Footnote 3 – Gospels in the Classroom

In Mark 1:2–3, John the Baptist quotes Isaiah’s prophesy as “I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; / the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.” But Isaiah 40:3 does not explicitly identify the voice as that of God’s emissary: “A voice cries out: / ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, / Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”