Mark 1:4

The messenger that Isaiah predicted was John. People called him ‘The Baptizer’. In the desolate area near the Jordan River he kept telling people, “If you want God to forgive you for having sinned, you must turn away from your sinful behavior before you ask me to baptize you.”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

In Context

3He will call out to people who pass by where he is in the desolate area, “As people improve and straighten out pathways before an important official arrives [MET], make yourselves ready [DOU] in order that you will be prepared when the Lord comes.”

5A great number [HYP] of people who lived in Jerusalem city and elsewhere in the Judea district were going out to where John was. There, after hearing John’s message, they responded by confessing the sinful things that they had done. Then they were being baptized by John {John was baptizing them} in the Jordan River.

Read all of Mark 1

Cross References

Matthew 3:1While Jesus was still in Nazareth town, John, whom the people called the Baptizer, went to a desolate place in Judea district.

Matthew 3:11“As for me, I am not very important, because I baptize you only with water. I baptize you because of your feeling sorry that you have sinned. But someone else will come soon who is very great; he will do powerful deeds (OR, act powerfully). Because he is superior to me, I am not worthy even to do a menial task for him, such as to carry his sandals. He will put his Holy Spirit within you to truly change the way you live [MET], and he will judge others of you and punish you in the fire in hell.

Luke 3:2and while Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests in Jerusalem, God gave messages to Zechariah’s son John while he was living in the desolate region.

Acts 10:37You know what he did throughout the land of Judea, beginning in Galilee. He began to do those things after John had been proclaiming to people that they should turn away from their sinful behavior before he baptized them.

Acts 19:3So Paul asked, “So when you were baptized, what were you showing?” They replied, “ We were showing that we (exc) believed what John the Baptizer taught.”

Matthew Henry on Mark 1:2-9

Mark We have heard the evidence given in by the first witness to the doctrine and miracles of our Lord Jesus; and now here is another witness produced, who calls for our attention. The second living creature saith, Come, and see, Rev. vi. 3 . Now let us enquire a little, I. Concerning this witness. His name is Mark. Marcus was a Roman name, and a very common one, and yet we have no reason to think, but that he was by birth a Jew; but as Saul, when he went among the nations, took the Roman name of Paul, so he of… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Mark 1:4