Chapter 1

Theophylact, Archbishop of Bulgaria, Commentary on the Gospel According to Mark

¹ The Life of Mark, according to Sophronius. Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, according as he had heard Peter expounding, being requested at Rome by the brethren, composed a brief Gospel; which, when Peter had read it, he approved, and with his own authority published it to be read in the Church, as Clement writes in the sixth book of the Hypotyposes, and Papias bishop of Hierapolis makes mention of this Mark. And Peter, in his first Epistle, signifying Rome figuratively under the name of Babylon, says: She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, salutes you, and so does Mark my son. Taking, then, the Gospel which he himself had composed, he came to Egypt, and being the first to preach Jesus Christ in Alexandria, established a Church. With such instruction and austerity of life did he distinguish himself that he made all who followed Christ emulate his manner of conduct; whence also Philo, the most learned of the Jews, finding at Alexandria the first Church still Judaizing, as if in praise of his own nation, composed a book concerning their manner of life. And just as Luke relates that those who believed in Jerusalem had all things in common, so he too committed to memory what he saw being done at Alexandria under Mark the teacher. And having died in the eighth year of Nero, he was laid to rest in Alexandria, Ananias succeeding him.

² The Life of Mark, from the Synopsis of Dorotheus, martyr and bishop of Tyre. Mark the evangelist, and first bishop of Alexandria, preached the Gospel of the Lord to the Alexandrians and to all the surrounding country, and as far as Pentapolis, in the second year of the reign of Trajan; at Alexandria a rope was put about his neck, and he was dragged from the places called those of Boucolou as far as the places called those of the Angels, and there he was burned with fire by the idol-mad, on the twenty-fifth of the month Pharmuthi; and there he was buried, in the [places] of Boucolou.

³ The Chapters of the Gospel according to Mark. 1. On John, who baptized the Lord in the Jordan. On the calling of Peter and Andrew, and of the sons of Zebedee. On the demoniac. On the mother-in-law of Peter. On those healed of divers diseases. On the leper. 2. On the paralytic. On Jesus eating together with the publicans. On the disciples plucking the ears of grain on the Sabbath. 3. On him who had the withered hand. On the choosing of the apostles. On [his] mother and brethren. 4. The parable concerning the sower. On the rebuking of the waters. 5. On the legion. On the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. On the woman with an issue of blood. 6. On the commissioning of the apostles. On John and Herod. On the five loaves and the two fishes. On the walking upon the sea. 7. On the disciples eating with unwashed hands. On the transgression of the commandment of God. On the Syrophoenician woman. On the deaf-mute. 8. On the seven loaves. On those seeking a sign. On the leaven of the Pharisees. On the blind man. On the questioning at Caesarea. On the rebuking of Peter. 9. On the Transfiguration of Jesus. On the lunatic. On those disputing who is greater. On the removing of the cause of stumbling. 10. On those who asked whether it is lawful to put away one’s wife. On the rich man who questioned Jesus. On the sons of Zebedee. On Bartimaeus. 11. On the colt. On the withered fig tree. On the money-changers driven out of the temple. On boldness toward God. On the not bearing of malice. On the chief priests and elders who questioned the Lord. 12. On the vineyard. On those who questioned the Lord concerning the tribute. On the Sadducees. On the scribe. On the Lord’s question. On being wary of the hypocrites. On the widow who cast in the two mites. 13. On the consummation. On the day and the hour. 14. On the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment. On the Passover. On the betrayal of Christ. On the denial of Peter. On the accusations laid against the Lord before the high priest. 15. On those things which he suffered before Pilate. On the custom. On the asking for the body of the Lord. On the burial. 16. On the Resurrection of Christ. To whom the Lord appeared after the rising. How he charged the apostles with the preaching of the Gospel.

