Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
In the Jordan (eiv ton Iordanhn). So in verse Mark 1:10, ek tou udatov, out of the water, after the baptism into the Jordan. Mark is as fond of "straightway" (euquv) as Matthew is of "then" (tote).
Rent asunder (sxizomenouv). Split like a garment, present passive participle. Jesus saw the heavens parting as he came up out of the water, a more vivid picture than the "opened" in Matthew 3:16 and Luke 3:21. Evidently the Baptist saw all this and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove because he later mentions it (John 1:32). The Cerinthian Gnostics took the dove to mean the heavenly aeon Christ that here descended upon the man Jesus and remained with him till the Cross when it left him, a sort of forecast of the modern distinction between the Jesus of history and the theological Christ.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Mark 1:9:
Mark 1:4
Mark 1:12
Luke 3:21
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
