FOOTNOTES:

^a Traditionally, ‘gospel’ or ‘good news.’ The word ‘gospel’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon (or 'Old English') term god-spell, which means ‘good story.’ The Greek euangelion literally means ‘good message’ and was used specifically of a message announced publicly, which fits the use of the word ‘news.’ The historical context comes from when rulers and military leaders returned to a city after victory in battle, and a herald would be sent ahead to announce the victory and the ruler’s impending arrival. The writers of the Bible took this word and applied it to Jesus’ victory of a different kind. The use of “triumphant message’ here is intended to communicate the full meaning of the word in context and not the narrow dictionary definition.

^b Traditionally, ‘Christ.’ Both the words ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ are not actual translations and serve to take the letters of the Greek word christos and the Hebrew word meshiah and transform them into English words without translating them. Both christos and meshiah mean ‘anointed,’ that is, ‘something or someone that has oil or ointment applied to it.’ In this context, it was referring to someone who was indicated to be chosen by God for a particular calling, most notably a royal calling, but it was also used for priests and prophets. The word ‘Messiah’ was chosen here rather than ‘Christ’ to reflect the Jewish authorship and original audience of this book.

^c “The Son of God” was a nickname for the emperor, a title taken on originally by Augustus Caesar, the son of Julius Caesar who was worshiped as divine, and was then used by each subsequent Caesar. To use it in application to Jesus was an explicitly political challenge to the lordship of Caesar.

^d Quotation of Isaiah 40:3

^e Traditionally, ‘Baptizer’ or ‘Baptist.’ In English, most translations have simply taken the Greek word baptizon and put it in English letters: ‘Baptizer.’ The historical reason for this was that the first translators of the Bible into English practiced infant baptism, which is done by sprinkling water over the infant, and the Greek word literally means ‘dip,’ so it didn’t fit with their doctrine and practice. Other languages don’t do the same thing, so in Dutch, for example, John is known as ‘John the Dipper.’ ‘Dipper’ sounds a little flippant in English, so I chose ‘Submerser’ as a synonym, being defined as ‘someone who submerses.’

^f The Wilderness was a word that could be used for any undeveloped area, but it was also how people referred to a specific region of eastern Judea; it was also the location of the Essene community (a monastic Jewish sect) responsible for the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. People speculate John had been a member of that community.

^g Traditionally, ‘repent.’ “Change their mind” is more literal and more accurate. The word ‘repent’ comes not from the Greek origin but from the Latin penitere, which means ‘to make sorry’ or ‘to regret.’ It was used to translate the Greek into Latin, but it lost the meaning of the Greek and replaced it in the Western church’s understanding. The Greek word metanoia means a ‘change of the mind.’ The process of translating the Greek to Latin seems to have assumed that the reason for a change of mind was remorse, but it is not what the Greek word means.

^h Traditionally, ‘forgiveness.’ This is the same word used in Matthew 5 for wives out of the home and in Matthew six for releasing claim to debt owed. It carries the idea of sending away or releasing. ‘Dismissal’ here seems to capture a faithful rendering of the word along with the effect of disregarding the past and invalidating any potential future claim for recompense of some kind.

ⁱ The word in Greek here is hamartia, traditionally translated ‘sin.’ The actual meaning is an archery term for missing the target; it’s a metaphor. The idea is not that it is bad behavior or rule breaking. The word torah is the noun version of the Hebrew verb for ‘shoot’ an arrow and ‘send’ instruction. Hamartia is veering off course, the course traced out by Torah that leads to New Creation/God’s Reign/The Great Jubilee-Shabbat. Much of what is referred to as ‘deviation’ is about actions that don’t align with Torah, but some of it is about states of being that don’t align with Torah’s vision of all things well, including illness and injury, which cannot be treated as moral failing in any way.

^j Traditionally, ‘confessed.’ While the word ‘confess’ typically communicates an admission of wrongdoing, the Greek word is much broader than that. It is used in other places to refer to openly acknowledging that Jesus is lord. This word is not about admitting wrongdoing but rather about openly or publicly acknowledging something to be true.

^k Traditionally, ‘Holy.’ The word ‘holy’ has a lot of history of teachings and ways of defining it. Essentially, the Greek word means something that is designated for a particular purpose, especially within a religious context. ‘Sacred’ is a good clarifying word that does not evoke the same baggage as ‘holy.’ Another phrase might be ‘designated for sacred purposes.’

^l Traditionally, ‘Spirit.’ The word pneuma in Greek (and the word ruach in Hebrew) means essentially, ‘breath’ or ‘wind.’ When it is translated as ‘spirit’ it is to refer to the life-energy of the breath within a person or animal. It is also used to refer to the animating energy of the breath when someone speaks, including God, and an ‘evil spirit’ is often used when hateful, exclusionary, lying, or harmfully honest speech is being directed at people. The ‘sacred life-breath’ often refers to how God shows up to communicate loving truth.

