Mark 1:14-20
1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,
1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
1:16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen.
1:17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
1:18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
1:19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.
1:20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
[14]Μετὰ δὲ τὸ παραδοθῆναι ᾿Ιωάννην ἦλθεν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν κηρύσσων τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ
[15] καὶ λέγων ὅτι πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς καὶ ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ· μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ.
[16] Περιπατῶν δὲ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας εἶδε Σίμωνα καὶ ᾿Ανδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Σίμωνος, βάλλοντας ἀμφίβληστρον ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ· ἦσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς·
[17] καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς γενέσθαι ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων.
[18] καὶεὐθέως ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα αὐτῶν ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.
[19]Καὶ προβὰς ἐκεῖθεν ὀλίγον εἶδεν ᾿Ιάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου καὶ ᾿Ιωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ καταρτίζοντας τὰ δίκτυα,
[20] καὶ εὐθέως ἐκάλεσεν αὐτούς. καὶ ἀφέντες τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν Ζεβεδαῖον ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ μετὰ τῶν μισθωτῶν ἀπῆλθον ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ.
Comments
[14] Μετὰ δὲ τὸ παραδοθῆναι ᾿Ιωάννην: τὸ παραδοθῆναι, an articular inf. (a kind of verbal noun), pass. aor. < παραδίδωμι, ‘Ι hand over’ (to justice), ‘throw in prison’. Thus the phrase means lit. ‘after John’s having been thrown in prison’.
κηρύσσων τὸ εὐαγγέλιον: κηρύσσω, ‘I act as a herald’ (in Homer); in cl. & later Gk, c. acc. rei, ‘I proclaim, announce something’.
εὐαγγέλιον: εὐαγγέλιον, τό,is first attested in Homer, Odyssey 14.152, etc. where it means ‘a reward for announcing good news that is proven true’. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar in Ithaka, tells a local swineherd that King Odysseus (taken for long dead) will soon return and that he (the supposed beggar) will therefore expect an εὐαγγέλιον for the news (also noted in my comments on 11th Dec. 2022).
In cl. Attic (Athenian) poetry and prose the term is always in the pl., and means a sacrifice to a god in thanksgiving for good news or token of thanks given to the messenger who brings good news. Τὰ εὐαγγέλια is either i) a sacrifice for ‘good tidings’, most freq. about the progress of a war campaign (e.g., Isocrates 7.10) or ii) as in Homer, a reward for bringing good news, e.g., that the eyesight of the god Wealth has been restored and the virtuous poor can therefore become prosperous (Aristophanes, Wealth 765). This use of the pl. is attested also in LXX, 2 Samuel 4:10, where it refers to the reward given to a messenger for announcing that Saul was dead. The cognate fem. noun εὐαγγελία, ἡ, meaning ‘good news’ in a military context, occurs in 2 Kings 7:9, ἡμέρα εὐαγγελίας, ‘the day of good news’, of the retreat of the Aramaeans.
Cicero (d. 43 BC)—who brings us close to the time of Jesus— uses the pl. εὐαγγέλια (written in Greek) to refer to the good news about a judicial victory (Ad Atticum 2.3.1). Good tidings from the war front and news about the restoration of prosperity combine in a Greek inscription from Priene in Asia Minor, dated to ca 9 BC (IK Priene 14, now in Berlin). The Greek community declared that they honoured (and in effect rewarded) Augustus Caesar by adopting the 23rd September, his birthday, as the inception of their local calendar, for the day of his birth brought the εὐαγγέλια, the ‘good news’ for the world that his reign was to usher in order and prosperity (see further https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_Inscription_of_Priene). It is a humorous coincidence that the mid- and late 2nd c. AD satirist Lucian uses the sg. to mean ‘the good news’ in his Lucius, or The Ass 26, as does St Mark. In Lucian the donkey brays the εὐαγγέλιον, the ‘good news’ that a girl has been rescued from robbers (Asinus 26). This suggests that the sg. was current in Mark’s time as an alternative.
In fine, εὐαγγέλιον occurs from the classical period on in the pl. in the sense of ‘thanks for good news’ (a sense adumbrated in Homer), but by Cicero’s time if not earlier the pl. was extended to denote ‘good news’. The sg. form in the sense of ‘good news’ traces back to St Mark’s time if not earlier. [From my comments on Mk1:1 (10th Dec. 2023)]
[15] πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς: καιρός here = ‘critical time’, as in class. Greek (cf. LSJ s.v.). For theologians the term is eschatological (see Balz-Schneider, Exeg. Dict. NT Greek [henceforth EDNTG], s.v. καιρός, p. 233).
πεπλήρωται: 3rd pers. sg., pf. pass. < πληρῶ (όω), ‘Ι fill’; metaph., ‘I fulfil’. The latter meaning is theological in the NT.
ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ· μετανοεῖτε: an asyndeton (lack of a connection between successive words, clauses or sentences) with an explanatory force. Here the second sentence, μετανοεῖτε, follows logically from the first, ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ. ‘Because the reign of God has come near, repent.’
ἤγγικε, pf. < ἐγγίζω, intrans., ‘I approach, come near’ (Aristotle, koine: Montanari).
μετανοεῖτε = present imperative, μετανοέω, ῶ. Τhe prefix μετα- can mean a change, something that occurs afterwards; νοῶ, ‘perceive by the mind, apprehend’ (LSJ). Hence μετανοῶ = ‘I change opinion’; ‘change my behaviour’ in class. Greek (M.). In Plato (Euthydemus 279c) μ. means ‘I reconsider, I realise’; Socrates uses it after realising he has made an (embarrassing) intellectual error.
* In the NT the noun μετάνοια means ‘penitence, repentance, conversion’ (M.).
Cf. μεταμορφῶ (όω) (Roman imperial period), ‘I change’ (in shape or form), which at the literal level contrasts with μετανοῶ, ‘I change’ (internally); also cf. the classical μετασχηματίζω, ‘Ι transform’ (outwardly).
[17] δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου: the adv.δεῦτε (‘here, over here’, connoting motion) is used with or without a verb (in the imper. or subj.) in commands or exhortations in the plural. δεῦτε < δεῦρ’ ἴτε (‘Come hither’). The phrase in v. 17 is used as a 2 pl. imper., ‘Come behind me’, and is deictic (‘pointing’, ‘gestural’). Jesus would be pointing or beckoning.
[18] ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα αὐτῶν ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ:ἀφέντες, 2nd aor. act. voice, ἀφίημι, ‘Ι let fall’ (already in Homer: LSJ). Simon and Andrew dropped their nets. In v. 20 ἀφέντες = ‘leaving behind, leaving’.
ἠκολούθησαν, aor. < ἀκολουθέω, ῶ: ‘Ι follow, accompany’ + dat. obj. Cf. Engl. acolyte.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 