The Fallible Synthetic Study Bible

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Mark 1:12–15 — The Temptation and Preaching of Jesus. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

This is a stronger word than that employed by St Matthew, who says He was led up ( Matthew 4:1 ), or by St Luke, who says He was led by the Spirit

Cambridge is doing lexical comparison, not theology: the point is simply that Mark chose the harsher verb where his fellow evangelists did not.

source ↗

Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

Driveth here does not refer to something violent and forcible: but the divine power clothes Christ (who had lived until this time as a private man) with a new person, and prepares him for the battle that was at hand, and for his ministry.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

There Christ and antichrist met, and entered upon the conflict upon the issue of which our salvation depended.

The Pulpit Commentary is reading Mark's single terse clause as the opening of a cosmic duel. That is an interpretation laid over the verse, not a statement Mark makes; it is offered here as one of the strongest forms of the traditional reading.

source ↗

At once the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai euthys to Pneuma ekballei auton eis tēn erēmon

Word by word9 · parsed

ΚαὶKaiG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

εὐθὺςeuthysAt onceG2112

√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb

euthys: directly, straightway The hinge of Mark's whole narrative tempo. The voice from heaven has barely finished speaking when the Spirit moves; sonship and conflict are laid end to end with no interval for the reader to rest in. Poole, honestly, refuses to press it to the very next moment, “but after a day or two, as it should seem,” while Gill takes it strictly of “the very selfsame day.” The commentators disagree, and the adverb alone cannot settle it.

τὸtotheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular

ΠνεῦμαPneumaSpiritG4151

√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounNominative Neuter Singular

pneuma: a current of air, breath, Spirit The same Spirit that descended as a dove in v. 10 is the agent of v. 12. Gill is careful about it: “it was the same Spirit that descended on him at his baptism, which remained with him,” and not the tempter, “for Matthew expressly says, that he was ‘led up of the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil’.” The grammar therefore forbids the easy reading that the desert was a lapse: the ordeal is not an interruption of the anointing, it is its first commission.

ἐκβάλλειekballeidrove [Jesus]G1544

√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular

ekballō: to eject, cast out, expel The weight-bearing word of the verse. Barnes guards it against misuse: “The word ‘driveth’ does not mean that he was compelled forcibly against his will to go there, but that he was inclined to go there by the Spirit.” Geneva says the same positively: the divine power “clothes Christ (who had lived until this time as a private man) with a new person, and prepares him for the battle.” Cambridge hears in it even a hint of “a rapid translation, such as that by which Prophets and Evangelists were caught up and carried to a distance (1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16; Acts 8:39).” ⚙ Worth noticing: the verb Mark uses of the Spirit's action on Jesus is the verb he will use again and again of Jesus casting out unclean spirits. The one expelled into the desert is the one who expels.

αὐτὸνauton. . .G846

√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular

εἰςeisintoG1519

√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition

eis: to or into, the point entered Motion into, not merely toward: the desert is entered, not skirted.

τὴνtēntheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular

ἔρημονerēmonwildernessG2048

√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular

erēmos: desert, desolate, solitary The word carries Israel's whole memory. Gill places Jesus “into a more remote and desolate part of it; for it was in the wilderness John was baptizing,” so the Baptist's wilderness of repentance and the Son's wilderness of testing are the same country, entered for different work. The Verifier's own candidate list is dense with this lexeme (Acts 7:30, Acts 7:36, Acts 7:42, Hebrews 3:17, Matthew 3:1), every one of them a wilderness of testing.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And at-once the Spirit casts-him-out into the desolate-place,

Where the English smooths the original

ἐκβάλλει ἐκβάλλει (ekballei, G1544, present indicative active) is not “drove” but “casts out, expels, thrusts forth,” and it stands in the present tense, not the past. Benson renders it “thrusteth him out, or, sends him away”; Cambridge observes it is “a stronger word” than Matthew's “led up” and Luke's “led by the Spirit.” BSB's past-tense “drove Jesus” smooths both the force of the verb and Mark's vivid historic present.
εὐθὺς εὐθὺς (euthys, G2112) is Mark's signature adverb, “straightway, directly.” Ellicott names it as “St. Mark's characteristic ‘immediately.’” BSB's “At once” is accurate, but Poole warns the Greek “is not to be taken strictly for the next moment,” so the English risks hardening a narrative connective into a stopwatch.
ἔρημον ἔρημον (erēmon, G2048) is parsed here as an adjective, accusative feminine singular: “the desolate, solitary (region),” with the noun left unspoken. English “wilderness” supplies a noun the Greek withholds, and loses the flat force of the word: desolate, abandoned, empty of men.
τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Πνεῦμα (to Pneuma, G4151) is simply “the Spirit,” with no adjective “Holy” in this clause. Gill reports that “in one of Beza's copies, and in his most ancient one, and in one of Stephens's, it is read, ‘the Holy Spirit driveth him’,” which is a variant, not the base text. The translation is not smoothing here; the reader should simply know the qualifier is absent.
αὐτὸν αὐτὸν (auton, G846, accusative masculine singular) is only “him.” BSB supplies the name “Jesus” for clarity; the Greek keeps the pronoun, its antecedent being the one just baptized and declared Son in v. 11.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The implied thought is partly that their presence added to the terrors of the Temptation, partly that in His being protected from them there was the fulfilment of the promise in the very Psalm which furnished the Tempter with his chief weapon

Ellicott's link to Psalm 91 is an inference from Matthew's and Luke's fuller accounts, where the tempter quotes that Psalm; Mark himself records no quotation.

source ↗

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This is added to show the desolation and danger of his dwelling there. In this place, surrounded by such dangers, the temptations offered by Satan were the stronger.

source ↗

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

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.

source ↗

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

and yet was as secure and unhurt by them, being the Lord of them, as Adam in Eden's garden, or Daniel in the lions' den.

source ↗

and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ēn en tē erēmō tesserakonta hēmeras peirazomenos hypo tou Satana kai ēn meta tōn thēriōn kai hoi angeloi diēkonoun autō

Word by word21 · parsed

καὶkaiandG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

ἦνēnHe wasG1510

√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular

eimi: to be (imperfect) The imperfect ἦν is the verse's quiet frame, used twice (words 1 and 12): he was continuing in the desert, he was continuing among the beasts. Mark builds the scene out of duration rather than incident.

