4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. (Mark 1:4-6 NIV)
Researching context for these verses in the first chapter of Mark, I quickly realised how much I didn't know about first century Jewish practises and ideas and how much information there is that relates to these verses. I've tried to share my exploration below and provide links to sources of information I've found.
The first thing that strikes me about this passage is the phrase, "appeared in the wilderness". This makes me think of the tradition of Tanakh (Old Testament) prophets who spent time in the wilderness receiving special revelations from God that they brought back to the people. I believe that the author of the Gospel is casting John in that role in order to give credibility to his endorsement of Jesus later in the chapter. The word "wilderness" also reminds me of the forty years in the wilderness of the Hebrew people where the writers of Exodus illustrated the people experiencing a special presence and direction from God.
The next part of the passage discusses John's practice of baptism for the forgiveness of sins and the crowds of people that went to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.
Researching this, I found that being baptized in the Jordan is still popular and is presently a tourist industry. I found a site advertising vacation packages that includes this for faith based group travel to the Holy land.https://www.yourfuturegrouptravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Jordan-River-Baptismal-Site.jpg
Experience what Jesus Christ did with John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan River on your faith based group travel to the Holy Land booking on www.yourfuturetravel.com or Personalized Services International Travel Agency.https://www.yourfuturegrouptravel.com/?attachment_id=749
Two good sources for explaining baptism in First Century Judaism are an article by Kaufmann Kohler, Samuel Krauss at the "Jewish Encyclopedia" web site and an article from Christianity Today by Steven Gertz
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2456-baptism
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/asktheexpert/mar14.html
Ritual washing in First Century Judaism was an entrance requirement for going to the Temple to perform sacrifice in order to meet part of the laws of ritual purity found in Leviticus. There were a number of ritual impurities that could be contracted through such acts as touching a corpse or a leper that required ritual washing before being allowed to visit the Temple. Total immersion was felt to be a requirement by many Rabbis connecting it with the sanctification practice of the Israelites before the Revelation on Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus.
Ceremonial washing or baptism in the Jordan River was felt to confer a special level of ritual purity and cleansing. There is a story in Judaism of Adam standing up to the neck in the Jordan for forty days to atone for his sins. As well, Elisha, in II Kings, tells Nathan to bathe seven times in the Jordan to recover from his leprosy. Kohler and Krauss in the article linked above state:
The powers ascribed to the waters of the Jordan are expressly stated to be that they restore the unclean man to the original state of a new-born "little child." This idea underlies the prophetic hope of the fountain of purity, which is to cleanse Israel from the spirit of impurity (Zech. xiii. 1; Ezek. xxxvi. 25; compare Isa. iv. 4).I think that there is an expression here of the Markian community's idea of Messiah. As we have explored earlier, part of this doctrine popular in the period held an expectation of a messiah who would rescue the Jewish people from their enemies and restore the state of Israel after they went through a purification process to cleanse them for past breaches of their covenant with God. This passage certainly ties into the purification part of that narrative. Jesus did not fulfil the military aspect of this expectation, but there were other aspects beyond this that were part of this doctrine which can be seen as being portrayed in the Gospel. Part of this ideology was the idea of the, "Messianic Age", a new period of fidelity and communion with God. It may be that the community of Mark saw this less political and statehood dependent aspect of this ethos as what Jesus was fulfilling.
By starting the Gospel with John's practice of baptizing the people in the Jordan, the writer may also have been tying Jesus to the egalitarian and inclusive nature of his act. Religious teachers of the times specified that to be truly pure before visiting the temple one needed to bathe in, "living" (moving) water. Wealthy Pharisee's put together associations that shared membership in specially designed bathing pools with an upper and lower section which allowed water to flow while performing the rite. John offered a purification that did not discriminate on the basis of wealth and allowed for a ritual access to God to all.
Having explored all this information, let's get back to the purpose of the study, to try to understand what the writer and the community he or she belonged to meant to express and what it meant to them. More than the story of Jesus, this is the story of this communities' traditions and vision of who Jesus was to them. The teachings and stories chosen and the way they were interpreted reflect what was important to this group, how they saw the world, who they saw themselves as and their hopes for the future.
It would seem to me that in this passage the community is expressing their faith that the Way of Jesus that they followed was or was like the Messianic Age, a period of fidelity and fuller communion with God. By evoking the legacy of the purification of multitudes in Jerusalem and the Judean countryside, they were fulfilling the requirements for viewing the Way of Jesus in terms of this new age of a closer relationship with God. They were also making the claim that their way brought a fuller holiness, a greater purity before God, and that this way was egalitarian and open to all.
This holiness and egalitarian aspects are important when we consider who this community was made up of. If it was like the early christian communities talked about in Acts, it was a mixed one of Jew and gentile, male and female, the poor and marginalized next to those who had been wealthy and connected. That there was a gentile portion is confirmed by the practise throughout the Gospel of spelling out Jewish practises as to an audience that would not be familiar to them.
We must also consider what was happening at the time. This gospel would have been written at the time of the destruction of the Temple, the centre of Jewish practise. Many Jewish sects would be competing in advertising their practises as God's new way for the Jewish people once Temple sacrifice was no longer possible.
Jews outside of this movement would have considered a community that included uncircumcised gentiles and did not keep strict Jewish purity practises as highly suspect as the successor of Temple sacrifice. Ritual purity and holiness was a big deal to mainstream Judaism.
This may be why an endorsement from a popular holyman and dessert ascetic was important. Who could be more holy and pure than one who devoted his life to solitude in the desert and lived in a constant state of abstinence and penance by eating the simple and unappealing fare of locusts and honey, and wore scratchy and uncomfortable clothing made from camel hair.
This holiness and egalitarian aspects are important when we consider who this community was made up of. If it was like the early christian communities talked about in Acts, it was a mixed one of Jew and gentile, male and female, the poor and marginalized next to those who had been wealthy and connected. That there was a gentile portion is confirmed by the practise throughout the Gospel of spelling out Jewish practises as to an audience that would not be familiar to them.
We must also consider what was happening at the time. This gospel would have been written at the time of the destruction of the Temple, the centre of Jewish practise. Many Jewish sects would be competing in advertising their practises as God's new way for the Jewish people once Temple sacrifice was no longer possible.
Jews outside of this movement would have considered a community that included uncircumcised gentiles and did not keep strict Jewish purity practises as highly suspect as the successor of Temple sacrifice. Ritual purity and holiness was a big deal to mainstream Judaism.
This may be why an endorsement from a popular holyman and dessert ascetic was important. Who could be more holy and pure than one who devoted his life to solitude in the desert and lived in a constant state of abstinence and penance by eating the simple and unappealing fare of locusts and honey, and wore scratchy and uncomfortable clothing made from camel hair.
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