Mark 8:35

Note

Speaking of the way of following Him, Jesus sets "the gospel" beside His own name. Matthew and Luke give the same saying without it; the words are Mark's alone.

On the road to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, Peter confesses, "You are the Christ" (Mark 8:29). At once Jesus begins to teach that "the Son of Man must suffer many things" and be rejected and killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31). Peter rebukes Him and is rebuked in turn. Then Jesus calls the crowd together with His disciples: "If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8:34). This verse gives the reason for that call (it opens with "for"), and the verses after it weigh the whole world against a man's soul and warn against being ashamed of Christ and His words.

The noun euangelion is a genitive governed by the preposition heneken, "for the sake of," and it is tied by "and" to "Me" (emou). "For My sake" and "for the gospel's sake" become one phrase under one preposition. Matthew and Luke report the saying with "for My sake" alone (Matthew 16:25; Luke 9:24). Adding "the gospel" is Mark's mark, and he pairs the two again at 10:29. "Life" is psuchē, a person's life and the person himself. The sentence turns on itself: the one who wants to save loses, the one who loses saves. The hand that grips is emptied; the hand that lets go is filled.

The English versions show how much that one word carries. The KJV has "life" in this verse and "soul" in the next two, "lose his own soul," and the BSB does the same: "forfeit his soul," "in exchange for his soul" (Mark 8:36–37). In the Greek it is the same word throughout. The life one might lose for Christ and the soul one might lose by refusing Him are not two things. The KJV's "for my sake and the gospel's" keeps Mark's single preposition; the BSB's "for My sake and for the gospel" and the LSV's "for My sake and for the good news' sake" repeat "for," as English likes to, without changing the sense.

In the Catena, Chrysostom draws the soldier's lesson, "It is therefore right to be always prepared for death," and explains why nothing can be given in exchange for a soul: "for God, in exchange for our salvation, has given the precious blood of Jesus Christ" Chrysostom. Remigius says "life" here is "the present life, and not ... the substance itself of the soul" Remigius. Bede applies the saying to two seasons: "in time of persecution, our life is to be laid aside, but in time of peace, our earthly desires are to be broken" Bede. Matthew Henry writes that "the happiness of heaven with Christ, is enough to make up for the loss of life itself for him" Matthew Henry.

Jerome reports that Mark wrote his Gospel in Italy Jerome, and Tacitus records that after the great fire of Rome in 64 Nero fastened the blame on the Christians and put them to cruel deaths Tacitus, Annals 15.44. If, as the tradition holds, this Gospel was first read by the churches of Italy, losing one's life for Christ and for the gospel was no distant figure of speech to them.

The verse says that the gospel is worth a life. And because Jesus sets the gospel beside Himself, to live for the gospel is to follow Him.