ἐνenvvvG1722

√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition

τῇtēvvvG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular

ἐρήμῳerēmō[there]G2048

√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular

τεσσεράκονταtesserakontafor fortyG5062

√ τεσσαράκοντα — fortyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural

tesserakonta: forty A relatively rare number-word in the Greek New Testament (the Verifier records it in only 21 verses), and almost every occurrence is loaded: Israel's forty years of testing (Acts 7:36; Acts 7:42; Hebrews 3:9; Hebrews 3:17), Moses on the mountain, Elijah to Horeb. Mark states the number and says nothing about it; the number does the work. ⚙ Where Israel had forty years and failed, and Moses and Elijah had forty days and were fed, the Son has forty days and is tested, unfed, and does not fall.

ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250

√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural

hēmera: day Days, not years: the compression of Israel's ordeal into one man's ordeal. Gill records that “the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions add, ‘and forty nights’,” which is a secondary expansion toward Matthew, not part of Mark's text.

πειραζόμενοςpeirazomenosbeing temptedG3985

√ πειράζω — to test (objectively), iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular

peirazō: to test, to prove Mark refuses to narrate the content of the testing. Pulpit draws the inference carefully: the passage “would seem to imply that the three temptations recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke were not the only trials through which our Lord passed during those forty days.” Cambridge agrees that Satan seems “to have been permitted to tempt our Lord during the whole of the forty days, but at the end of that period to have assailed Him with increased intensity.” Benson transmits Lightfoot's sharper reconstruction, that for forty days Satan tempted invisibly and only afterward “puts on the appearance of an angel of light.” That is an inference about a silence, and should be held as such.

ὑπὸhypobyG5259

√ ὑπό — under, iPreposition

τοῦtouG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular

ΣατανᾶSatanaSatanG4567

√ Σατανᾶς — the accuser, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular

Satanas: the accuser, the adversary Cambridge draws the distinction precisely: διάβολος is “the ‘Slanderer,’ who slanders God to man (Genesis 3:1-5) and man to God (Job 1:9-11; Revelation 12:10),” while Mark's Σατανᾶς is “‘the Enemy’ of God and man alike.” Mark's choice suits his whole Gospel, which opens with a war and proceeds by exorcisms: what confronts the Son in the desert is not a debating partner but an enemy under orders to break him.

καὶkaiG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

ἦνēnHe wasG1510

√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular

μετὰmetawithG3326

√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition

τῶνtōntheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural

θηρίωνthēriōnwild animalsG2342

√ θηρίον — a dangerous animalNounGenitive Neuter Plural

thērion: a dangerous animal, a wild beast Mark alone reports it, and the commentators split on why. Barnes and Gill hear only desolation and peril: “This is added to show the desolation and danger of his dwelling there,” so that “Amid want and perils, Satan might suppose that he would be more easily seduced from God.” Henry, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit hear Eden restored: he was unhurt “as Adam was in Paradise.” Ellicott hears Psalm 91, the very Psalm the tempter quoted, answered in fact rather than in argument. All three readings sit on one clause of four Greek words, and the text itself commits to none of them.

καὶkaiandG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

οἱhoitheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural

ἄγγελοιangeloiangelsG32

√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounNominative Masculine Plural

angelos: a messenger, one who brings tidings The counterweight to θηρίων: Mark sets beast and angel in one sentence, so that the Son in the desert is surrounded at once by what threatens and by what serves. The lexicon's root sense is the bringer of tidings, and the irony is worth naming: the messengers arrive with no message recorded, only service. Cambridge, reading the plural against Matthew 4:11, notes that “St Matthew records the ministry of Angels at the close as to a Heavenly Prince,” while Mark's imperfect suggests “a ministry of the same celestial Visitants apparently throughout the trial.” ⚙ These are the angels of Psalm 91:11, the promise the tempter is reported by Matthew and Luke to have quoted; in Mark they do not argue the promise, they keep it.

διηκόνουνdiēkonounministeredG1247

√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural

diakoneō: to be an attendant, to serve The verb of table service and of the deacon. It returns at the pivot of this Gospel, where the Son of Man comes not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). ⚙ Here he is the one served, by angels; there he names himself the one who serves, to the point of a ransom. Gill takes the ministry concretely: “preparing for him, and bringing to him proper food, after so long a fast.”

αὐτῷautōto HimG846

Literal — word-for-word from the original

and he-was in the desolate-place forty days being-tested under the Satan, and he-was with the wild-beasts, and the angels were-ministering to-him.

