Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 Vs. 5

 John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Mark 1:5 “And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.”

There went out (ἐξεπορεύετο)

The imperfect tense signifies, there kept going out.

all the land ... After centuries without a prophetic voice in Israel Malachi had prophesied more than 400 years earlier, Johns ministry generated an intense amount of interest. Figure of speech (synecdoche) in which the whole is put for a part. See Gen. 41:56 for use of all.

of Judea, and... The southernmost division of Palestine Samaria and Galilee being the others, in Jesus’ day. It extended from about Bethel in the North to Beersheba in the South, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the West to the Dead Sea and Jordan River in the East. Included within Judea was the city of Jerusalem.

river of Jordan... Palestine’s major river, flowing through the Jordan Rift Valley from Lake Hula drained in modern times, North of the Sea of Galilee, South to the Dead Sea. According to tradition, John began his baptizing ministry at the fords near Jericho.

The river

Peculiar to Mark.

confessing their sins... This is required before God can forgive (1Jhn. 1:9; Luke 13:1-5; Rom. 10:9-10). This with faith in the blood of Christ will produce remission of sins (Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7). Men are to repent and then be baptized. Repentance prepares the soul for remission; baptism is the pledge and figure of it (1Pet. 3:21).To confess one’s sins, as they were being baptized, is to agree with God about them. John baptized no one who did not confess and repent of his sins.

Confessing

Were baptized (ἐβαπτίζοντο)

Confessing their sins (ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν)

The words imply: 1. That confession was connected with baptism. They were baptized while in the act of confessing. 2. An open confession, not a private one to John (ἐξ, compare Acts 19:18; Jas. 5:16). 3. An individual confession; possibly a specific one. (See Luke 3:10-15.)

The whole of Judea and Jerusalem is rocked by John’s presence. The tense of baptized stresses that it took place continually over a length of time. The condition for baptism was a public response, by which and in which one confessed his sins.

There, strangely enough, was no rejection by the people of John the Baptist. We see here that many people went to great trouble to go into the wilderness and be baptized by John in the River Jordan. In (Mat. 21:26), we see that the people believe John to be a true prophet.

Mat. 21:26 “But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.”

Isn’t it strange they believed he was a prophet and did not believe the message he brought that Jesus Christ is Messiah? This river Jordan is still a favorite place for Christians worldwide to be baptized.

In truth, the movement of the Baptist, with its double aspect, gathers up all the teaching of the past. He produced conviction, and he promised help. One lesson of all sacred history is universal failure. The innocence of Eden cannot last. The law with its promise of life to the man who doeth these things, issued practically in the knowledge of sin; it entered that sin might abound; it made a formal confession of universal sin, year by year, continually. And therefore its fitting close was a baptism of repentance universally accepted. Alas, not universally. For while we read of all the nation swayed by one impulse, and rushing to the stern teacher who had no share in its pleasures or its luxuries, whose life was separated from its concerns, and whose food was the simplest that could sustain existence, yet we know that when they heard how deep his censures pierced, and how unsparingly he scourged their best loved sins, the loudest professors of religion rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him. Nevertheless, by coming to Him, they also had pleaded guilty. Something they needed; they were sore at heart, and would have welcomed any soothing balm, although they refused the surgeon’s knife.

Using hyperbole (cf. also Mark 1:32-33, 1:37), Mark showed the great impact John made on all areas of Judea and Jerusalem. The people went out and were baptized by John in the Jordan River (cf. Mark 1:9) as they confessed their sins to God. The imperfect tense of the Greek verbs portrays in motion-picture fashion the continual procession of people who kept going out to hear John’s preaching and to be baptized by him.

The verb baptize baptizō intensive form of baptō to dip means to immerse, submerge. Being baptized by John in the Jordan marked the turn of a Jew to God. It identified him with the repentant people who were preparing for the coming Messiah.

Included in the performance of the baptismal rite was the people’s open confession of sins. The verb confessing exomologoumenoi, agree with, acknowledging, admitting; cf. Acts 19:18; Phlp. 2:11), is intensive. They openly agreed with God’s verdict on their sins (hamartias, failure to hit the mark, i.e., God’s standard. Every Jew familiar with the nation’s history knew they had fallen short of God’s demands. Their willingness to be baptized by John in the desert was an admission of their disobedience and an expression of their turning to God.