1:9–13 In this passage Jesus appears for the first time in the narrative, and the direct relevance of the introduction of John the Baptist earlier in the story becomes clear, for here Jesus is baptized by John. This of course means that Mark’s narrative not only associates John with Jesus as an endorser of Jesus but also associates Jesus with John as one who accepted John’s message and obeyed his call to be baptized.

A relationship between Jesus and the Baptist is attested in all four Gospels, but in the Gospel according to John many scholars see evidence that the writer attempted to make it very clear that Jesus was fully superior to the Baptist, perhaps to counter any suggestion that Jesus was a follower of the Baptist and therefore inferior to him. It is interesting, by comparison, tha…