Where the English smooths the original

ἦν … πειραζόμενος ἦν (ēn, G1510, imperfect indicative) with πειραζόμενος (peirazomenos, G3985, present participle) is a durative construction: “he was, throughout, in process of being tested.” English “He was there for forty days, being tempted” can be heard as forty days of waiting with a temptation at the end. The Greek spreads the testing across the whole span, which is exactly how Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary read it.
πειραζόμενος πειράζω (G3985) means “to test (objectively),” to put to proof; the moral sense “entice to sin” is a specialization, not the root. The participle is marked middle or passive, so the Greek does not force the reader to choose between “being tested” and “undergoing testing.” BSB's “tempted” is defensible and traditional, but it narrows a wider word: this is an assaying of the Son, not only a seduction.
τοῦ Σατανᾶ Σατανᾶ (Satana, G4567) carries the article: “the Satan,” that is, “the Accuser, the Adversary.” Cambridge notes that Mark “never uses” the word διάβολος that Matthew and Luke use here. English “Satan,” bare and capitalized, reads as a personal name and hides that Mark has chosen the title of function: the Enemy.
διηκόνουν διηκόνουν (diēkonoun, G1247, imperfect indicative active, 3rd plural) is “they were ministering, they kept waiting on him,” a continuous imperfect. BSB's simple past “ministered” fits Barnes and Gill, who place the angelic service after the forty days on the authority of Matthew 4:11; Cambridge reads the same imperfect as “a ministry of the same celestial Visitants apparently throughout the trial.” The tense genuinely leaves the door open, and the English closes it.
ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ (en tē erēmō, G1722 with G2048, dative) is “in the desolate place.” BSB compresses three Greek words into the single adverb “there,” which is smooth English but drops Mark's deliberate repetition of ἔρημος from v. 12: the place is named twice because the place is part of the argument.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Till that time, say the fathers, ανεμεινε αυτον μαρτυρησαι περι αοτου , he waited for John’s testimony concerning him.

Benson is reporting a patristic explanation of the timing, and flags it as such (“say the fathers”); it is tradition offered as tradition, not exegesis of a word in the verse.

source ↗

Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

Upon his imprisonment, Christ begins to preach in Galilee the gospel by which he set up his kingdom, and which leadeth men to the kingdom of God.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Galilee had been specially designated as the scene of the Divine manifestation (see Isaiah 9:1, 2 ).

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Galilee was the most northern and the most populous of the three provinces, into which the Romans had divided Palestine.

Cambridge's comparison of Galilee to England's manufacturing districts is Victorian shorthand for a populous working region; the geography is sound, the analogy is of its own century.

source ↗

After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai meta to paradothēnai ton Iōannēn ho Iēsous ēlthen eis tēn Galilaian kēryssōn to euangelion tou Theou

Word by word17 · parsed

ΚαὶKaiG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

μετὰmetaAfterG3326

√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition

meta: denoting accompaniment, after Temporal here: the Galilean ministry is dated by the silencing of the forerunner.

τὸtotheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular

παραδοθῆναιparadothēnaiarrestG3860

√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive

paradidōmi: to surrender, to hand over The aorist passive infinitive is the verse's hinge and its shadow. Gill supplies the circumstance: John was imprisoned “in the castle of Macherus, by Herod, for reproving him for taking his brother Philip's wife”; Ellicott notes that Mark assumes his readers know it, since “the facts connected with it are not related till Mark 6:17-20.” Henry draws the pastoral inference: “If some be laid aside, others shall be raised up, to carry on the same work.” Barnes reads Jesus' withdrawal as prudence, since “His time of death had not come.” ⚙ The syntax is blunter than any of them: the gospel of God begins to be heralded in the clause immediately after its herald is handed over.

τὸνtonG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular

ἸωάννηνIōannēnof JohnG2491

√ Ἰωάννης — Joannes (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular

ὁhoG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular

ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424

√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular

ἦλθενēlthenwentG2064

√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular

erchomai: to come or go Aorist: a single decisive arrival.

εἰςeisintoG1519

√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition

τὴνtēnG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular

ΓαλιλαίανGalilaianGalileeG1056

√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular

Galilaia: Galilee Not a retreat but a chosen theatre. Pulpit reads it against Isaiah 9:1-2: the land that was “the first in the sad calamity which fell upon the Jewish nation through the Assyrian invasion” is promised “the chief share in the presence and ministry of the future promised Messiah.” Cambridge fills in the human texture, “covered with busy towns and teeming villages, Roman custom-houses and thriving fisheries.” The kingdom is announced first in the noisy, mixed, working north.

κηρύσσωνkēryssōn[and] proclaimedG2784

√ κηρύσσω — to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular

kēryssō: to herald as a public crier, especially divine truth The word is not “teach” or “discuss” but the work of the public crier: an announcement made on someone else's authority, not an argument advanced on one's own. This is the lexeme the Verifier finds shared with Matthew 4:17 and Matthew 4:23, where the same heralding is reported in the same Galilee.

τὸtotheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular

εὐαγγέλιονeuangeliongospelG2098

√ εὐαγγέλιον — a good message, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular

euangelion: a good message In v. 14 the good news is the thing announced; in v. 15 it becomes the thing to be believed in. Gill hears its content as “the good news and glad tidings of the kingdom of the Messiah, or Gospel dispensation; which lies not in worldly pomp and splendour, in outward observances, in legal rites and ceremonies, but in righteousness, peace, and joy.”

