Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
John the Baptist is the messenger preparing the way for Jesus. By identifying Jesus as the one for whom the way is prepared, Mark is explicitly identifying Jesus with Yahweh Himself.
This is also mentioned by Matthew (3:3), Luke (3:4-6) and John (1:23). In John it is John the Baptist himself who is recorded as saying he is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Mark 1:3 - The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.’”
Isaiah 40:3 -A voice is calling, “Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
Mark 1:2–3 quotes Malachi 3:1 first and then Isaiah. 1st-century Jewish writers frequently used "composite quotations," blending two structurally related prophecies under the name of the major prophet (Isaiah).
Mark quotes Isaiah to show that John the Baptist is the messenger preparing the way for Jesus. By identifying Jesus as the one for whom the way is prepared, Mark is explicitly identifying Jesus with God (LORD = Yahweh) Himself.
Mark’s use of Kyrios in 1:3 is not a generic title of respect, but a direct substitute for the Tetragrammaton (). Because Mark is explicitly quoting the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Isaiah 40:3, where Kyrios is used specifically to translate Yahweh, Mark is structurally transferring a unique, incommunicable Yahwistic prophecy directly onto Jesus.
Malachi 3:1 is even more explicitly divine. In Malachi 3:1, Yahweh says: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me." But when Mark quotes it, he alters the pronoun to apply to Jesus: "Prepare YOUR way." Mark is showing that Yahweh entering His temple is Jesus entering Jerusalem.
| OT Source Text | Original Target of Prophecy | Mark's Christological Application |
|---|---|---|
| Isaiah 40:3 "Prepare the way for Yahweh ()... a highway for our God." |
The physical return of the God of Israel to Zion. | John the Baptist prepares the wilderness highway for the public ministry of Jesus. |
| Malachi 3:1 "He will prepare the way before Me [Yahweh]... the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple." |
Yahweh physically entering His own Temple to judge and purify Israel. | Jesus arrives as the Sovereign Lord entering the temple precinct to judge the religious elite. |
John the Baptist will consciously direct his followers away from himself and toward Jesus, framing his entire existence as merely a "voice" for the "Word" (the Logos).
When Christians claim that Jesus is God, they are not relying on a late, evolving dogma invented centuries later by Gentile councils; they are repeating the exact Old Testament exegesis laid down by the very first sentence of the earliest Gospel.