In this post:
- The prophetic quotes in Mark 1:2–3
- Thematic use of εὐθύς
- Summary of the projects I’ve been working on
- A personal note on my hiatus (moved to end 1/3/26)
Prophecy in Mark 1
As I started through Mark’s Gospel last week, looking at it in English and Greek, I noticed a few things worth mentioning. Mark opens his Gospel with quotes from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. I want to put the Isaiah and Mark passages side by side in Table 1 so you can see some interesting but relatively benign punctuation differences. Keep in mind that punctuation is a much later addition to the biblical text. The ancients didn’t waste papyrus and parchment with commas, dashes, quotation marks, or spaces between words!
Table 1
| Isaiah 40:3 (NIV) | Mark 1:3 (NIV) |
|
3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. |
3 “a voice of one calling ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'” |
Notice, for example, that the Isaiah quote has the one calling saying, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord,” while the editors of Mark obviously see a reference to John the Baptizer here: “a voice of one calling in the wilderness.” The punctuation in the Isaiah passage is consistent with the accenting and format of the printed BHS text but again keep in mind that these are editorial decisions, not a part of the original text.
The Septuagint (LXX, Greek translation of OT which is the source of all OT quotes in the NT) has the quotation beginning at “Prepare,” but again, an editorial decision, since the beginning of a quotation in Greek is marked by a capital letter in the modern text, and the original Greek text was in all capital letters!
I don’t really perceive a significant difference in the meaning of the text one way or the other. In the Isaiah version, “wilderness” is probably figurative for any place or person who needs to be revived by God. In the LXX/Mark version, “wilderness” is a literal reference to the place where John was preaching. The important part of this verse in my mind is the last half: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
εὐθύς
In one of my earliest blog posts, I made a passing reference to the fact that Mark uses the Greek adverb εὐθύς 41 times in his Gospel (by contrast, the word is used only 17 times in the rest of the New Testament). [NOTE: Strong’s has the adverb form as εὐθέως from the textus receptus, but modern eclectic texts use εὐθυς.) The word means “immediately” or “at once” as an adverb. However, the word is also an adjective that means “straight,” which is found in Mark 1:3 and the LXX translation of Isaiah 40:3. The Hebrew word in Isaiah 40:3 (ישׁר) has the idea of no turning to the left or right, and perhaps even making something level (see Prov. 4:25–27; cf. Heb. 12:13).
So what’s the big deal? Here it is: Mark is using the adverb form as thematic connection to the prophecy with which he opens his Gospel. Many probably think John the Baptizer is the one “preparing the way of the Lord,” but Mark’s repeated use of εὐθύς suggests that he’s portraying Jesus as the one “making straight” the way of the Lord. In Mark’s Gospel, then, εὐθύς represents the urgency with which Jesus went about his ministry. Aside from Jesus’s miracles, the fact that he was clearing the way of the legalism and unreasonable rules of the religious elite shows that Jesus was making the path to God more direct; he was making “straight paths” in wilderness of Jewish legalism. That was ultimately symbolized when the veil of the temple was rent at Jesus’s crucifixion. Man no longer needed an intermediary to get to God because of what Jesus had accomplished on the cross.
Conclusion
Mark, in all its simplicity as the shortest Gospel, seems to have a singular focus on making “straight paths” for the Lord. Matthew has a definite emphasis on the broad view of prophecy in his Gospel, while Luke is concerned more with historical accuracy and detail. But Mark’s Gospel should not be ignored just because it is short or abridged. He shows a sophistication in style comparable to Matthew and Luke.
A Personal Note on My Hiatus
I’ve been on a hiatus from the blog because my schedule got bogged down last summer. I took on an assignment in addition to my full-time job to edit and comment on Greek-English lexicon/concordance that is in the works (I can’t say anything more than that at this point, at least not until there’s a release date publicized). The concordance part was actually built into the lexical entries, which made for time-consuming reading. The author would list all occurrences of a word, often without the context lines. Add to that the extra time it takes to read numbers relative to words of the same character length on the page. Consider the difference between the following:
A reference would appear like this:
Mt. 22:36–38
As I was editing, I would read:
Matthew twenty-two, thirty-six through thirty-eight
Now imagine 600+ pages filled with a couple hundred references like that on each page, and the reading time per page nearly triples! Needless to say, I had to take a break after almost every page just to maintain my sanity! Fortunately, it was not my job to check the accuracy of each reference (although I did find the occasional error there on familiar passages), otherwise, I’d still be at it. The other challenging part of the edit was that the author’s preferred texts for the English translations were the King James Version and Darby’s translation, which resulted in some interesting entries (I had never heard or seen the word “dropsical” until I saw this dictionary).
