Conversations on the Gospel of Mark, read on the radio "City of Petrov". Januarius (Ivliev)

Source - http://vsehsvyatih.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=76 (in the source there is a confusion in the table of contents, which caused a problem in this electronic version as well).

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Conversation 1.

I. The beginning.

1. John the Baptist.

1.1-8 — "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets: 'Behold, I send my angel before you, who will prepare your way before you.' The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the land of Judah and the people of Jerusalem went out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. And John wore a robe of camel's hair, and a leather girdle on his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, "He who is stronger than I am is coming after me, from whom I am not worthy, stooping down, to untie the strap of His shoe; I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

The first verse, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," can be understood in two ways: 1. As the heading of the whole scripture. Then you need to put a full stop after this title. 2. As the beginning of a long sentence that includes the subordinate clauses of verses 2 and 3, and continues in verse 4: then it could be translated as follows: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ... John appeared..."

Thus, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been proclaimed by Christians since Pascha, and which the Church proclaims to this day, has a very definite foundation and a definite beginning. Both in the Greek language (cause, foundation and beginning) are denoted by one word, with which Mark opens his Gospel.

The foundation of the gospel is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. This is what is spoken of in the writings of our Evangelist. But the beginning of the Gospel is formed by the appearance of John the Baptist, for he not only set in motion all Judea and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Mark 1:5), but also stood at the beginning of the path of Jesus of Nazareth, who came from Galilee.

But how?