Mark leaves nothing to chance in selecting words for his gospel. He abundantly helps himself to the rich tapestry of the Hebrew Bible as readily made available in the Septuagint Greek, the lingua franca of the Roman world. Mark, as he does everywhere else in his gospel, purposefully handpicks words that add rich layers of meaning from these God-breathed words so that we may profit in understanding and the God-quality life. And in so doing, we love God more and embrace His words to be transformed by them. “Repentance” is one of those common churchy words that we’ve heard so many times that think we know so well. My heart has been stoked with a fresh fire of love for God in Mark’s treatment of repentance, which he links to the Proverbs to open our eyes afresh to re-sharpen the dull blade of a word blunted by overuse. His word tapestries will stitch together a sometimes impersonal word with a very personal Jesus.
Let’s dive right in.
“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Mark 1:4 ESV
The word used here for repentance, metanoia (met-an’-oy-ah, μετάνοια), simply means a change of mind. A little housekeeping is in order. Please bear with me with some technicalities to settle some confusion here. We have a little which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg? Does the baptism of repentance come first, then the forgiveness of sins? Of does the forgiveness of sins come first, then the baptism of repentance? Kenneth Wuest, an eminent Greek scholar of the 1950’s has an insightful exposition of the Greek grammar here. A wrong reading of “for (eis [ice]) the forgiveness of sins” is making the ceremony ‘the cause of repentance in the heart of the individual who is baptized.’” Usually a preposition of motion (‘into’), eis can have various uses depending on context. Wuest goes on to explain,
“A comparison of this passage with Matthew 12:41 where the same preposition eis is translated ‘at,’ namely, ‘the men of Ninevah repented at, (because of) the preaching of Jonah,’ makes it clear that John said, ‘Repent, and be baptized because of the remission of sins.’” (Kenneth Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament for the English Reader Volume One, pp. 16-17, c. 1953, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
Wuest goes in to prove his point by citing John’s refusal to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees because they did not show evidences of repentance (Mt 3: 7-9). So repentance comes before the ceremony of water baptism.
Mark did not have to call attention to this specific word metanoia, although Matthew and Luke did whereas John did not. There’s only one time metanoia shows up in the Septuagint. Mark links it to its solo usage in Proverbs 14:15:
“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought [metanoia] to his steps.”
The Hebrew word translated as metanoia is bîn (bene), which means to have discernment, insight, understanding. Our change of mind is based upon these purposeful cognitive functions.
The Hebrew word for “prudent” is ʿārûm (aw-room’) and can have a positive or negative connotation, depending on context. Here in Proverbs it’s positive: prudent, “careful or wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition). In a negative sense, it means subtle, shrewd, crafty or sly. It’s first appearance is in Genesis 3:1:
“Now the serpent was more crafty [ʿārûm] than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’”
Eve proves herself to be “the simple” who “believes everything.” After being duped, her eyes were opened and she knew she was naked. Naked, ʿêrumim (ay-roo-meem’), is a savvy wordplay on ʿārûm, clever. Ay-roo-meem’ .. aw-room’. So Eve, the simple one, believed everything, all the words the Serpent spewed out of his mouth like a river (see Rev 12:15). Believing every word indiscriminately leaves one naked.
John the immerser, a man filled with the Spirit since birth, also had a river coming out his mouth. Those who believed his words of life experienced forgiveness of sins. That forgiveness prepared their hearts like a straight road ready for the Messiah to travel upon. Here’s the blessed reversal of our Good-News God: Satan snuck into the Garden as ʿārûm, immersing Eve’s mind with a flood of words. Simple Eve changed her mind by believing them, leading (along with Adam) humanity into sin. John entered into the wilderness as God’s ordained herald, immersing the people’s minds with the healing river of Yahweh’s words. John came an ʿārûm restorer by preaching a baptism of repentance that led humanity away from sin. That’s the next aspect of repentance.
Although repentance starts in the mind, it doesn’t stay in the mind. It impacts everything about how we live and conduct ourselves in the world. Let’s take one last look at Proverbs 14:15:
“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”
The translation of the second clause in Greek as word-for-word is clunky in English: “a prudent one comes because of repentance [eis metanoian].” ‘Comes’ is loose translation of the Hebrew ‘ăšûr (aw-shoor’): steps or footprints. Because of repentance, because of a changed mind illuminated with discernment, insight, and understanding, we reorder our steps. We live differently.
So beautifully textured into Mark’s phrasing, “baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” is this beautiful good news progression. Because we believe the preaching of God’s words, we receive the forgiveness of sins. Because we receive the forgiveness of sins, we participate in a baptism of repentance. And because we repent, we rearrange and reorient our steps with Jesus’ steps. We stop hiding behind trees and walk with Him again. We change the way we live to be united together with Jesus, synced up with the new way we think!
So what’s the bottom line? Repentance is a reversal of mind. We “who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” now “have the mind of Christ,” “zealous for good works” (Col 1:21, 1Co 2:16, Titus 2:14). Legion has been expelled from us for good! We are no longer naked (ʿêrumim), but prudent (ʿārûm). We are clothed and in our right minds, yearning to be with Jesus, no longer hiding behind trees, afraid. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 