What does Mark 1:1 mean?

Mark can be divided into seven sections—seven segments of Jesus' ministry on earth. The first section (Mark 1:1–13) describes how God used His last Israel-era prophet, John the Baptist, to prepare His people. In this section, John "clears the way" for Jesus and the message of salvation, and shows how Jesus prepared for His ministry. The Messiah's arrival had been promised since Genesis 3:15 and had now come. In Greek, the word translated "beginning," arche, can also mean "origin." In the next few verses, Mark talks about John the Baptist and his baptism of repentance, which is both the beginning of Mark's account and the starting point of the story of the gospel, or "good news," of Jesus and His message.

Jesus is both the Christ and the Son of God. Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiyach. This Jewish term, from which we derive the term "Messiah," means "anointed one." By anointing Jesus, God chose or commissioned Him to save us from our sins and restore our relationship with God. As the "Son of God," Jesus is both Messiah and divine. Jesus is the one who has come from the Father and is equal with the Father. He is God and man in one person, fully God and fully human. This was not a doctrine developed later in the history of the church. Rather, it is displayed in the first verse of Mark, most likely the earliest Gospel, based on the eyewitness of the apostle Peter given to Mark.

It is only as the Son of God that Jesus can also be the Christ—the Messiah—whose sacrifice takes away our sins.