My God and My Country

The Gospel According to Mark

Chapter 1:14-15

14 Now after that John was committed to prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God,

15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the Gospel.

Related Scripture:

Verse 14 - : Matthew 4:12; Luke 4:14; John 4:13

“We have here a remarkable particular in the conduct of our Saviour: no sooner was he informed that Herod had thrown John in prison, than he quitted Judea, and went into Galilee. And traversing it all over, as well that part of it which was under Herod's jurisdiction, as that under Philip's; (See Mark 1:39 and Matthew 4:23), he there began first to preach continually to the people, elected several of his disciples to accompany him wherever he went, performed most astonishing works, and drew the attention of the whole country upon him. Now, had Jesus and the Baptist been associate impostors, as some have supposed, nothing seems more improbable than that Jesus should single out this particular time, and the dominions of that particular prince, who had but just then imprisoned his partner in the same wicked imposture, in order there first to make trial of all his devices, procure more associates, and attended by them to draw the multitude about with him from all parts of the country. In an impostor, this would have been voluntarily seeking the same fate that his fore-runner had but just experienced, and in reality provoking Herod to put an end at once to all joint-machinations: but this is what no impostor whatever can be supposed desirous to have done.” - Thomas Coke - Theologian

“The Gospel.—“The fundamental passage for the use of this word ( εὐαγγέλιον),” say Sanday and Headlam in their edition of the Epistle to the Romans, “appears to be Mark 1:14-15.” They do not doubt that our Lord Himself described by this term (or its Aramaic equivalent) His announcement of the arrival of the Messianic time. They do not think that the word is borrowed directly from the Septuagint, where it occurs in all only two, or at most three, times, although there may have been some influence from the use of the verb, which is especially frequent in second Isaiah and the Psalms in connection with the news of the Great Deliverance or Restoration from the Captivity. The word evidently took a strong hold on the imagination of St. Paul in connection with his own call to missionary labours. He uses the noun sixty times in his Epistles, while it is used only twice in the rest of the New Testament apart from the Gospels and Acts.

The Gospel of God.—The Gospel is called the Gospel of Christ in Mark 1:1. Here it is the Gospel of God. The “of,” says Swete, probably denotes the source: the Gospel which comes from God, the Gospel of which God (the Father) is the Author and Sender. Every account of the work of Christ, therefore, is false which places the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in contrast to the justice of Almighty God. Christ comes with news, and good news, but He is sent from God with this good news. In this respect, as in every other, He and the Father are one.”

Charles John Ellicott - Theologian 1819-1905