The other project that came up is a new study Bible [1/1/26 Author’s Note: I realized I never returned to this post let you know I am listed as a Contributing Writer in three versions of The Jeremiah Study Bible (NKJV, ESV, NIV)]. It’s been challenging, rewarding, and even a little fun reviewing the notes, primarily for Old Testament books, and making suggestions and comments. I’m learning a great deal more about the OT and translation in general. I’m collaborating with a team of other reviewers; I even used one reviewer’s book on Bible study methods early in my teaching career. When that study Bible gets published, I’ll let you know.
I did finish reading through the Greek New Testament a second time in the process, but I’ve taken a break from a stringent schedule and had turned again to reading the Old Testament (in English, but still consulting the Hebrew) until I started participating in a men’s discipleship group. I set up a reading schedule for the guys that starts us in Mark’s Gospel. I also asked them to hold me accountable for getting back into the blogosphere, and rereading Mark 1 provided the perfect occasion for doing so.
Sunday Morning Greek Blog 
Are you familiar with this? http://ntresources.com/blog/?page_id=2473 I have the journal article somewhere.
Comment by EricW — June 9, 2013 @ 6:15 pm |
I am not familiar with it, but neither am I surprised to discover such a study exists. I will put it on my “read” list. Thank you for the contribution, Eric.
Comment by Scott Stocking — June 9, 2013 @ 10:34 pm |
Great timing, Scott. εὐθύς came up in a comment on my blog, and your observations put the usage in context.
Comment by LA — June 9, 2013 @ 8:06 pm |
Glad I could contribute. I’ll be sure to check out your post this week.
Comment by Scott Stocking — June 9, 2013 @ 10:35 pm |
This is the post to which LA refers: http://formandpower.blogspot.com/2013/06/in-mark.html.
Scott
Comment by Scott Stocking — June 11, 2013 @ 6:51 am |
Scott,
Great reading. Thanks for the blog.
Rob Siedenburg
Comment by Rob Siedenburg — June 12, 2013 @ 8:58 am |
You are most welcome. Good to hear from you!
Comment by Scott Stocking — June 12, 2013 @ 4:12 pm |
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“In the Isaiah version, “wilderness” is probably figurative for any place or person who needs to be revived.”
i have a translational question about the term used for wilderness in the first chapter of Mark.
Forms of ἔρημος appear 6 times in the first chapter of Mark, vss 3 and 4, 12 and 13, and 35 and 45. Briefly surveying a variety of English translations, it appears as if no matter what rendering is chosen for the first four, a different choice is made for the last two. is there a compelling reason for this?
I’m not a scholar. i know just enough to look things up and know the jokes about “a little greek.” But i am wondering if we’re losing a possible continuity of thought the original audience might have understood.
Thank you.
Comment by kim m — March 24, 2026 @ 2:12 pm |
I’d be happy to look into this for you. I’m a little busy this week, as one of my best friends passed away this morning, and I have some other obligations I don’t usually have. It’s good you know how to look that info up!
Scott
Comment by Scott Stocking — March 24, 2026 @ 3:36 pm |
I’m so sorry. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Condolences.
Comment by kim m — March 24, 2026 @ 4:37 pm
The two verses where ἔρημος is not translated “wilderness” seem to be references to places near a town or village and not a remote place like the desert. Notice in 1:35 that Jesus leaves the house to go to a “solitary” place. I checked how other versions translate this verse, and several of them use similar language. A couple versions call it a “deserted place.” Only a few versions have desert, and they’re late 19th century/early 20th century versions (ASV, Darby, Young’s Literal Translation). Mark 1:45 is similarly situated. If you search the Greek word in other contexts, you will get a better handle on the semantic range of the word. I hope this helps.
Scott
Comment by Scott Stocking — March 25, 2026 @ 7:49 am
Thanks.
Comment by kim m — March 25, 2026 @ 8:43 am
Actually, thank you for taking the time to look into that in this busy and difficult moment. i didn’t expect to hear back on that for a while.
i did think the answer was likely proximity. i Just wondered if it was a necessary switch, though all the versions do it, so, probably yes.
Thanks again.
Comment by kim m — March 25, 2026 @ 8:58 am
Always glad to help. I hope you have a blessed Holy Week and Easter season.
Scott
Comment by Scott Stocking — March 25, 2026 @ 9:35 am