Mark 1

Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It recounts the proclamation of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus Christ, his temptations and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee.

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 45 verses.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

The opening verse of the Gospel of Mark sets out Mark's belief right from the start: Anglican Bishop Tom Wright describes this verse as "a great way to start". American academic Robert J. Miller translates it as "The good news of Jesus the Anointed", on the basis that χριστοῦ means "anointed" and the phrase υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ is not present in some early manuscripts. Some older manuscripts (such as Codex Koridethi (Θ; 038), Minuscule 28) omit "Son of God", but Swedish theologian Tommy Wasserman through research concludes that the omission was accidental.

The "beginning" could refer to the beginning of the book, or the next verse, or the beginning of the story of Jesus, as Mark is only beginning to tell the reader about Jesus' life, not writing his entire biography.

By saying he is the anointed, Mark is declaring Jesus the Messiah, the successor to King David. Mark always uses "Christ" which is derived from the Greek translation, he never uses "Messias" (Strong's G3323 – Μεσσίας) which is derived from the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic word for "Messiah". "Son of God" can be seen as synonymous with a political messiah, in this case the King of the Jews, but can also be seen as expressing divinity, as in the phrase "God the Son". Only the demonic opponents of Jesus call him this in Mark until the centurion in Mark 15:39. The "good news" could refer to the news about Jesus or from Jesus or Jesus as the good news or a combination of them all.

Henry Barclay Swete's Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, pages 456–457 states:

St Bede remarks on the contrast between Mark's opening verse and Matthew's first verse, where Jesus is described as "Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham". Here he is called "the Son of God", but "from both we must understand one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, and of man".