On the premise of Matthean priority and that Mark leveraged Matthew, can we understand Mark to be alluding to some of Matthew’s OT citations?
The Time is Fulfilled.
Matthew 4:12–17 reports that after hearing that John had been arrested, Jesus
withdrew into Galilee, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “the land of Zebulun … Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light … on them a light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (ESV).
Matthew is drawing from Isaiah 9:1–2, which notably draws a contrast between Zebulun “in the former time” and what God would accomplish “in the latter time.”
Mark 1:14–15 parallels Matthew’s account. In Mark it is reported that after hearing that John had been arrested, Jesus
came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.
I suggest that Mark, with full awareness of Matthew’s text, has chosen to drop the quote from Isaiah, while inserting “the time is fulfilled” as a direct allusion to Matthew and his citation of Isaiah, which highlighted that certain things would occur at a future time.
Per my review of perhaps twenty commentaries on Mark, a few scholars acknowledge the parallel between the Matthean and Markan passages, but none connect Mark’s “time is fulfilled” reference to Matthew and then back to Isaiah. I suspect that this is because of the common presumption of Markan priority. Strauss offers that the “‘time’ here is the eschatological time of salvation (Gal. 4:4).”1 Stein similarly makes reference to Galatians 4:4 and adds Ephesians 1:10.2 Mohoney explains “the time” as pointing “to a time measured by God’s design (see Dan. 7:22; Ezek. 7:12; 9:1; 1 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 1:3).”3 Cranfield also turns to many of the same passages (Gal. 4:4; Dan. 7:22; Ezek. 7:12).4 On the other hand, many commentaries do not speculate on what Mark might be referring to with his “time” reference. For example, Watts’ “Mark” in CNTUOT does not have any coverage for Mark 1:15.5
Interestingly, even those subscribing to the Two Gospel (Griesbach) theory’s Matthew-Luke-Mark publication order do not recognize the allusion to Matthew’s Isaianic source, though acknowledging that Mark is following Matthew.6 They simply indicate that “the phrase ‘the time is fulfilled’ (Mk 1:15; cf. 13:33) … [refers to] ‘the time’ when the ‘word’ goes forth.”7
The bottom-line here is that Mark appears to be alluding to Matthew’s use of Isaiah 9, yet this intertextual reference is not being recognized by modern commentators, perhaps because of their Gospel origin assumptions.
- Mark L Strauss, Mark, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 80. Marcus turns to these passages to contend that “the old evil age of Satan’s dominion is now fulfilled, the new age of God’s rule is about to begin. Joel Marcus, Mark: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York, NY: Doubleday, 2000), 175. ↩︎
- Robert H. Stein, Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 73. ↩︎
- Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 14. ProQuest Ebook Central. ↩︎
- C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to St Mark: An Introduction and Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 63. ↩︎
- Rikk E. Watts, “Mark,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 111–249. ↩︎
- David B. Peabody, ed., One Gospel from Two: Mark’s Use of Matthew and Luke (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002), 80. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
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