⁴ Prologue. The Gospel according to Mark was written at Rome after the Ascension of Christ. For this Mark was a disciple of Peter, whom Peter names his spiritual son. And he was also called John; he was a cousin of Barnabas, but also a fellow-traveler of Paul; for the most part, however, he was together with Peter, and at Rome. The faithful at Rome, then, asked him not only to preach unwritten, but also to set forth for them in writing the polity according to Christ. Hardly, then, being persuaded, he composed it; and to Peter it was revealed by God that Mark had written a Gospel. Seeing it, then, and confirming it as true, he afterward sent him forth as bishop into Egypt; where indeed, having preached, and having established a Church at Alexandria, he enlightened all those toward the southern region. The character of the Gospel, then, is clear, and has nothing over-subtle; and the present evangelist runs together with Matthew in nearly all things, except that the one makes mention at the beginning of the Lord’s generation according to the flesh, while this one began from the prophet John. Whence some (even if it seem over-curious) have spoken of a deeper meaning concerning the evangelists: that God, who sits upon the Cherubim—which Scripture says are four-faced—has delivered to us the Gospel also four-formed, held together by one Spirit. For as each of the living creatures had one face of a man, another of a lion, another of a calf, and another of an eagle,[1] so he began from the kingly and lordly [aspect] of the Word, saying, The Word was God. But the [Gospel] according to Matthew is man-formed; for it began from the generation of the Word according to the flesh. And the [Gospel] according to Mark began from the prophet; the grace, set toward the winged symbol of the other living creatures, toward the being able to soar above the water. And like to a calf is the [Gospel] according to Luke, beginning from the priesthood, at the priesthood of Zacharias in the temple; of the one crying, and so forth. It is the word of the Lord; of the one crying, and so forth; this shall be your way. Hear, then, what he says.

⁵ Chapter 1. — On John, who baptized the Lord in the Jordan. On the calling of Peter and Andrew, and of the sons of Zebedee. On the demoniac. On the mother-in-law of Peter. On those healed of divers diseases. On the leper.

⁶ The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets: Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Behold, I send my messenger, who shall prepare your way. The saying of Isaiah, namely, The voice of one crying, is uttered from the person of God and the Father; of one crying, and so forth, which is the word of God: your way shall be made [ready]. Whence is shown the kinship of the Forerunner to Christ; for indeed of kings also the closest kinsmen go before them. And the voice of one crying in the wilderness [signifies] perhaps both the wilderness of the Jordan, and perhaps the synagogue of the Jews, which was a wilderness of all good. And the way is the New Covenant; and the paths are the Old, as being worn out; toward the way, then, they ought to have made ready, and to have made the paths straight, having of old received [the law] as their own track.

⁷ John came baptizing in the wilderness, and preaching a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins; and there went out to him all the country of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins. The baptism of John had not remission of sins, but only brought in repentance to those baptized. How then does Mark here say that it was a baptism of repentance unto remission? We say, then, that he preached a baptism of repentance; and this preaching of repentance prepared those about to believe in Christ, so that, coming to him, they might receive remission—that is, remission was about to be granted to those who through repentance had been made ready; for they were regenerated. Inasmuch as the Forerunner preached a baptism of repentance, those who repented, receiving Christ, received remission.

⁸ And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey. We spoke concerning these things in [the commentary] on Matthew, and now too we will say as much as was there left out: that the garment was a symbol of mourning, the prophet showing that he who repents must mourn. For sackcloth is [a token] of mourning; and the leathern girdle signifies the deadness of the Jewish people; and this mourning the robe declared, as the Lord also says, We have mourned unto you, and you did not lament, those who followed the conduct of the Forerunner furnishing the lamentation. For he says that John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said that he has a demon; but also the food of John is interpreted, and of itself declares his self-control. And the locust is a symbol of the people’s rational food, a symbol of the word of heaven, lofty, yet a word nourished, seeming to be borne aloft and again leaping up; for such is the locust, leaping as it were toward the height, then again falling down. As, then, the people also ate honey, that produced by the bees—[namely] the prophets—but not cultivated and tamed through being rightly understood and sought out and apprehended; for the Hebrews had the Scriptures as a kind of honey, but did not cultivate them, nor search them out.

⁹ And he preached, saying: There comes one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I am not worthy, he says, to be even his lowest servant, so as to loose the latchet—that is, the bond made from the leather of the sandals. And it is understood thus also: All who came and were baptized by John were loosed, through repentance, from the bond of their sins, in believing in Christ. Of all the others, then, John loosed the latchets and the bonds of their sins. But the latchet of Jesus he was not able to loose, because neither did he find a latchet—that is, a sin—in him, nor the latchet of his sandals.

