Mar 1:9 | RWP | e4.org | In the Jordan ( εις τον Ιορδανην ). So in verse , εκ του υδατος , out of the water, after the baptism into the Jordan. Mark is as fond of "straightway" ( ευθυς ) as Matthew is of "then" ( τοτε ). Rent asunder ( σχιζομενους ). 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 and . Evidently the Baptist saw all this and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove because he later mentions it ( ). 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.

‏ Mark 1:9

In the Jordan ( εις τον Ιορδανην ). So in verse 10, εκ του υδατος, out of the water, after the baptism into the Jordan. Mark is as fond of "straightway" ( ευθυς ) as Matthew is of "then" ( τοτε ).

Rent asunder ( σχιζομενους ). 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 Mt 3:16 and Lu 3:21. Evidently the Baptist saw all this and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove because he later mentions it (Joh 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.