Mark 1,3-5
A voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, and they were baptised by him in the River Jordan.
The audience (probably people with a sophisticated knowledge of Judeo-Roman relations) DID NOT take this first scene of this play about the fictional character Jesus, King of the Jews, to be a representation of an actual event.
ALL the people of the Judaean countryside and ALL the people of Jerusalem would have been an enormous mass of people.
The scene is putting forward an image of an abrupt, complete change in Judaean society.
WHO WROTE IT?
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SeniorCitizen007,
"WHO WROTE IT?"
At this rate I will be exposed to every verse in the Bible by the end of the year. I think we tend to just glance over stuff without reading and thinking about it.
If all of the people in Judea had been exposed to John the Baptist's doctrine and converted he would have became a very powerful man who could have incited the people to overthrow the government. By saying that he attracted everyone the writer also included all of the priests and government personnel. Subsequent passages prove that the writer was simply embellishing his story and not basing it upon reality. So once the story starts to veer off into lies the whole thing becomes unbelievable.
"ALL the people of the Judaean countryside and ALL the people of Jerusalem would have been an enormous mass of people"
Indeed, one wonders how the author could possibly have known this, and an objective reading suggests the word ALL is hyperbole. When you're starting any cult the very first thing you need is a charismatic leader, not some recluse hardly anyone bothers with.
" And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. I was there, out of curiosity, and one or two others went out to him, but he didn't have mainstream following as most people either didn't know who he was, or what he wanted, or they thought he was nuts."
It's all in the tone of the writing...