τοῦtouG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular

ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316

√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular

theos: God The genitive that makes the announcement more than a man's opinion: Jesus heralds news that is God's own.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And after the being-handed-over of the John, came the Jesus into the Galilee, heralding the good-news of God,

Where the English smooths the original

παραδοθῆναι παραδοθῆναι (paradothēnai, G3860, aorist infinitive passive) is “to be handed over, delivered up, surrendered.” The Pulpit Commentary insists on it: “literally, was delivered up.” BSB's “the arrest of John” supplies a police action the Greek does not name. Mark's verb is passive and agentless here, and it is the same verb he will use of the Son of Man being delivered up (Mark 9:31; Mark 10:33): the forerunner is handed over first, and the one who follows him knows the road.
κηρύσσων κηρύσσων (kēryssōn, G2784, present participle active) is “heralding,” a continuous participle subordinate to the finite verb ἦλθεν. BSB's “went into Galilee and proclaimed” makes two coordinate past acts. The Greek says he came heralding: the proclaiming is the manner of the coming, and it does not stop.
τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion, G2098) is “a good message,” and τοῦ Θεοῦ is a bare genitive: “of God.” The genitive may mark God as the source of the announcement or as its content, and the Greek does not decide. Cambridge records a real textual question here: “the gospel of the kingdom of God ] or according to some MSS. the Gospel of God,” so translations differ because the manuscripts differ.
εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν τὴν Γαλιλαίαν (tēn Galilaian, G1056) carries the article, as Greek regularly does with regions: “the Galilee.” English drops it. Worth keeping in view, because Galilee is not incidental scenery: Pulpit ties it to Isaiah's promise to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, and Cambridge describes it as the most populous of the three Roman provinces of Palestine.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The words are not found in the parallel passages of the other Gospels, and are interesting as embodying the same thought as St. Paul’s “in the fulness of time”

source ↗

Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

to believe the gospel is one thing, to believe in the gospel (as it is here in the Greek) is another.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

or as it is called in St Matthew the Kingdom of the Heavens (comp. Daniel 2:44 ; Daniel 7:13-14 ; Daniel 7:27 ), denotes here the Kingdom of grace , the visible Church

Cambridge identifies the kingdom with the visible Church. That is one confessional reading of βασιλεία among several the word permits, and the reader should weigh it as such.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Without faith repentance becomes despair, and without repentance faith becomes only presumption.

source ↗

“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hoti ho kairos Peplērōtai kai legōn kai hē basileia tou Theou ēngiken metanoeite kai pisteuete en tō euangeliō

Word by word18 · parsed

ὅτιhotiG3754

√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction

hoti: that (recitative) Untranslatable here: it opens the quotation marks that Greek does not have.

ὁhoTheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular

καιρὸςkairostimeG2540

√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounNominative Masculine Singular

kairos: an occasion, an appointed season The word that makes this sentence a claim about history and not about the weather. Gill offers two referents and declines to force one: “either that which was fixed for the end of the law and prophets, the legal and Mosaic dispensation, and the Jewish church state; or the fulness of time for the Messiah's appearance.” Poole names the prophetic anchor, “the time determined of God for the revelation of the Messias, and the grace of the gospel through him, foretold by the prophets, Daniel 2:44.”

ΠεπλήρωταιPeplērōtaiis fulfilledG4137

√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular

plēroō: to make replete, to fill up A perfect passive with no agent named, which is the most loaded silence in the verse: someone has filled the season, and Mark does not have to say who. Ellicott and Poole both hear Paul's “fulness of time” (Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10) in it; Pulpit adds that “the time is very accurately indicated,” tying it to Matthew 4:12 and to Peter's summary before Cornelius in Acts 10:36-37. ⚙ The measure is full: not that circumstances happened to ripen, but that a vessel set long ago has been filled to its brim.

καὶkaiG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

λέγωνlegōnHe saidG3004

√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular

legō: to lay forth, to say Present participle: this is the content of the continuous heralding of v. 14, not a separate speech.

καὶkaiandG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

ἡhētheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular

βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932

√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular

basileia: royalty, reign, kingdom The lexicon's first sense is “royalty,” a reign rather than a realm, which is why the nearness of a kingdom can be announced without any territory changing hands. Cambridge takes it as “the Kingdom of grace, the visible Church,” and points to the parables of the Mustard Seed, the Leaven and the Tares for its small beginning, hidden working and assured triumph, with Daniel 2:44 and Daniel 7:13-14 behind it. Benson expands it as the reign by which God “will rescue men from the dominion of Satan and of sin,” and Gill warns that Jesus had to call his hearers to repent “of their bad principles and tenets, concerning a temporal kingdom of the Messiah.”

τοῦtouG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular

ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316

√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular

ἤγγικενēngikenis nearG1448

√ ἐγγίζω — to make near, iVerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular

engizō: to make near, to draw near A perfect of motion: the approach is finished, the nearness is now the situation. The Verifier finds this lexeme shared with Matthew 3:2, where John the Baptist announces the identical nearness; the herald who has just been handed over had cried the same words. ⚙ Mark does not say the kingdom has arrived, and he does not say it is merely coming. He says it has closed the distance, which is precisely the tension the rest of the Gospel lives in.

μετανοεῖτεmetanoeiteRepentG3340

√ μετανοέω — to think differently or afterwards, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural

metanoeō: to think differently or afterwards The root is a change of mind, and it is a comparatively uncommon verb (the Verifier records μετανοέω in 32 verses). Note the order of the two imperatives: the announcement of what God has done comes first, and the commands follow as its consequence. Henry keeps them welded: “By repentance we give glory to our Creator whom we have offended; by faith we give glory to our Redeemer who came to save us from our sins. Christ has joined these two together, and let no man think to put them asunder.” Pulpit adds the same truth from the other side, that repentance without faith “becomes despair.”

καὶkaiandG2532

√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

πιστεύετεpisteuetebelieveG4100

√ πιστεύω — to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural

pisteuō: to have faith in, upon, or with respect to The lexicon itself shows the verb reaching for a preposition, and Mark gives it ἐν. Poole's distinction is the sharpest thing in this unit's commentary: assenting to the gospel's propositions is one act, resting the hope of salvation in its promises is another, “though the primary object of it be the person of the Mediator.”

