Mark tells us that all of Judea and all of Jerusalem went out to be baptized by John (Mark 1:5). Is this true? I seem to recall that years ago, when I used to peruse the Christian discussion boards that a critic pointed this out to me, saying the lines must have been unbelievable. Of course, he was being ironical; he really didn’t believe the Bible and thought it was rampant with contradictions and silly, outlandish claims. Yet, once it was pointed out, it needs to be explained. Doesn’t it? So, what, exactly, does Mark mean?
First of all, he didn’t mean what my friend, the Biblical critic, thought it meant. He was making the same mistake so many other folks make, when they read the Bible. They don’t try to understand it, as it was perceived by the folks back in the first century AD. Both the ancient Hebrew and the Greek languages were rich in literary expressions, as is our own today. For example, when speaking of the importance of an event, one may say: “Everyone will be there!” Does the person really mean everyone will be there? Of course not, and we don’t think of the expression in literal terms. We simply realize it means the event is an important one, at least in the eyes of the person making the statement.
What Mark does is use the synecdoche,[1] which is a figure of speech that puts the whole for a part or for every part of the whole. Mark says all Judea, but he means from every part of Judea. He says all Jerusalem, but he means from every part or group there, and his readers understood him without having been told that. So, John’s ministry was affecting everyone in the land of the Jews in one way or another. While some Jews gave a positive response, others reacted negatively (cp. John 1:19-25).
It seems that when describing John, Mark uses what we call abductive reasoning (Mark 1:6). This “is a form of logical inference which starts with an observation or set of observations and then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation for the observations.”[2] For example, James Whitcomb Riley, a nineteenth and early twentieth century American poet is credited with coining the phrase: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call it a duck.” Mark sorta-kinda does the same thing, here, concerning John.
He tells us that John was dressed in clothing made of camel hairs. Hair is in the plural, so his garment was not leather but composed of the rough, uncomfortable hairs of a camel, and used a leather belt around his waist (Mark 1:6), which not only inferred that John was dressed like a prophet (cp. Zechariah 13:4), but he was dressed like Elijah, the prophet (2Kings 1:8).[3] Moreover, John ate what he found in the wilderness and didn’t depend upon society for his sustenance, just as Elijah the prophet (cp. 1Kings 17:3-4). There hadn’t been a prophet in the land since Malachi, so for over four hundred years there had been a famine of words coming from the Lord. However, at this time in the first century AD, John appeared in the wilderness with a message out of Isaiah (Mark 1:3; cp. Isaiah 40:3) and preaching in the spirit and power of Elijah (Mark 1:2; cp. Luke 1:17; Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6). The Jews of the first century AD were looking for a prophet (cp. Mark 15:43; Luke 2:25; 23:51; 24:21) and expecting Elijah (Mark 9:11), and they got him (Mark 9:12-13; cp. Matthew 17:13)
Mark closes his account of John’s ministry by offering a brief synopsis of it in Mark 1:7-8. Here John testified of “the” Mighty One (the article is present in the Greek, so a particular person is in view – i.e. the Messiah) who was about to come and John claimed he (John) wasn’t worthy to be his Lord’s slave. The normal courtesy of a an ancient Jewish household toward a visitor was to provide water for the visitor to wash his feet (Genesis 18:4; 19:1-2; 43:24). However, some households provided servants or slaves to remove the shoes and wash the feet of visitors (cp. 1Samuel 25:41: John 13:3-15), and it is in this context that John saw his ministry in preparing for the Lord (Mark 1:7; cp. John 3:28-30).
Mark tells us that John perceived his ministry was symbolic, in that he baptized with water. Nevertheless, the coming Mighty One would baptize with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8), as it says in the prophets that the land would bear thorns and briers, palaces would be forsaken and strongholds would become a den of wild beasts—UNTIL the Spirit was poured out upon the Lord’s people, UNTIL the wilderness became a fruitful field where righteousness dwelt (Isaiah 32:13-18; cp. 44:3; Ezekiel 36:25-27; 47:1, 9; Revelation 22:2). John was the symbolic, and the One mightier than he was the Reality.
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[1] E.W. Bullinger; Figures of Speech Used in the Bible; “Third Division” – Figures Involving Change; Synecdoche of the Whole; page 636.
[2] See Wikipedia: Abductive reasoning.
[3] The Hebrew in 2Kings 1:8 doesn’t mean Elijah was a “hairy man,” but it, rather, refers to his ‘hairy’ dress. In other words Elijah wore a garment made of camel-hair, which was wrapped round his body. See Keil and Delitzsch.
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