¹⁰ And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan; and immediately, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being rent, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him; and there came a voice from the heavens: You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Neither for the remission of sins does Jesus come to the baptism, for he did no sin; nor to partake of the Spirit—for the baptism of John, as I said, not cleansing sins, how could it have given the Spirit? But neither does he come to be baptized in order to repent; for he was far better even than the Baptist. Why, then, does he come? Surely that he might be made manifest by John to the people. For since many flocked together, he was well pleased to come, that it might be witnessed before these many who he is; and at the same time that he might fulfill all righteousness—that is, all the commandments of the law; for since this too seems a commandment, to be persuaded by the prophet baptizing as one sent by God, he fulfills this also. And the Spirit comes down, not because Christ had need of this—for how should he have need of that which abides in him essentially?—but that you might learn that, whenever you are baptized, the Holy Spirit will also come upon you. And at the same time the descent of the Spirit wrought this also: for since the Father said from above, This is the Son, lest those who heard should suppose that he spoke concerning John, the Spirit comes down upon Jesus, as the purpose shows. Matthew said simply that he came from Galilee, but Mark more particularly added also the city in which he dwelt. Concerning this it has been said. And the heavens are rent at his baptism, that we may learn that, when we are baptized, they are opened to us also.

¹¹ And immediately the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness; and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. He teaches us not to be vexed if after baptism we fall into temptations; for this cause Jesus is led up into the wilderness to be tempted. Or rather, the temptations are not from without, but he is led up by the Holy Spirit. He teaches us, then, that we must not leap upon temptations, but receive them when they come. For this reason he is led up into the mountain, that the devil, taking courage from the desolation of the place, might draw near. For he is wont, whenever he sees the saints alone, then to assail them. The place was so untrodden that it was even full of wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him after the victory.

¹² And after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying that The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel. He withdraws into Galilee, having heard that John was delivered up into prison, that he might show us also that we must flee from temptations and give place to them, but if we fall into them, bear them. And it appears that the Lord, preaching the same things as John, says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; the kingdom of God is at hand. But it is not the same; for John said Repent so as to withdraw from sins, but Christ says Repent so as to flee from the letter of the law. Wherefore he also added, Believe in the Gospel; for he who is about to believe through the Gospel has thereafter abolished the law. For the Lord says that the time of the law also is fulfilled; for until John, he says, the law was in force, but from this [time] the polity according to the Gospel is present, which is fittingly likened to the kingdom of heaven. For when you see one living according to the Gospel as though without flesh, would you not then say that this man already has the kingdom of heaven (where there is neither food nor drink), even though it seem to be far off?

¹³ And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen), and Jesus said to them: Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And immediately leaving their nets, they followed him; and going on a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets, and he called them. And leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, they went away after him. Peter and Andrew were disciples of the Forerunner. And seeing Jesus witnessed to by John, they came to him. Then, when John was delivered up, being grieved they withdrew again to their own craft. Whence Christ calls them a second time; for this is a second calling. And see them nourished from just labors, and not from unjust; for such are those worthy to become the first disciples of Christ. Leaving, then, straightway the things in their hands, they followed; for one must not delay, but follow immediately. And after these he draws into his net James and John, who, being themselves also poor, nevertheless supported their father in his old age. And they left their father, not because it is good to leave one’s fathers, but because he was about to hinder them from following. And there is a time when [the father] too runs ahead toward the good. It appears that Zebedee did not believe; but the mother of the apostles, however, did believe, and followed perhaps, after Zebedee had died. And know this also, that first the practical [life] is called, then the contemplative. Those, then, about Peter are a symbol of the practical; for he is most fervent, and leaps ahead of the others—such indeed as the practical is. And those about John signify the contemplative; for John is given to it.

¹⁴ And they go into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath, entering into the synagogue, he taught; and they were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Whence do they go into Capernaum? On this day, then, of the Sabbath Christ also enters. For to this end he commanded [men] to rest on the Sabbath, that people might have leisure for reading, gathering together to the same place. The Lord, then, taught by way of reproof, not by flattery as the Pharisees. For exhorting unto the good, he threatened punishment to the disobedient.

