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Connection

The messenger sent ahead

Malachi promised that God would send a messenger to prepare the way before Him. Mark's first sentence about John the Baptist quotes that promise, and Jesus applies it to John as well.

Direct quotationHigh confidence

A New Testament passage quotes an earlier passage.

Old TestamentMalachi 3:1Open this record
Direct quotation
New TestamentMark 1:2Open this record

Read the earlier witness

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:1 New International Version (NIV)The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Read the later witness

as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—
Mark 1:2 New International Version (NIV)The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Why FaithGraph draws this line

Mark 1:2 quotes Malachi 3:1.

Mark opens with Malachi's promise of a messenger sent ahead to prepare the way, joined to Isaiah's voice in the next verse.

Evidence

Other responsible views

  • Attribution to Isaiah. Mark introduces the combined quotation as written in Isaiah the prophet. Most readers take this as naming the better known of two joined sources, a common practice; the Malachi wording is not in doubt.

The explanation above is FaithGraph editorial content, not Scripture.