ἐνeninG1722

√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition

en: in, at, on, by The small preposition that carries Poole's whole argument: not believe about, but believe in.

τῷtōtheG3588

√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular

εὐαγγελίῳeuangeliōgospelG2098

√ εὐαγγέλιον — a good message, iNounDative Neuter Singular

euangelion: a good message The unit ends where v. 14 began, on the same word: announced by Jesus, and now to be trusted by Galilee.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

and saying that: “Has-been-filled-full the season, and has-drawn-near the kingdom of God. Be-repenting and be-trusting in the good-news.”

Where the English smooths the original

Πεπλήρωται Πεπλήρωται (Peplērōtai, G4137, perfect indicative middle or passive) is “it has been filled full, and stands filled.” The root πληρόω is “to make replete,” to fill a measure to its brim. English “is fulfilled” catches the standing result but hides the perfect's two parts: an act completed and a state now in force. Ellicott notes the clause is “not found in the parallel passages of the other Gospels.”
καιρὸς καιρὸς (kairos, G2540) is “an occasion, a season, the appointed moment,” not duration on a clock. Cambridge glosses it “the great fore-ordained and predicted time of the Messiah.” English “the time” flattens an appointed opportunity into elapsed hours.
ἤγγικεν ἤγγικεν (ēngiken, G1448, perfect indicative active) is from ἐγγίζω, “to make near,” so “it has drawn near and is now at hand.” BSB's “is near” is a state; the Greek is a completed approach. The kingdom has not been found to be nearby, it has come close.
μετανοεῖτε … πιστεύετε μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite, G3340) and πιστεύετε (pisteuete, G4100) are both present imperative active, 2nd person plural: “keep on changing your mind,” “keep on trusting.” English “Repent and believe” sounds like two single acts at a single moment; the present imperatives make them a standing condition, and the plural addresses a crowd rather than an individual.
ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ (G1722 with G2098, dative) is “in the good news,” an unusual construction after πιστεύω. Poole makes the whole point of it: to believe the gospel and to believe in the gospel are not the same thing. BSB keeps the “in,” and rightly, since it is in the Greek.
ὅτι ὅτι (hoti, G3754) here is recitative, a spoken colon introducing direct speech, and is simply not rendered in English. The brief's lexicon notes it can be “demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant).” Its silent presence is what turns the following words into a quotation of the herald's actual cry.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The Spirit expels the Son — Mark 1:12

Mark gives the temptation nine Greek words and spends one of them on violence. ἐκβάλλει (G1544) is the verb of expulsion, and Cambridge is exact about the comparison: it is “a stronger word” than Matthew's “led up” or Luke's “led by the Spirit.” Benson renders it “thrusteth him out.” Two dangers stand on either side of that word, and the commentators guard both. Barnes guards against coercion: the verb “does not mean that he was compelled forcibly against his will to go there, but that he was inclined to go there by the Spirit.” Gill guards against the opposite error, that the driver might be the tempter: “this was not the evil spirit Satan, by whom he was tempted; for Matthew expressly says, that he was ‘led up of the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil’.” Geneva supplies the positive reading, that the divine power “clothes Christ (who had lived until this time as a private man) with a new person, and prepares him for the battle that was at hand.” ⚙ What the syntax will not allow is a gap between the anointing and the ordeal. Mark's own adverb εὐθὺς (G2112) welds them, though Poole honestly loosens the weld: “it is not to be taken strictly for the next moment, but after a day or two, as it should seem.” The Pulpit Commentary pushes furthest, calling the desert a wrestling-place where “Christ and antichrist met.” That is interpretation laid on the verse, not the verse, and it is named here as such.

ii. Forty days, the beasts, the angels — Mark 1:13

Mark reports the whole temptation without reporting a single temptation. He gives a duration (τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας, G5062 with G2250), a continuous passive participle (πειραζόμενος, G3985), a titled adversary (τοῦ Σατανᾶ, G4567, which Cambridge notes is Mark's word and never διάβολος, “‘the Enemy’ of God and man alike”), and then two details no other evangelist keeps: beasts and angels. The beasts divide the commentators cleanly. Barnes reads danger: the clause is “added to show the desolation and danger of his dwelling there,” so that “Amid want and perils, Satan might suppose that he would be more easily seduced from God.” Benson reads reportage, and adds a shrewd note on Mark's audience: “as a Roman might not know how wild and uninhabited the deserts of Arabia were, in which Christ was tempted, he adds here, that he was with the wild beasts.” Gill reads dominion and innocence at once, “as secure and unhurt by them, being the Lord of them, as Adam in Eden's garden, or Daniel in the lions' den,” and the Pulpit Commentary agrees that “these wild beasts recognized and revered their Creator and their Lord.” Ellicott reads fulfilment, and specifically of Psalm 91:13, “the very Psalm which furnished the Tempter with his chief weapon.” Then the angels, and another honest disagreement of tense: Barnes and Gill put their service after the forty days on Matthew's authority, while Cambridge hears in the imperfect διηκόνουν (G1247) “a ministry of the same celestial Visitants apparently throughout the trial.” Benson passes on Lightfoot's reconstruction, that for forty days “the holy angels ministered to Christ visibly, and Satan tempted him invisibly.” ⚙ The grammar permits Cambridge's reading and does not compel it; the reconstruction is inference about a silence, and the silence is Mark's deliberate work.

