page_title: Mark 1
section_title: Jesus' baptism and temptation
hierarchical_section_title: Mark 1 / Jesus' baptism and temptation
caption_attribution_description: English: Scan by the Google Cultural Institute
context_page_description: Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
context_section_description: Jesus is one of the many who come to be baptised, in his case from Nazareth in Galilee. Since John, according to Mark, baptised repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4) some have argued Jesus also is coming to be forgiven for his sins; but Mark notes that John says that he is unworthy (Mark 1:7-8). Mark also has John's function as preparing things for Jesus, and some argue this baptism is meant to forward the fulfillment of Jesus' plan. John 1:31 has John say his baptism was his method of revealing Jesus to Israel. Perhaps Jesus is doing this to embrace the doctrine of baptism and repentance of sins and his oneness with those who embrace it. The Epistle to the Hebrews, in Hebrews 4:15, says Jesus was "just as we are — yet was without sin" and 1 John 3:4 states: "...sin is lawlessness."
  Mark introduces Jesus without a history or a description, suggesting the intended reader already has heard of him. Mark, like the other Gospels, gives no physical description of Jesus, unlike the short previous description of John. Mark's readers are assumed already to know about the two of them.
  John baptizes him and Jesus then sees a theophany. He sees "heaven being torn open" (Greek: σχιζομένους, schizomenous, rent open), "and the spirit descending on him like a dove", and hears a voice telling him that he is God's son whom God loves, and with whom God is well pleased. The vision could be related to a Psalm 2:7, as well as Isaiah 42:1. The "opening of the heavens"  is often seen as the union and beginning of communication between God and the world. Whether anyone else besides Jesus saw this has been often debated: Luke 3:22 says the Spirit descended in "bodily" form; John 1:32-34 says John said he saw the Spirit descend onto Jesus. Some have speculated that this event may have been a story that has its origins in the Early Christian practice of baptism, although Franciscan theologian Robert J. Karris  argues that this is unlikely.
  Some have argued that since Mark begins his story here, at the baptism, that this could be seen as a form of adoption, as it is God's action which changed Jesus' life, although Mark probably is confirming their preexistent relationship. Jesus is never declared as God's adopted son anywhere in the book, but Mark does not exactly state how or when Jesus became God's son. Both Matthew and Luke use their infancy narratives to show that Jesus was God's son from the moment of conception, and John 1:1 has him as the word of God from the moment of creation.
  The voice from heaven calls Jesus "beloved". Some see a relationship between this description and that of Isaac in Genesis 22, where Abraham had shown his devotion to God by being willing to sacrifice his son, so God shows his love for humanity by actually sacrificing his son, see also Substitutionary atonement. There is also the possible link with this and the beloved servant of God in Isaiah 42:1–7, 49:1–6, 50:4–11, and 52:13–53:12.
  The spirit then "at once", kai euthys, sends him out into the desert to be tempted by Satan for forty days. Forty is a common numerological device in the Bible, such as the forty days of the flood in Genesis 7 and the forty years of the Israelites wandering in the desert in Exodus. Elijah also spent forty days and nights travelling to Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19:8. Unlike Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1–13 the number of temptations or what they were are not described. Mark does say that Angels came to minister to him. Karris argues the angels and the wilderness are related to Psalm 91:11–13.
  John is put into prison, presumably by Herod Antipas. Mark uses the term paradothēnai to describe John being "turned over", which Mark also uses to describe Jesus being arrested during his Passion. Mark has already highlighted two themes, Jesus' power from and favor of God, contrasted with his confrontation with Satan and John being arrested, showing his power and mission have already encountered the most extreme challenges both from the authorities of this world and supernatural powers.
  The Jesus Seminar concluded that parts of these accounts 
caption: Christ in the desert by Ivan Kramskoi
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