Markus 1:4

1:4 In the wilderness ¹  John the baptizer ²  began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ³ 

Markus 5:43

5:43 He strictly ordered that no one should know about this, ⁴  and told them to give her something to eat.

Markus 6:3

6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son ⁵  of Mary ⁶  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Markus 6:17

6:17 For Herod himself had sent men, arrested John, and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod ⁷  had married her.

Markus 6:38

6:38 He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five – and two fish.”

Markus 12:19

12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man ⁸  must marry ⁹  the widow and father children ¹⁰  for his brother.’ ¹¹ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Or “desert.”

[1:4]  ² tn While Matthew and Luke consistently use the noun βαπτίστης (baptisths, “[the] Baptist”) to refer to John, as a kind of a title, Mark prefers the substantival participle ὁ βαπτίζων (Jo baptizwn, “the one who baptizes, the baptizer”) to describe him (only twice does he use the noun [Mark 6:25; 8:28]).

[1:4]  ³ sn A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was a call for preparation for the arrival of the Lord’s salvation. To participate in this baptism was a recognition of the need for God’s forgiveness with a sense that one needed to live differently as a response to it.

[5:43]  ⁴ sn That no one should know about this. See the note on the phrase who he was in 3:12.

[6:3]  ⁵ tc Evidently because of the possible offensiveness of designating Jesus a carpenter, several mss ([Ì^45vid] ˹³ 33^vid [565 579] 700 [2542] pc it vg^mss) harmonize the words “carpenter, the son” to the parallel passage in Matt 13:55, “the son of the carpenter.” Almost all the rest of the mss read “the carpenter, the son.” Since the explicit designation of Jesus as a carpenter is the more difficult reading, and is much better attested, it is most likely correct.

[6:3]  ⁶ sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to him as the son of Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 6:42; 8:41; 9:29).

[6:17]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; here it is necessary to specify the referent as “Herod,” since the nearest previous antecedent in the translation is Philip.

[12:19]  ⁸ tn Grk “his brother”; but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).

[12:19]  ⁹ tn The use of ἵνα (Jina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).

[12:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “raise up seed” (an idiom for fathering children).

[12:19]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.