iii. The herald handed over, the season filled — Mark 1:14-15

The next sentence begins with a passive infinitive, παραδοθῆναι (G3860), which Pulpit renders “literally, was delivered up.” Gill names the place and the cause, “the castle of Macherus, by Herod, for reproving him for taking his brother Philip's wife”; Ellicott notes that Mark assumes his readers know the story, since he will not tell it until Mark 6:17-20. Barnes reads Jesus' move north as prudence, since “His time of death had not come.” Benson reports the patristic explanation that until John's imprisonment Jesus “waited for John's testimony concerning him,” and appeals to Peter's own summary in Acts 10:37. Poole puts the two clauses in their sequence without softening it: “Upon his imprisonment, Christ begins to preach in Galilee the gospel by which he set up his kingdom.” And Galilee is chosen, not merely convenient: Pulpit reads it against Isaiah 9:1-2, the land first struck by the Assyrian invasion given “the chief share in the presence and ministry of the future promised Messiah,” while Cambridge sketches the province as “covered with busy towns and teeming villages, Roman custom-houses and thriving fisheries.” The cry itself is built on two perfects. Πεπλήρωται (G4137): the appointed season, the καιρός (G2540) that Cambridge calls “the great fore-ordained and predicted time of the Messiah,” has been filled to its brim, and Ellicott and Poole both hear Paul's “fulness of time” behind it. ἤγγικεν (G1448): the kingdom has closed the distance. Only then the two present imperatives. Henry refuses to let them come apart: “Christ has joined these two together, and let no man think to put them asunder.” Pulpit states the same balance negatively: “Without faith repentance becomes despair, and without repentance faith becomes only presumption.” Poole's grammatical point is the finest of all: Mark writes πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ, and to believe the gospel “is one thing, to believe in the gospel (as it is here in the Greek) is another.”

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by the Word itself. Mark has arranged four verses so that the announcement of God's reign stands between two handings over. The Spirit hands the Son out into the desolate place (ἐκβάλλει, G1544), and Herod has the herald handed over into a prison (παραδοθῆναι, G3860); and it is exactly there, with the forerunner silenced and the Son fresh from forty days of testing, that Mark places the sentence “the season has been filled.” The perfect tense is the whole argument. Nothing in the visible situation has been filled: a preacher is in chains, a carpenter is walking north out of a wilderness, no throne has moved. The fullness is an act of God already completed, and the only evidence Mark offers for it is the man announcing it. So the two imperatives are not entry requirements posted at the door of a kingdom still under construction; they are the fitting response to something already done, which is why they stand second and the indicative stands first. And notice what the Son is asked to believe before anyone else is: for forty days he is tested with no food, no voice from heaven, no rescue, in the company of wild animals, holding nothing but the word spoken over him at the Jordan. He keeps the trust he will go on to command. That, if this reading is right, is why the command can be issued at all. The one who says “trust in the good news” has himself trusted in the desert first, and the angels who waited on him there are the standing proof that the Father does not abandon the Son he drives out.

The season was filled before anything looked full: this line is our own fallible reading, not Scripture.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Forty in the desert: Israel's years, the Son's days verbal / quotation: confirmed

The number τεσσεράκοντα (G5062) is uncommon in the Greek New Testament, and the Verifier's candidate list shows where it clusters: Stephen's rehearsal of the wilderness generation (Acts 7:36, Acts 7:42) and the warning of Hebrews 3, where the same forty years and the same verb of testing appear together (Hebrews 3:9: “forty years” and πειράζω; Hebrews 3:17). Mark uses both lexemes of one man in one desert.

Hebrews 3:9 · Hebrews 3:17 · Acts 7:36

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5062 τεσσαράκοντα (in 21 vv, rare) with G3985 πειράζω (in 34 vv) at Hebrews 3:9, and G5062 with G2048 ἔρημος (in 48 vv) at Hebrews 3:17 and Acts 7:36. Greek to Greek, all refs New Testament. The recorded link is the rare shared vocabulary of wilderness testing, not a claim that Mark quotes these texts or they quote him.

The same cry from the forerunner's mouth verbal / quotation: confirmed

Jesus' proclamation in v. 15 is, in its two key words, the Baptist's proclamation. The Verifier computes the overlap: μετανοέω and βασιλεία with ἐγγίζω at Matthew 3:2 (John's preaching), and κηρύσσω with μετανοέω and βασιλεία at Matthew 4:17 (Jesus' preaching in Galilee after John's arrest). Poole notes it plainly: “Our Saviour's preaching agreeth with the Baptist's.” ⚙ The man is imprisoned; the sentence is not.

Matthew 3:2 · Matthew 4:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3340 μετανοέω (in 32 vv), G932 βασιλεία (in 154 vv) and G1448 ἐγγίζω (in 41 vv) at Matthew 3:2; G2784 κηρύσσω (in 60 vv), G3340 μετανοέω and G932 βασιλεία at Matthew 4:17. Greek to Greek, both refs New Testament; the wording of the proclamation is materially identical, with μετανοέω the relatively uncommon lexeme carrying the link.

The synoptic parallel, and the verb that differs structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 4:1 and Luke 4:2 narrate the same forty days, and the Verifier finds the expected overlap (πνεῦμα and ἔρημος at Matthew 4:1; ἡμέρα, ὑπό and τεσσεράκοντα at Luke 4:2). But the decisive verb is not shared. Cambridge and Benson both stop on it: Mark's ἐκβάλλει is stronger than Matthew's ἀνήχθη (“he was led up”) and Luke's ἤγετο (“he was led”). Ellicott likewise notes Mark omits the three named temptations that the others record.