^m The Greek word euthus is used frequently throughout Mark, much more than any other part of the Bible. In Mark, it is usually used with the meaning of ‘immediately’ or ‘right away’ or similar expressions. The core meaning of the word is ‘straight’ or ‘direct,’ so it might literally be translated as ‘straightaway’ or ‘directly.’ One significant reason to notice this word is that its first appearance is not in this metaphorical sense but in the literal meaning of a straight road in Mark 1:3 where it quotes Isaiah 40:3, “make his much-traveled roads straight.” Mark, then, seems to be using wordplay to emphasize just how straight Jesus’ path was, that everything moved directly from one event to the next in a clear chain of events leading to the culmination of the crucifixion.

ⁿ Or ‘dividing’ or ‘splitting.’ Compare with Genesis 1.

^o This is the same word used for ‘casting out’ demons or talking about people being ‘thrown out’ into the outer darkness.

^p The word Satanas was not a name. It meant ‘adversary’ in the sense of prosecutor or opponent. It carries the meaning of someone who is against another, trying to sabotage their efforts and their wellbeing, and against someone as a plaintiff in court. It is an enemy, but also someone accusing another of wrongdoing, whether truly or falsely. It’s not just about pointing out something bad, but actively moving to cause adversity for someone else. The concept of Ha Shatan in the Hebrew Bible was not the evil archnemesis of God that Christian teaching has turned it into. It was described as a member of the council of spiritual beings whose role was to test people to see how genuine they were. The clearest example of this is in the book of Job.

^q The word angelos means ‘messenger,’ possibly used for spirit beings, but also used for human agents of God (or other people) and sometimes even for natural phenomena. It conveys the meaning of someone authorized to speak—or act—on behalf of another. If the reader wants to read these messengers (acting on God’s behalf) as celestial beings, great. If as humans, great. Of note, the text referred to prophets in verse 1, which seems likely to indicate that human prophets are the messengers in view; however, spirit-being messengers could also be in view. The word angelos, even for spirit-beings, is a job title, not a ‘species’ classification. The work of Michael S. Heiser is a great source of information on this topic.

^r Traditionally, ‘fulfilled.’ It carries as sense of being complete, or ‘carried out.’ The image is of something being filled all the way full, meaning it is being made ready or that it is being made real.

^s Traditionally, ‘Simon’

^t Traditionally, ‘James.’ However, the Greek word is ‘Jacob,’ the same as is translated as Jacob anywhere that name appears.

^u Traditionally, ‘Sabbath.’ However, ‘sabbath’ is just the English version of the Greek version of the Hebrew shabbat, which is the term still used by Jews in present day.

^v Despite using the Hebraic form of names for other figures, ‘Jesus’ seems the best translation for Iesous. Though Iesous is simply the Greek form of Yeshua, which is typically translated into English as ‘Joshua,’ too much history and meaning has been placed on the name ‘Jesus’ to use anything else and have it land the same way.

^w Traditionally, ‘experts in the Law (meaning the Torah)’ or ‘scribes.’ It literally means someone who studied and wrote documents, and the documents in view for these scribes were the Hebrew scriptures (or the Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures).

^x The word pneuma here is the same as is translated as ‘Life-breath’ elsewhere. The choice of ‘spirit-breath’ is because it is clearly a breath that speaks harm rather than life.

^y Or ‘God’s sacred one’

^z Traditionally, ‘silence!’ but ‘shut your mouth’ is closer to a literal translation. The word refers to closing something up and sometimes refers to the use of a muzzle on an animal.

^aa Traditionally, ‘throwing him into convulsions.’

^bb This is the same word used of Jesus being ‘raised from among the dead.’ It literally means to be caused to stand up.

^cc Or ‘weaknesses’ or ‘lack of access to resources’

^dd Or literally ‘demonized.’ It does not say ‘possessed by demons.’ The Greek word daemon referred to any number of monsters and demi-gods in Greek mythology and is not a specifically biblical term.

^ee Seeming to imply they understood his role, or what his purposes were.

^ff This word is elsewhere translated as ‘raise up’ or ‘resurrect’ or ‘reawaken’

^gg The word refers to ‘fourth watch of the night,’ the last few hours before dawn.

^hh Or ‘make announcements’ or ‘announce’ or ‘be a herald’

ⁱⁱ The Greek word is different in different manuscripts. Some have the word for ‘moved with anger’ while others have the word for ‘moved with compassion.’ There is not consensus about which is likely the original. One argument for ‘anger’ is that it would be strange for a later scribe to change ‘compassion’ to ‘anger’ here, but it makes sense that a scribe trying to reconcile things might change it to ‘compassion.’

^jj Traditionally, ‘touched.’ While, technically it can be translated as ‘touch’ it is much more commonly used of fastening or holding onto something.