Friday, December 30, 2016

JOT_Mark_1a


Motivated by the joy of the Lord, I would like to make a new translation of the New Testament, and I invite you to join me in the process!

 

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John the Baptist prepares God’s people for Jesus’ coming

(Mat. 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-18; John 1:19-28)

1-2 The following is the Good News1 about Christ 2 Jesus, God’s Son.3 The story of his coming begins just like the Prophet Isaiah foretold. Isaiah wrote God's promise to His Son,

“Note this: Before I send You, I will send a messenger to get everything ready for You.”4

3 His announcements will ring out from the wilderness,

“Let’s get prepared for the Lord’s coming! Prepare yourself to meet the Lord!”5

4 After many years, the messenger that God promised came to the wilderness. His name was John. He preached to the people who came to him, “Stop sinning, so that God will forgive you! If you are sincere about following the Lord, let me baptize6 you.” 5 It seemed like everyone from the whole province of Judea and from Jerusalem came out to the Jordan River to listen to John. They confessed their sins to God, and John baptized them there. 6 John’s lifestyle marked him as a prophet. He wore rough clothes made of camel’s hair

with a leather belt around his waist, and he often ate locusts and wild honey.

7 He also taught them, “Soon One with far greater authority than me will come. I’m not even worthy to be the slave who would stoop down to untie the straps of his sandals.7 8 I can only baptize you with water, but that One will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John baptizes Jesus

9 During that time, Jesus (who was from the town of Nazareth in Galilee) came and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. 10 The moment Jesus came out of the water he saw heaven split apart. As he watched, God’s Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove. 11 And everyone there heard God speak to him, “You are my Son. I love you and you please me so much!”

Jesus is tempted by the devil
(Mat. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13)

12 Right after that, God’s Spirit compelled Jesus to go out alone into the wilderness. 13 Jesus wandered out there for forty days— out where there are many wild animals. Satan repeatedly tempted Him without success. Angels also came and helped Jesus.

Jesus begins His work
(Mat. 4:12-22; Luke 4:14-15, 5:1-11)

14 After John the Baptist was thrown in jail, Jesus went around the province of Galilee preaching the Good News of God. 15 His message was, “It is time for God to set up His kingdom. Repent and believe this good news!”

16 While Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two fishermen throwing their nets into the lake. They were Simon (who was also called Peter) and his younger brother Andrew. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Come and follow Me. Instead of netting fish, I’ll teach you to net and lead people.” 18 At that very moment, they left their nets and followed Jesus. 19-20 Jesus walked a little farther on and saw two other fishermen mending their nets in a boat. They were James and his younger brother, John, the sons of Zebedee. As soon as Jesus saw them, he called them. And they left their father and his hired men, and followed Jesus.

Jesus drives an evil spirit out of a man at Capernaum

21 After that, Jesus and his disciples went to the city of Capernaum. On the Sabbath day, he entered the Jewish meeting house8 and taught the people there. 22 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words carried such personal authority. Unlike the experts in Jewish Law, he didn't just borrow authority by quoting what other teachers had said.

23 Then suddenly a man who was controlled by an evil spirit came in and shouted, 24 “Hey, you9 from Nazareth— Jesus, why come stick your nose in here! Are you gonna wipe us out?! I know who you are! You’re the holy one sent from God!” 25 Jesus commanded, “Shut up! Come out of that man!” 26 The man screamed as the evil spirit shook him violently, and then the evil spirit was gone. 27 Everyone there was totally amazed. This caused them to ask each other, “Wow! What kind of a new teaching is this?! This man's authority is so great that even evil spirits obey Him!” 28 Then news about Jesus spread rapidly throughout the whole province of Galilee.



Footnotes:
1:1 Good News This is the news that God has already made a way to forgive sinners so that they can live with Him forever. Good News is also often translated ‘Gospel’.

2+ 1:1 Christ is a word from the Greek language, which means ‘the anointed One’. It is not a personal name. In Hebrew, the same term is called ‘Messiah’. During Old Testament times, each king was anointed with olive oil by a prophet as a sign of being chosen and confirmed by God. And all the priests and prophets of that time were also anointed. It’s appropriate to call Jesus “the anointed One,” because He holds the positions of prophet, High King, and our High Priest (Heb. 4-10). Because of some prophecies in the books of the prophets and the Psalms, at the time of Jesus, the Jewish people in general understood the meaning of ‘Christ’ as the King of Salvation whom God promised, who would come from the descendants of King David, free the people of Israel from those who opposed them, set up a government with the power of God, and rule with justice. (Is. 9:6-7; Gen. 3:15; Deut. 18:18-19; Mic. 5:2; Zec. 12:10-14; Mal. 3:1, 4:5-6; Ps. 2, 16, 22, 40, 110)

3+ 1:1 God’s Son Before Jesus was born on this earth, God had announced about Him in Ps. 2:7, “You are My Son. Today I proclaim that I am Your Father.” (See Heb. 1:5) Before the birth of Jesus, the angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:35, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Almighty will come upon you, so that the holy Son you will give birth to will be called God’s Son.” So God Himself was the one who announced that Jesus was His Son before He was born on this earth, and we call Him “God’s Son” in agreement with God’s Word. Luke 1:35 also makes it clear that Mary conceived Jesus— not because of a sexual relationship with God or man, but because of the power of the Holy Spirit. (See John 4:24.)

4+ 1:1-2 Mal. 3:1

5+ 1:3 Is. 40:3 from an old translation of the Greek language (LXX)

6+ 1:4 baptize is a word that is borrowed directly from the Greek language. It means to dip or put something into water for a moment. Before John the Baptist began his ministry, there were already some Jewish groups doing baptism as a religious requirement or symbol to symbolize asking God to cleanse one of sin and desire to live without sin. For we Christians, baptism has the same meaning, but is given a new meaning in greater depth. First, baptism is a sign the we have decided to follow Jesus for as long as we live. Because Jesus has already cleansed us from sin, baptism also shows that we will continue to live free from sin and according to the will of God. And the deeper meaning of baptism is that in a spiritual sense, we have been buried with Jesus and already have been brought back to life with Jesus. It means that we now live a new life. See Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:26-28; Col. 2:12-13.

7+ 1:7 His sandals During Jesus’ time, everyone wore sandals that were made from animal skin, and it was very easy for their feet to get dirty when walking. Because of that, when a guest entered a house, a slave or a servant usually had the task of untying the straps of the sandals and washing the guest’s feet. So what Mark writes here, “to stoop down and untie the straps of His sandals,” illustrates that John doesn’t feel worthy to take the job of a slave who does the most lowly work, like washing the guests’ feet.

8+ 1:21 Jewish meeting house In the Greek language the word is synagogue. In New Testament times, synagogues were used for all kinds of civic meetings and decision making, and were also used as places for Jewish people to pray and study God’s Word. Meeting houses were different than the temple in the city of Jerusalem. Animal sacrifices and other offerings were never performed at synagogues, but only at the altar of the temple.

9+ 1:24 you Since at least the 1950-60's, Bible translations stopped following the KJV's method of using capital letters for pronouns referring to deity. A capital letter can only be seen by a reader, but cannot be heard by one who is only listening to a reading. The identity (referent) of each pronoun must therefore be clear without the use of capital letters. Another reason for not using capital letters is that some readers wrongly thought that any speaker in the New Testament who used a capital letter pronoun referring to Jesus was a believer in him. Many who spoke about Jesus were not believers. Here we have a demon who actually believed something about Jesus, but his words should not be understood to convey respect for Jesus.

 


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