Matthew 4:1 · Luke 4:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4151 πνεῦμα (in 344 vv) and G2048 ἔρημος (in 48 vv) at Matthew 4:1; G2250 ἡμέρα (in 368 vv), G5259 ὑπό (in 200 vv) and G5062 τεσσαράκοντα (in 21 vv) at Luke 4:2. Deliberately tiered structural rather than verbal: these are three accounts of one episode, but Mark's pivotal verb G1544 ἐκβάλλω is not shared with either parallel, so the link is the shared narrative, not a shared wording of the key clause.

Forty days on the mountain, forty days to Horeb structural / thematic: confirmed

Before Mark, the forty-day fast belongs to Moses on Sinai receiving the covenant words (Exodus 24:18; Deuteronomy 9:9) and to Elijah travelling to Horeb on angel-given food (1 Kings 19:8). ⚙ Mark's Son spends the same measure in the same kind of place, and the angels who feed Elijah on the road reappear as the angels who serve him. But the pattern is inverted at one point: Moses and Elijah fast in the presence of God on a mountain, and the Son fasts in the presence of the Adversary in a desolate place.

Exodus 24:18 · Deuteronomy 9:9 · 1 Kings 19:8

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number can be computed and the Verifier offers no lexeme basis; the recorded basis is the shared narrative pattern of a forty-day fast in the wilderness before a word from God, which the brief lists as the obvious Old Testament material this unit meets. No quotation is claimed.

Forty years of failure, forty days of standing typological

Israel was sentenced to forty years in the wilderness, a year for each day of the spies' report (Numbers 14:33-34), and that generation fell. ⚙ The Son is in the wilderness for forty days and does not fall. The typology is not our invention: Hebrews 3 argues from that same wilderness testing to a warning for the church, and the Verifier's candidate list is thick with Greek texts that read the wilderness generation exactly this way.

Numbers 14:33-34 · Deuteronomy 8:2

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no Verifier lexeme basis exists. Recorded basis: the figural correspondence of duration and outcome (forty of testing in a wilderness, Israel failing, the Son standing), a widely held reading, offered as figural and not as a quotation or a computed verbal link.

The Psalm the tempter used, answered in the sand structural / thematic: confirmed

Psalm 91 promises that the one who trusts will be guarded by angels and will tread on the lion and the adder (Psalm 91:11-13). Ellicott presses the irony: Jesus was protected among the beasts, and so there was “the fulfilment of the promise in the very Psalm which furnished the Tempter with his chief weapon.” Mark records no such quotation; the tempter's use of the Psalm comes from Matthew 4 and Luke 4. ⚙ What Mark records is the promise's two halves, beasts that do not harm and angels that serve, standing side by side in one sentence.

Psalm 91:11-13

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is computable and the Verifier supplies no lexeme basis. Recorded basis: the two-part motif (angelic guardianship plus immunity from wild beasts) shared with Mark 1:13, named explicitly by Ellicott. Not tiered verbal: Mark himself quotes nothing, and the tempter's citation of the Psalm is reported only by Matthew and Luke.

Peace with the wild animals typological

Isaiah's promise of the coming shoot of Jesse ends with predator and prey at rest and a child unharmed among them (Isaiah 11:6-9). ⚙ Mark's four words, “he was with the wild animals,” read against that promise, are the first sentence of the new creation spoken in the driest place in the story. Gill, Henry, Cambridge and Pulpit all reach instead for Eden and for Daniel's lions' den; the Isaiah connection is offered here as a further figural reading, not as their claim.

Isaiah 11:6-9 · Genesis 2:19-20

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's basis exists and the Verifier computes none. Recorded basis: figural correspondence of motif (the righteous one unharmed among wild animals, creation at peace under its Lord), which the brief lists among the Old Testament echoes of v. 13. Marked typological and not verbal; Isaiah 11 is our own extension of the Eden reading held by Gill, Henry, Cambridge and Pulpit.

Daniel's kingdom and Daniel's appointed time structural / thematic: confirmed

Four commentators send the reader to the same prophet. Benson: “The time of my kingdom, foretold by Daniel, and expected by you, is fully come,” citing Daniel 2:44 and Daniel 7:14. Poole cites Daniel 2:44 for “the time determined of God for the revelation of the Messias.” Cambridge cites Daniel 2:44 and Daniel 7:13-14 and 7:27 for the kingdom of God itself. The brief adds Daniel 7:22 and Daniel 9:24-27 as the appointed-time texts behind “the season has been filled.”

Daniel 2:44 · Daniel 7:13-14 · Daniel 9:24-27

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number can serve as basis and the Verifier computes none. Recorded basis: the shared pattern of a God-given kingdom arriving at a determined time, named by Benson, Poole and Cambridge at these exact references. Mark's wording is not a formal quotation of Daniel, so the tier is structural rather than verbal.

The fulness of time structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott hears in Πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρός “the same thought as St. Paul's ‘in the fulness of time’ (Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10),” and Poole independently cites the same two verses. ⚙ The connection is conceptual rather than lexical, and the honest note is that the Verifier did not compute this pair at all: Paul's phrase turns on πλήρωμα, Mark's on the perfect of πληρόω.

Galatians 4:4 · Ephesians 1:10

basis: Not in the Verifier's candidate list, so there is no computed shared-lexeme basis for this pair; the recorded basis is the commentators' own citation (Ellicott and Poole each name Galatians 4:4 and Ephesians 1:10 at Mark 1:15) plus the shared root πληρόω / πλήρωμα, which we have not had the Verifier confirm. Tiered structural for that reason, not verbal.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Second Adam in the place where nothing grows ancient/widely-held

The reading is unanimous among this unit's voices and older than all of them. Henry: “The serpent tempted the first Adam in the garden, the Second Adam in the wilderness; with different success indeed.” Gill: unhurt among the beasts, “as Adam in Eden's garden,” his innocence declared by their peace, “being as pure and holy as the first man was in his state of integrity, when all creatures were brought before him, to give them names.” Cambridge: “unhurt by them, as Adam was in Paradise.” Pulpit: “He dwelt amongst them as Adam lived with them in his state of innocence in Paradise.” ⚙ Mark supplies exactly the two data the reading needs and no commentary on either: an adversary who tests, and animals that do not harm. Where the first man failed in a garden with everything, the Son holds in a desert with nothing, and the creation that was subjected on the first man's account is already at rest around the Second.

