Understanding the Gospel of Mark Through the Old Testament

Most Christians understand the point of the Gospel of Mark to be this: Jesus is God, and He came to die on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins so we could be forgiven (while giving us some good moral teachings along the way).  All of this may be true as far as it goes, but if we think this summarizes the point of the Gospel of Mark, we have seriously misread it, missing some of its important central themes.  A careful analysis of some key Old Testament citations in the Gospel of Mark shows the central narrative of the Gospel of Mark to be about the return of the LORD to Mount Zion, Jesus replacing the temple, and Jesus redefining the people of Israel around Himself.

The Return of the LORD to Mount Zion

The Gospel of Mark does teach that Jesus is God.  However, the evidence for this does not lie, as many think, in Jesus’s miracles, since the human prophets of the Old Testament were able to perform almost all the miracles Jesus did, including raising the dead.^[1]The exception to this is Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus calms a storm, prompting the disciples to ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”  The answer, of course, is the … Continue reading  Actually, Mark communicates the idea that Jesus is God from the very beginning of his Gospel, when he applies this Old Testament citation to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus: “Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.  A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the LORD; make His paths straight!” (Mark 1: 2-3).  Mark attributes this citation to Isaiah, but in fact it is a combination of two citations, the first one from Malachi 3:1, and the second one from Isaiah 40:3.  

First, let us examine the citation from Isaiah.  In Isaiah 40:1-5, God gives a message of comfort and forgiveness to Israel.  A voice cries out, “Prepare the way for the LORD” (v. 3), and “the glory of the LORD will appear” (v. 5).  It is important to note that the “LORD” used in English translations here is a translation of God’s Name, Yahweh (Out of reverence for God’s Name, Jews traditionally would refrain from saying it out loud and would instead say Adonai (Lord) whenever they came to God’s Name in Scripture; most English translations follow this tradition by translating the Divine Name Yahweh as LORD with all capitals).  By identifying John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for Jesus, as the one preparing the way for the LORD, Mark clearly indicates that Jesus is the LORD in person.  

There is more to it than that, however.  This prophecy is about the forgiveness of Israel’s sins, the restoration of Jerusalem (Isa 40:2), and the return of the LORD’s glorious presence there, to Mount Zion.  In other words, it is about the end of Israel’s exile and the restoration of the relationship between the LORD and His covenant people.  Mark presents Jesus as the one through whom this prophecy of the return of the LORD to Mount Zion is fulfilled.

Next, let us examine the citation from Malachi.  Malachi prophesied during a time when many Jews had returned from the Babylonian exile and built the Second Temple, but they were still living under foreign rule, and the glory of the LORD had not truly returned to dwell in the second temple as it had in the first.  In Malachi 3, Malachi prophecies, “See I am sending My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.  Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to His temple” (v. 1).  However, he goes on to warn that the LORD will return to His temple in judgment: “But who can endure the day of His coming?  And who will be able to stand when He appears?  For He will be like a refiner’s fire” (v. 2).  In the next chapter, the book of Malachi ends on an ominous note: “Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible Day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.  Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse” (4: 5-6).  Of course, Jesus Himself identified John the Baptist, His forerunner, as the “Elijah” who would come before the Day of the LORD (Mark 9:11-13; Matt 11:7-14).  

Mark thus applies two Old Testament prophecies about the return of the presence of the LORD to Mount Zion to Jesus.  One of them is a message of comfort, while the other is a warning of judgment and cleansing.  Jesus is the one in whom the LORD personally returns to Mount Zion, bringing both salvation and judgment to Israel.  

Jesus Replaces the Temple

In Mark 2, four men bring a paralyzed man to Jesus, and Jesus declares his sins forgiven (v. 5).  Understandably, the scribes regard it as blasphemous for a man to do this, for “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (v. 7).  Jesus’s response is to say, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . .” (v. 10), and then heal the paralyzed man.  Many interpreters point to this episode as an instance of Jesus claiming to be God by claiming the Divine prerogative to forgive sins.  It is that, but it is also more.  For Jews, the place one needed to go to have one’s sins forgiven was the temple, since it was there that sacrifices for sins were made.  By forgiving someone’s sins, Jesus was implicitly indicating that He would be the replacement for the temple, the place where God’s presence dwells and heaven and earth meet.  This is also the first time in Mark that Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man,” a title which, as we will see, is highly significant.

