The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

(Mark 1:1 KJV)

Jesus: Greek – (G2424) Iesous, Jesus; Hebrew – (H3091) Yehoshua, YHWH Saved

Christ: Greek – (G5547) Christos – (The) Anointed (One), the Messiah

Son: Greek – (G5207) uihos – son

GOD: Greek – (G2316) theos – deity, The Supreme Divinity (GOD)

The Good News of Yehoshua The Anointed One, The Son of GOD.

As we will see as we go forward, the tension between Jesus Christ and the religious leaders of His days walking the earth as a human being were two-fold:

1) Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) being The Messiah (The Christ)

2) Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) being The Son Of GOD

1) Jesus of Nazareth being The Messiah.

During the decades before Jesus was born a number of “messiahs” arose, claiming they could free the Jews from Roman rule. Every one of them was put down, with the Romans inflicting great retribution upon the participants. This even occurred at least once when Jesus was a young child, leaving thousands crucified from a town only a few miles from Nazareth.

The Jewish leaders of the day feared anyone attempting to be “Messiah”, lest they fail to drive out the Romans, would bring the Roman military machine to bear against themselves, and against Israel. You see, the Jews were expecting Messiah to come (especially the Essenes), but they were expecting either the same Messiah to come twice, or two different Messiahs to come; each for a different reason.

One Messiah was to be Messiah ben Joseph (Messiah, the son of Joseph), who would be a suffering Messiah sent to pay for the sins of Israel. The other was to be Messiah ben David (Messiah, the son of David), a victorious and militarily powerful Messiah who would free Israel of all her oppressors and restore the nation of Israel. This understanding sheds some light on John the Baptist, while he was in prison, sending his disciples to ask Jesus if He was The Messiah (that would come for both purposes), or if they were to expect another (a second Messiah to free them from their oppressors). Jesus did not behave as though He was there to drive out the Romans, though John the Baptist knew Jesus was Messiah.

The religious leaders of the day held a degree of power in Israel at that time, and were fearful that Jesus would become so popular that Rome would begin to see Jesus and His following as a threat to Roman rule and put them all down.

2) Jesus of Nazareth being The Son Of GOD.

The Law and The Prophets testified of The Son Of GOD, but Jesus came looking like a normal Hebrew/Israelite. Jesus grew up like a human being, faced all the temptations of a human being, endured all the frailties of living in a human body (eating, getting tired, sleeping, using “the bathroom” [however they did that then], sweating in the hot climate, physically being smelly from however many days at a time without a bath, etc.), resisting carnal desires, and everything people had to face at that time. He appeared no different than any other Israelite. The WORD Of GOD made flesh had set aside all His Power and all His Authority when He left heaven to become a flesh and bone human being as an infant. Jesus, The Son Of GOD, didn’t even perform a miracle until after He was immersed in Holy Spirit, after He was baptized (immersed in water) at the hands of John the Baptist.

To claim to be The Son Of GOD, was the same as saying He was equal to Almighty GOD (GOD The Father); and that He (Jesus) had the same Authority and Power available to Him at all times as Father GOD. The religious leaders of the day could not accept that someone who looked like a regular human being to them could possibly be The Son Of GOD; no matter how many miracles He performed.

Understand, that this also brings to the forefront that there are more than one Power in Heaven; thus, a Godhead (or as we refer to this today as The Holy Trinity). This Godhead/Trinity is presented throughout the Old and New Testaments; however, the religious leaders of that day could not accept the WORDs and Teachings of their own Law and Prophets when faced with a living and breathing human being claiming to be just that; Jesus seemed too similar to them for them to accept and believe this through their own human reasoning.

Thus, Mark’s record of The Good News of Jesus Christ, The Son Of GOD is filled with action and power and miracles showing his gentile Roman audience the Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth; and showing all throughout time who would eventually (unbeknownst to Mark) read his writings, inspired by the testimony of Peter and led by Holy Spirit.