Genesis 3:1-6 · Genesis 2:19-20 · Romans 5:19 · 1 Corinthians 15:45

The Son who keeps Israel's forty ancient/widely-held

⚙ Israel was tested in a wilderness for forty years and fell; Moses fasted forty days and received the covenant words; Elijah walked forty days on bread an angel gave him. Mark puts the Son in that same measure of time, in that same kind of country, and reports only that the testing continued and that he was served by angels. The Verifier's own candidate list shows how thoroughly the apostolic writers read Israel's wilderness as a pattern to be reckoned with: Stephen at Acts 7:36 and 7:42, and Hebrews 3:9, which shares with Mark both the rare G5062 “forty” and G3985 “test,” with Hebrews 3:17 sharing G5062 and G2048 “wilderness.” The figural conclusion, that here the true Israel undergoes the testing his people failed, is the reading Hebrews itself invites, and it is why Mark can afterward put the announcement of the kingdom in this man's mouth without argument.

Numbers 14:33-34 · Deuteronomy 8:2-3 · Hebrews 3:9 · Hebrews 4:15

The kingdom drew near in a person novel

⚙ Mark's two perfects will not sit still. The season “has been filled” and the kingdom “has drawn near,” yet no throne changes hands in this paragraph and the only new fact in Galilee is that a man has arrived from the desert. Our fallible reading is that the nearness is measured from him: the kingdom is near because the King is standing there, which is why Mark can command trust “in the good news” rather than obedience to a law, and why the herald's arrest cannot stop the announcement. The commentators say less than this, and the difference should be visible. Cambridge identifies the kingdom with “the Kingdom of grace, the visible Church”; Benson makes it the reign whereby God “will reign in them, as well as over them”; Gill makes it righteousness, peace and pardon by Christ's blood. None of them says the kingdom simply is the King, so the compression here is ours and is marked novel.

Mark 1:15 · Daniel 7:13-14 · Mark 10:45

Handed over, and handed over novel

⚙ Mark dates the gospel's beginning by a passive verb: “after the being handed over of John” (παραδοθῆναι, G3860). Pulpit insists on the literal sense, “was delivered up,” and the same verb will carry this Gospel's central prediction, that the Son of Man is delivered up into the hands of men (Mark 9:31; Mark 10:33). The forerunner goes first and the pattern is set: the word of God advances through its messengers being given over. Henry draws the pastoral half of it, “If some be laid aside, others shall be raised up, to carry on the same work”; Barnes draws the prudential half, that Jesus withdrew because “His time of death had not come.” The reading offered here is that Mark's choice of verb is not accidental, and that the shadow of the cross lies across v. 14 before a single disciple has been called.

Mark 6:17-20 · Mark 9:31 · Mark 10:33 · Isaiah 53:6

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. Text. The base text is BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear parsing and Strong's numbers; nothing here has been checked against a critical apparatus beyond what the commentators themselves report. Three variant reports come from the voices, not from us: Gill records that “the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions add, ‘and forty nights’” at v. 13 (an expansion toward Matthew, not part of Mark's text as given); Gill also reports that in one of Beza's copies and one of Stephens's, v. 12 reads “the Holy Spirit driveth him,” where the text before us has only τὸ Πνεῦμα; Cambridge notes at v. 14 that the reading is “the gospel of the kingdom of God ] or according to some MSS. the Gospel of God,” which is why translations differ at that phrase. Sources. Ten commentators are present in the brief, but two contribute almost nothing quotable here: JFB's entries for all four verses are cross-reference stubs pointing to Matthew 4, and Geneva at v. 13 and v. 15, plus Poole at v. 13 and v. 15, are either bare reprints of the verse or pointers to another entry. Nine authors are cited in this unit; the Genevan material is therefore drawn from v. 12, where its substantive note sits. Henry's note is a single block covering Mark 1:9-13 and another covering 1:14-22, so his comments are not verse-specific. What is uncertain. Whether the angels served throughout the forty days or only at their close: the imperfect διηκόνουν allows Cambridge's reading, Matthew 4:11 supports Barnes and Gill, and we have not chosen. Whether εὐθὺς in v. 12 means the same day (Gill) or within a day or two (Poole). Whether the beasts signify peril (Barnes), dominion and Edenic innocence (Gill, Henry, Cambridge, Pulpit), or Psalm 91 fulfilled (Ellicott): the four Greek words support all three and settle none. Benson's forty-days-invisible reconstruction is credited to Lightfoot in the brief and is an inference about Mark's silence. Threads. Every Verifier candidate for this unit is a Greek text, so the Old Testament links recorded above (Exodus 24:18, Deuteronomy 9:9, 1 Kings 19:8, Numbers 14:33-34, Psalm 91:11-13, Isaiah 11:6-9, Isaiah 9:1-2, Daniel) have no computed shared-lexeme basis and cannot have one; they are tiered structural or typological for that reason, and no quotation is claimed for any of them. The Galatians 4:4 and Ephesians 1:10 pair was not computed by the Verifier at all and rests on Ellicott's and Poole's citations. Marked ⚙ material is this tool's own fallible synthesis and is offered to be tested against the Word, not alongside it.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)