Church Fathers Commentary Mark 1:4-8

"John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the country of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem; And they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel`s hair, and [had] a leathern girdle about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, There cometh after me he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I baptized you in water; But he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit." — Mark 1:4-8 (ASV)

Pseudo-Jerome: According to the aforementioned prophecy of Isaiah, the way of the Lord is prepared by John through faith, baptism, and repentance. The paths are made straight by the rough marks of the hair-cloth garment, the leather belt, the diet of locusts and wild honey, and the most humble voice, which is why it is said, “John was in the wilderness.”

For John and Jesus seek what is lost in the wilderness; where the devil conquered, there he is conquered; where man fell, there he rises up.

The name, John, means “the grace of God,” and the narrative begins with grace, for it goes on to say, “baptizing.” For by baptism grace is given, since by baptism sins are freely forgiven.

But what is brought to perfection by the bridegroom is introduced by the friend of the bridegroom. Thus catechumens (which means “persons instructed”) begin by the ministry of the priest and receive the chrism from the bishopⁱ.

And to show this, it is added, “And preaching the baptism of repentance, etc.”

The Venerable Bede: It is evident that John not only preached but also gave to some the baptism of repentance; however, he could not give baptism for the remission of sinsⁱ. For the remission of sins is given to us only by the baptism of Christ. It is therefore said, “Preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,” because he preached a baptism that could lead to the remission of sins, even though he himself could not bestow it.

Therefore, just as he was the forerunner of the incarnate Word of the Father by the word of his preaching, so too, by his baptism (which could not remit sins), he preceded the baptism of repentance by which sins are remitted.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The baptism of John did not grant remission of sins, but only brought people to repentance. He therefore preached the baptism of repentance; that is, he preached that to which the baptism of repentance led—namely, remission of sins—so that those who received Christ in repentance might receive Him for the remission of their sins.

Pseudo-Jerome: Now by John, as by the bridegroom's friend, the bride is brought to Christ, just as by a servant Rebecca was brought to Isaac (Genesis 24:61). This is why it follows, “And there went out to him all, etc.” For “confession and beauty are in his presence” (Psalm 96:6)—that is, the presence of the bridegroom. The bride leaping down from her camel signifies the Church, who humbles herself on seeing her husband Isaac, that is, Christ. The interpretation of the Jordan, where sins are washed away, is “a foreign descent.” For we, who were previously aliens to God because of our pride, are made humble by the sign of Baptism and thus exalted on highⁱ.

The Venerable Bede: An example of confessing sins and promising to lead a new life is presented to those who desire to be baptized by the words that follow: “confessing their sins.”

St. John Chrysostom: Because John preached repentance, he wore the marks of repentance in his clothing and in his food.

Therefore, it follows, “And John was clothed in camel's hair.”

The Venerable Bede: It says he was clothed in a garment of hair, not in wool clothing; the former is a mark of an austere life, the latter of indulgent luxury. The leather belt with which he was girded, like Elijah, is a mark of mortification. And his food, “locusts and wild honey,” is suited to a dweller in the wilderness, so that his purpose in eating was not the pleasure of food, but satisfying the needs of the human body.

Pseudo-Jerome: The dress, food, and work of John signify the austere life of preachers, and that future nations are to be joined to the grace of God (which is John) in both their minds and their external lives. For by camel's hair is meant the rich among the nations; by the leather belt, the poor who are dead to the world; and by the wandering locusts, the wise men of this world, who, leaving the dry stalks to the Jews, draw off the mystic grain with their legs and in the warmth of their faith leap up toward heaven. And the faithful, being inspired by the wild honey, are fully fed from the uncultivated forest.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Alternatively, the garment of “camel's hair” was symbolic of grief, for John indicated that he who repents should mourn. Sackcloth signifies grief, while the leather belt shows the dead state of the Jewish people. The food of John not only denotes abstinence but also illustrates the intellectual food that the people were then eating, without understanding anything lofty, but continually raising themselves up only to sink to the earth again.

For such is the nature of locusts, leaping on high and then falling. In the same way, the people ate honey that had come from bees—that is, from the prophets. It was not, however, domestic but wild, for the Jews had the Scriptures, which are like honey, but did not rightly understand them.

