1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Mark 1:2 | As it is written in Isaias, the prophet: *Behold I send my Angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. Malachias 3:1. | In Isaias, the prophet. That in the ancient copies was read Isaias, and not Malachias, is confirmed by the Syriac version, and also by St. Irenaeus, Origen, St. Jerome, etc. It is also proved from an objection of Porphyrius, who says, St. Mark mistook Isaias for Malachias. In the ordinary Greek copies at present, we read in the prophets, not naming either Isaias or Malachias. The words seem taken partly out of one, and partly out of the other. These words, behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee, are found Malachias 3:ver. 1. And the following words, a voice of one crying in the desert: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths, are in Isaias 40:3. (Witham) --- In the beginning of his gospel, St. Mark alleges the authority of the prophets, that he might induce every one, both Jew and Gentile, to receive with willingness what he here relates, as the authority of the prophets so highly respected was very great. St. John [the Baptist] is here styled an angel, on account of his angelic life, and extraordinary sanctity; but what is meant by, who shall prepare thy way, is, that St. John is to prepare the minds of the Jews, by his baptism and preaching, to receive their Messias. (Theophylactus) See in Matthew 11:10. |