Kata Markon

[Rikk Watts <rwatts AT interchange.ubc.ca>]

I've only just noticed this thread, so I beg your pardons if I've missed
this. 

However, the expression (kathws) gegraptai occurs some 65 times in the NT
and with only four exceptions (Mk 9.12; 14.21; Lk 24.26; Mt 26.24) it is
followed by a scriptural citation, and even in the four exceptions the basic
content of the scripture is included.

Thus we have clear evidence of a well-known expression that is naturally
expected to led to a scriptural citation or, rarely, to a summary of
scripture. That Mark 1:2b-3 conforms to a typical NT citational form (slight
changes, mixing texts) suggests most strongly that this is a typical
citational formula. This is further borne out by Irenaeus, Ad Her. 3.10.5;
Tertullian, Ans. Jews, 9; Eusebius, Proof, 9.5; Augustine, Trac, 5.6.2;
Origen, Comm on John, 6.24; Jerome, Letts. To Pamm., 57.9, all of whom see
Mk 1.2b-3 as prophetic citation.

I suppose it is just faintly possible that these major teachers/thinkers of
the church who knew and spoke the very Greek in which Mark was originally
written and who were heirs to the larger oral tradition of the gospel, to a
man completely misunderstood him. On the other hand, it might be that our
erstwhile translator doesn't know his Greek, NT citational technique, or the
early fathers. 

Regards
Rikk