The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
All Commentaries on Mark 1:1 Go To Mark 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
s2 , 3. As it is written in Isaias the prophet, Behold, I send arty angel before Thy face, who shall prepare the way before Thee. A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. The former citation in the2nd verse is from Malachi 3:1. The latter is from Isaiah 40:3. Wherefore the Greek has, it is written in the prophets. But the Vulgate and some Greek copies, also the Syriac and Arabic, have as above. And S. Jerome says that this was formerly the reading of the Greek (lib. de Opt. Gen. Interpret. Scrip.).
You will ask, "Why does Mark only cite Isaias and not Malachi?" I answer, because the prophecy of Isaias is of greatest importance in this place, for the voice of John crying in the desert, Do penance, &c, was one beginning of the Gospel. But inasmuch as Malachi shows that John was not sent by Prayer of Manasseh , but by God, to utter these words, therefore Mark prefixes the words of Malachi to arouse the attention of the reader to receive and venerate the voice of John. Besides, Malachi in reality says the same as Isaias. For the angel sent by God to prepare the way of Christ was none other than John himself, crying, and preaching repentance, by which the hearts of men must be prepared for the preaching and grace of Christ. This is therefore, as it were, one and the same oracle of two prophets, uttered concerning one and the same John , but in different words, so that they mutually confirm and explain one another. This, then, is the reason why Mark in this place, and the other Evangelists and Apostles, when they cite two prophets, or two or more sentences of the same or different books of the Old Testament, quote them as one and the same testimony. This is plain from 1 Peter 2:7, compared with Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14. Also, 1 Corinthians 15:54, compared with Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14. The reason, I say, Isaiah , because one sentence confirms and explains the other, so that they are in truth not two, but one sentence.
