Mark 1:4

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

Mark 1:38-39

1:38 He replied, ⁴  “Let us go elsewhere, into the surrounding villages, so that I can preach there too. For that is what I came out here to do.” ⁵  1:39 So ⁶  he went into all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues ⁷  and casting out demons.

Mark 3:14

3:14 He ⁸  appointed twelve (whom he named apostles ⁹ ), ¹⁰  so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach

Mark 7:36

7:36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anything. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more. ¹¹ 

Mark 16:15

16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

¹ tn Or “desert.”

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]).

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.

⁴ tn Grk “And he said to them.”

⁵ tn Grk “Because for this purpose I have come forth.”

⁷ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.

⁸ sn See the note on synagogue in 1:21.

¹⁰ tn Grk “And he.”

¹¹ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here and Mark 6:30, Matt 10:2, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

¹² tc The phrase “whom he named apostles” is lacking in the majority of mss (A C² [D] L ˹ 33 Ï latt sy). Several primary Alexandrian and Caesarean witnesses (א B [C* W] Θ Ë¹³ 28 pc co) include the phrase, so the external evidence is strongly in favor of this reading, especially since Alexandrian witnesses tend to witness to the shorter reading. It is possible that the Alexandrian witnesses have inserted these words to bring the text in line with Luke 6:13 (TCGNT 69), but against this is the internal evidence of Mark’s style: Mark tends toward gratuitous redundancy. Thus the inclusion of this phrase is supported by both internal and external evidence and should be regarded as more likely original than the omission.

¹³ tn Grk “but as much as he ordered them, these rather so much more proclaimed.” Greek tends to omit direct objects when they are clear from the context, but these usually need to be supplied for the modern English reader. Here what Jesus ordered has been clarified (“ordered them not to do this”), and the pronoun “it” has been supplied after “proclaimed.”