Seek ''Drash''

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Seek Drash דרש

Mark displays a knowledge of the tool called 'Drash' דרש which means 'seek'. When seeking, you have a clue of what you are looking for. In practice one compares and contrasts something known, with various things found. Mark knows what John the baptist was doing, and as Mark or Peter searched the scriptures, found a prophecies that looked like they could be compared.

Keying on the word 'wilderness' and the idea of someone preaching there, he found the passage in Isaiah and relates it this way:

Mr 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Mr 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

He compares it with this:

Mr 1:4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Mark is summarizing what more than one prophet said: "As it is written in the prophets." Here are two prophets that say things similar to this:

Isa 40:3 ¶ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Mal 3:1 ¶ Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

And here is a related one that Mark probably didn't understand but Matthew did :

Isa 42:16 And I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Consider the identity of the people who heard it. When there are two things, they are two aspects of one thing:

Mr 1:5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Isa 40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [it] together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].

The Greek says that Judea and Jerusalem are not 'all flesh', but the Hebrew would ask "In what way are Judea and Jerusalem 'all flesh'?" Judea, meaning 'praise' represents all those who praise God, and Jerusalem, meaning 'teaching of peace' together mean 'all the body of Christ'. The word "flesh" 'basar' בשר also means 'body'. Isaiah says that all the body will see him together, and Mark interprets this as teh body of Chirst represented by saved Gentiles (those who praise him) and Jews (the who were taught the word).

Mark does not stop with the obvious comparisons, but uses those as the anchor to Old Testament scripture. From that anchor he will continue to interpret scripture using drash. Next he compares a description of Elijah, to explicit and implied images of Elijah.

Mr 1:6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair , and with a girdle of a skin about his loins ; and he did eat locusts and wild honey ;

Drash

Drash is one of the primary tools ignored by the Greeks. To them the comparisons take you out of the immediate context. But similar words, images, and ideas are the pins holding the many hidden images of Christ together like a stack of transparencies. Only when we see them all at the same time do we have a complete picture of Christ as intended by his word.