration of it. The next day then was the Sabbath according to the Jews. But the evangelist seems to express it by this circumlocution, to show the Jewish Sabbath was then abolished.

Mark 1:7

That impostor said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again - We do not find that he had ever said this to them, unless when he spoke of the temple of his body, John 2:19,21. And if they here refer to what he then said, how perverse and iniquitous was their construction on these words, when he was on his trial before the council? Matthew 26:61. Then they seemed not to understand them!

Mark 1:9

Ye have a guard - Of your own, in the tower of Antonia, which was stationed there for the service of the temple.

Mark 1:10

They went and secured the sepulchre, sealing the stone, and setting a guard - They set Pilate’s signet, or the public seal of the sanhedrim upon a fastening which they had put on the stone. And all this uncommon caution was overruled by the providence of God, to give the strongest proofs of Christ’s ensuing resurrection; since there could be no room for the least suspicion of deceit, when it should be found, that his body was raised out of a new tomb, where there was no other corpse, and this tomb hewn out of a rock, the mouth of which was secured by a great stone, under a seal, and a guard of soldiers.

Mark 1:12

Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1

Mark 1:13

An angel of the Lord had rolled away the stone and sat upon it - St. Luke and St. John speak of two angels that appeared: but it seems as if only one of them had appeared sitting on the stone without the sepulchre, and then going into it, was seen with another angel, sitting, one where the head, the other where the feet of the body had lain.

Mark 1:17

Come, see the place where the Lord lay - Probably in speaking he rose up, and going before the women into the sepulchre, said, Come, see the place. This clearly reconciles what St. John relates, John 20:12, this being one of the two angels there mentioned.

Mark 1:18

There shall ye see him - In his solemn appearance to them all together. But their gracious Lord would not be absent so long: he appeared to them several times before then. Lo, I have told you - A solemn confirmation of what he had said.

Mark 1:20

Hail - The word in its primary sense means, “Rejoice:” in its secondary and more usual meaning, “Happiness attend you.”

Mark 1:21

Go tell my brethren - I still own them as such, though they so lately disowned and forsook me.

Mark 1:24

Say, his disciples came by night, and stole him while we slept - Is it possible, that any man of sense should digest this poor, shallow inconsistency? If ye were awake, why did you let the disciples steal him? If asleep, how do you know they did?

Mark 1:27

To the mountain where Jesus had appointed them - This was probably Mount Tabor, where, (it is commonly supposed,) he had been before transfigured. It seems to have been here also, that he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once.

Mark 1:29

All power is given to me - Even as man. As God, he had all power from eternity.

Mark 1:30

Disciple all nations - Make them my disciples. This includes the whole design of Christ’s commission. Baptizing and teaching are the two great branches of that general design. And these were to be determined by the circumstances of things; which made it necessary in baptizing adult Jews or heathens, to teach them before they were baptized; in discipling their children, to baptize them before they were taught; as the Jewish children in all ages were first circumcised, and after taught to do all God had commanded them. Mark 16:15.

Mark 1:34

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - The evangelist speaks with strict propriety: for the beginning of the Gospel is in the account of John the Baptist, contained in the first paragraph; the Gospel itself in the rest of the book. Matthew 3:1; Lu 3:1

Mark 1:35

Malachi 3:1

Mark 1:36

Isaiah 40:3.

Mark 1:37

Preaching the baptism of repentance - That is, preaching repentance, and baptizing as a sign and means of it.

Mark 1:40

The latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose - That is, to do him the very meanest service.

Mark 1:42

Matthew 3:13; Lu 3:21.

Mark 1:45

And immediately the Spirit thrusteth him out into the wilderness - So in all the children of God, extraordinary manifestations of his favour are wont to be followed by extraordinary temptations. Matthew 4:1; Lu 4:1.