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Mark’s use of the Old Testament

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Mark's use of the Old Testament | WednesdayintheWord.com

The New Testament is our divinely inspired commentary on the Old Testament. When studying a passage, it’s often helpful to see how other biblical authors understood it. Here is Mark’s use of the Old Testament in his gospel.

MarkOld TestamentType
Mr 1:2-3 – As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight,’ ”		Mal 3:1;
Isa 40:3
Mr 1:44 – and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”Le 14:2allusion
Mr 2:25-26 – And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”1Sa 21:6allusion
Mr 4:12 – so that“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”Isa 6:9
Mr 7:6-7 – And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,“ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’		Isa 29:13
Mr 7:10 – For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’Ex 20:12;
De 5:16;
Ex 21:17;
Pr 20:20
Mr 9:11 – And they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”Mal 4:5allusion
Mr 9:44 – And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.Isa 66:24allusion
Mr 10:4 – They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”De 24:1allusion
Mr 10:6 – But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’Ge 1:27
Mr 10:7 – ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,Ge 2:24
Mr 10:19 – You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”Ex 20:12-14
Mr 11:9 – And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!Ps 118:26
Mr 11:17 – And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”Isa 56:7;
Jer 7:11
Mr 12:1 – And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.Isa 5:1allusion
Mr 12:10-11 – Have you not read this Scripture:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing,and it is marvelous		Ps 118:22-23
Mr 12:19 – “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.De 25:5
Mr 12:26 – And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?Ex 3:6
Mr 12:29-30 – Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’De 6:4,5
Mr 12:31 – The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”Le 19:18
Mr 12:33 – And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”1Sa 15:22allusion
Mr 12:36 – David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’Ps 110:1
Mr 13:5 – And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astrayJer 29:8allusion
Mr 13:12 – And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.Mic 7:6allusion
Mr 13:14 – “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.Da 9:27;
Da 8:13;
Da 11:31;
Da 12:11		allusion
Mr 13:24 – “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,Isa 13:9-10;
Joe 3:15		allusion
Mr 13:31 – Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.Isa 40:8allusion
Mr 14:27 – And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’Zec 13:7
Mr 15:28 – And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.Isa 53:12
Mr 15:34 – And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”Ps 22:1
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A quotation is a word-for-word citation of the original source, often preceded by “it is written” or “saying”.

An allusion is a reference to the original source using the the same key words or thoughts without quoting word for word.

Because the New Testament writers often borrow the language of the Old Testament (allusion) rather than quote verses directly, different scholars suggest different counts for the number of times the New Testament quotes or refers to the Old Testament.

Quotes from the Septuagint (LXX) may have appear to have somewhat different wording than the linked translation of the Hebrew text.

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