St. Gregory the Great: Or, by the very nature of his food he pointed to the Lord, of whom he was the forerunner. In that our Lord took to Himself the sweetness of the barren Gentiles, He ate wild honey. In that He in His own person partly converted the Jews, He received locusts for His food, which suddenly leap up only to fall at once to the ground. For the Jews leaped up when they promised to fulfill the precepts of the Lord, but they fell to the ground when, by their evil works, they confirmed that they had not heard them. They therefore made a leap upwards in words but fell down by their actions.¹

The Venerable Bede: The dress and food of John may also express the nature of his inner life. He wore a more austere garment than was usual because he did not encourage the life of sinners by flattery, but rebuked them with the force of his harsh correction. He had a leather belt around his loins, for he was one “who crucified his flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24).

He ate locusts and wild honey because his preaching had some sweetness for the multitude, as the people debated whether he was the Christ himself or not. But this soon came to an end when his hearers understood that he was not the Christ, but the forerunner and prophet of Christ. For in honey there is sweetness, but in locusts, a swift flight.

This is why it follows, “And he preached, saying, ‘There comes one mightier than I after me.’”

Glossa Ordinaria: He said this to correct the opinion of the crowd, who thought that he was the Christ. He announces that Christ is “mightier than he” because Christ was to remit sins, which he himself could not do.

Pseudo-Jerome: Who again is mightier than grace, by which sins are washed away, which John signifies? He who remits sins seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:22). Grace indeed comes first and remits sins once only by baptism, but mercy reaches the wretched from Adam to Christ through seventy-seven generations, and up to one hundred and forty-four thousand.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: But lest he should be thought to say this by way of comparing himself to Christ, he adds, “Of whom I am not worthy, etc.”² It is not, however, the same thing to loose the shoe-latchet, which Mark here mentions, and to carry his shoes, which Matthew mentions. The Evangelists, following the order of the narrative and being unable to err in anything, indicate that John spoke each of these sayings with a different meaning. Commentators on this passage have explained each in a different way.

By the latchet, he means the tie of the shoe. He says this, therefore, to extol the excellence of Christ's power and the greatness of His divinity, as if he said, “I am not worthy to be counted even in the position of his servant.” For it is a great thing to contemplate, as if stooping down, those things which belong to the body of Christ, to see from below the image of things above, and to untie each of those mysteries about the Incarnation of Christ, which cannot be unraveled.

Pseudo-Jerome: The shoe is at the extremity of the body; for in the end, the Incarnate Savior is coming for justice, which is why it is said by the prophet, “Over Edom will I cast out my shoe” (Psalm 60:9).

St. Gregory the Great: Shoes are also made from the skins of dead animals. The Lord, therefore, when He came in the flesh, appeared as if with shoes on His feet, for He assumed in His divinity the dead skins of our corruption.

Alternatively, it was a custom among the ancients that if a man refused to take the woman he ought to marry, the one who offered himself as her husband by right of kinship would take off that man's shoe. Rightly then does John proclaim himself unworthy to loose his shoe-latchet, as if he said openly, “I cannot uncover the Redeemer's feet, for I do not usurp the name of the Bridegroom, a thing which is above my station.”

Theophylact of Ohrid: Some also understand it this way: all who came to John and were baptized were, through repentance, freed from the bonds of their sins by believing in Christ. John, then, in this way loosed the shoe-latchet of all the others—that is, the bonds of sin. But Christ's shoe-latchet he was not able to unloose, because he found no sin in Him.

The Venerable Bede: Thus John proclaims the Lord not yet as God or the Son of God, but only as a man mightier than himself. His ignorant hearers were not yet capable of receiving the hidden truths of so great a sacrament—namely, that the eternal Son of God, having taken upon Himself the nature of man, had recently been born into the world of a virgin. Instead, they were to be led to believe in His divine eternity gradually, through the acknowledgment of His glorified humility.

To these words, however, he adds, as if subtly declaring that He was the true God, “I baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” For who can doubt that none other but God can give the grace of the Holy Spirit?

St. Jerome: For what is the difference between water and the Holy Spirit, who moved over the face of the waters? Water is the ministry of man, but the Spirit is ministered by God.

The Venerable Bede: We are baptized by the Lord in the Holy Spirit not only when, on the day of our baptism, we are washed in the fountain of life for the remission of our sins, but also daily by the grace of the same Spirit we are stirred up to do what is pleasing to God.

1. Moral., xxxi, 25
2. Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.