¹⁵ And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying: Let be! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying: Be silenced, and come out of him. And the unclean spirit, having torn him and cried with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying: What is this, that with authority he commands the unclean spirits? And the report of him went out into the whole surrounding region of Galilee. The wicked spirits are called unclean, because they delight in all shameful deeds; and the demon considers it his own destruction not to be fed, having no nourishment when [the demons] do not dwell in a body; wherefore the Lord also said that the race of demons is hunted by fasting.[2] And the foul one said, You are the Holy One; for many of the prophets too were holy, but [their title was] not with the article the addition—[whereas this is] the only and determinate Holy One. The Lord permitted the spirit of the demon to throw [the man] down, but not to cry from the heart, only to be carried out of the mouth; he allowed it to cast down the man, that it might become plain that it is a demon that does these things, and not the man who spoke. It came out of him, doing him no harm; for not because it injured him somewhat was he therefore declared wounded; but the Lord permitted it to cast [him] down, that the vehemence of its convulsing him might be known, yet did not allow it [more], that to such crowds his strength might be made manifest. And Christ does not accept its witness, even though it speak true things; but the demon throws him down and convulses him, that the beholders, seeing from what evil the man is freed, might believe on account of the wonder.

¹⁶ And immediately, going out of the synagogue, he came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. And Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick of a fever, and immediately they tell him concerning her. And coming to her, he raised her up, taking hold of her hand; and the fever left her. When, then, the Lord had entered into the house of the disciples, she who ought to minister was held fast by sickness. But he healed her—the discourse showing that, if God heal you when you are held by a disease, you should use your health unto the service of the saints, and unto the ministry of God. And consider too how the angry man becomes, from his wrath, hasty with the hand; but if he master himself, and act not rashly, [the wrath] ceases. For the wrathful man, if the Word take hold of his hand, rises up, and then the wrath is brought to rest.

¹⁷ And when evening was come, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many that were sick of divers diseases; and he did not allow [the demons to speak]. Not without purpose is it added, When the sun had set, but because they thought it was not lawful for anyone to heal on the day of the Sabbath, wherefore they came in the evening. And he heals many; for the ‘all’ are ‘many’; or he did not heal all, but, as in the case of some, was hindered; for some were hindered from being healed through their unbelief, but he healed many of those brought before him—that is, those having faith. And he did not allow the demons to speak, as I said, teaching us all: let them be silent, since the unclean ought not to bear witness.

¹⁸ And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed. And Simon pursued after him, and those with him; and finding him they say to him, All seek you; and he says to them: Let us go into the neighboring villages, that I may preach there also, for to this end have I come forth. And he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out the demons. After he had healed the sick, he withdrew, teaching us not to seek the glory that is from men, but, even if we do some good, to be hidden. And he prays also, showing us how we must refer it to God if we do any good, and to say that the grace is good and from above, descending from you; for it is not as that other [proud] thought, but rather that All power is from you.[3] And entering the regions there, preaching, he preached everywhere, interweaving with his teaching the working of the wonders, and cast out demons; for one must, if you wish to be true, also confess [the truth]—yet not merely work wonders;[4] for unless Christ also did wonders, his word would not have been heard.

¹⁹ And there comes to him a leper, beseeching him and kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you will, you are able to cleanse me. And Jesus, moved with compassion, stretching out his hand, touched him, and says to him: I will; be cleansed. And when he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed, and he was cleansed. Note that he did not say, If God will, but straightway, I will; and right-minded was the leper, who said, If you will—for he came to him not as to a servant or as to an angel, but worshipped him as Master and God. And having sternly charged him, he straightway sent him away, saying, Tell nothing to anyone. Through these things we are taught not to be fond of glory when we show some good to anyone. For behold, he himself also commands the one cleansed not to publish him abroad. And yet he knew that the man would not be persuaded, but would publish it; for, as I said, training us to be without boasting, he commands him not [to do so]. Yet the one benefited ought to remain grateful, even if the benefactor have no need of it. For indeed the leper, even though the Lord charged him, nevertheless himself spread abroad the benefaction. And he sends him to the priest, because the law commanded that, unless the priest declared the former leper to have become clean, it was not lawful for him to enter otherwise into the city, but he was to be driven away; and he charges him also to offer the gift, which those cleansed were accustomed by custom to bring forward, that it might be a testimony that he is not opposed to the law, but so cherishes it that he himself also commands the things commanded by the law. And many began to gather together to him, so that he could no longer openly enter into a city. And that he touches not as a servant but as a Master you may see from this: that the demons, even when they confessed him, he made [to be silent], not that they should speak truth while mingling it with falsehoods. So also Paul forbade the spirit of Python, which said, These men are servants of the Most High God; for the Lord did not wish to be commended and witnessed to by an unclean mouth.