In Mark 11, Jesus finally completes His journey on “the Way” to Jerusalem and arrives at the temple.  However, as Malachi prophesied, He comes in judgment and cleanses the temple of those buying and selling in it (v. 15).  Jesus then declares, “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’  But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’” (v. 17).  Jesus here combines citations from two Old Testament prophets.  The first is from Isaiah 56: 7, and the second is from Jeremiah 7:11.

In Isaiah 56:1-8, God declares that He will not exclude any foreigners from membership in His covenant people, but will welcome them to come and worship in His temple.  “I will bring them to My holy mountain and let them rejoice in My house of prayer. . . for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (v. 7).  Jesus criticizes Israel, especially its temple leadership, for failing to live according to God’s intention that people of every nation be invited and welcomed to worship the LORD as part of His covenant people.  Instead, they had become inwardly focused, and their buying and selling in the temple courts created a barrier to God’s people participating in temple worship.

In Jeremiah 7:1-15, the prophet Jeremiah stands at the entrance of the first temple and criticizes God’s people for hypocritically participating in temple worship while living lives of unrighteousness and wickedness.  “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your view? (v. 7).  Jeremiah warns the Israelites not to take God’s presence among them in the temple for granted or think that worship alone without righteousness and justice will guarantee the LORD’s blessing on them.  Shockingly, Jeremiah then declares that, because of the stubborn wickedness of the Israelites, God will bring about the destruction of His own temple (vv. 12-15).  Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when the first temple was destroyed in 586 B.C.  When Jesus cited this prophecy of Jeremiah in His own critique of the Jewish temple leaders, He was implying that the same fate would befall the second temple.  

This is why the chief priests and the scribes were so angry at Jesus as to want to destroy Him (Mark 11:18).  Jesus was not just disrupting the business of temple merchants and criticizing the temple leadership.  He was proclaiming God’s judgment on Israel and declaring that God was going to bring about the destruction of the second temple, as He had the first.  Jesus’s prophecy was fulfilled when the second temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.  There was now a new, third temple: Jesus Himself, God Incarnate.  

Jesus the Son of Man

After Jesus cleanses the temple (ch. 11) and has a series of confrontations with Jewish religious leaders (ch. 12), He tells His disciples plainly that the temple is going to be destroyed (13: 1-2).  When His disciples ask for details, Jesus tells them at length of the coming time of tribulation, which will involve their persecution and the eventual destruction of the temple.  During this discourse, Jesus says, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (13:26).  Later, when the Jewish religious leaders arrest Jesus and put Him on trial, they ask Him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”  Jesus responds, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (14: 61-62).  

Jesus’s remarks about the “Son of Man” here are clearly a reference to Daniel 7, in which Daniel sees a vision of four beasts, which are judged and destroyed by the Ancient of Days.  Then, Daniel sees “One like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven.  He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted in before Him.  He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him” (vv. 13-14).  An angelic interpreter then explains that the four beasts represent “four kings who will rise from the earth.  But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever” (vv. 17-18).  Thus, the book of Daniel identifies the figure of the Son of Man as God’s holy people Israel, who will suffer for a time under wicked rulers, but will then be vindicated and exalted by God (vv. 19-28).  

However, Jesus, as we have seen, identifies himself as the Son of Man of Daniel 7.  In other words, Jesus is true, faithful Israel.  He will suffer for a time under wicked rulers, but will then be vindicated and exalted by God.  This is why the Jewish religious leaders regard what Jesus is saying as blasphemous and want to kill Him (Mark 14: 63-64).  By identifying Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus was casting them in the role of the wicked rulers who will be judged and destroyed by God.  As it turned out, Jesus’s words were fulfilled.  He suffered and died at their hands, but was vindicated when God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him as Lord of all, and then vindicated again when His prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was fulfilled.  Now, Jesus (and by extension, the church, the body of Christ) is the true temple where God’s presence dwells.  Now, Jesus (and by extension, the church, the body of Christ) is true, faithful Israel, the “saints of the Most High.”  

Conclusion

There is, of course, much more that could be said about Mark’s Christology and Mark’s use of the Old Testament.  This post has merely focused in on a few key passages where carefully analyzing the Old Testament passages Mark cites can provide a deeper and richer understanding of Mark’s theological message than a surface-level reading might provide.  We now see that the Gospel of Mark presents the story of the return of Yahweh to Mount Zion, bringing both salvation and judgment to Israel, in the person of Jesus.  Jesus announces the destruction of the temple, replacing it as the place where God and humanity meet. Taking on the role of true, suffering Israel, Jesus reconstitutes the people of Israel in himself, bringing salvation to God’s people in a surprising fashion through his death and resurrection.