What Does Mark 1:3 Mean?
The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the LORD, make his paths straight."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.THE KEY
The Greek word for “paths” carries the image of tracks worn by passage, and the wilderness voice calls for those tracks to be straightened for the Lord.
THE MEANING
The voice reaches you in the wilderness, where the Lord’s way is made ready as the paths are straightened. The verse names a route within the very place that can feel like no way through.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wilderness means there is no route: the voice sounds there, and the Lord’s paths are being made straight there.
THE ROOT
τρίβους
tribous
GROWS FROM
τριβ-
trib-
τρίβω (tribō) means rub, wear, or tread; the word carries the sense of a track worn by passage.
τρίβους carries the image of tracks worn by passage. The verse calls for those paths to be straightened, joining the history of movement with the opening of a clear route.
ALSO GROWS
tribō: To rub, wear, or tread.
τρίβω
The verb gives the path its texture: a track shaped by passage.
tribos: A beaten track or path.
τρίβος
This is the singular form behind “paths,” carrying the image of a route made legible by passage.
tribē: Rubbing or friction.
τριβή
This related form preserves the root’s sense of wear that lies beneath the image of a trodden path.
εὐθείας
eutheias
GROWS FROM
εὐθύ-
euthy-
εὐθύς (euthys) means straight or direct.
“make his paths straight” in this verse is eutheias. The verse gives a concrete direction to the preparation: the paths are to run straight. The route becomes direct and passable for the Lord.
ALSO GROWS
euthys: Straight or direct.
εὐθύς
The adjective describes the line the Lord’s paths are to take.
euthynō: To make straight or direct.
εὐθύνω
This related verb makes the root’s action explicit: a route is straightened.
ἑτοιμάσατε
hetoimasate
GROWS FROM
ἑτοιμ-
hetoim-
Ready, prepared; ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazō) means to make ready.
“Make ready” in this verse is hetoimasate. “Prepare” carries the sense of making something ready for passage. Beside the command to straighten the paths, readiness takes the form of an opened and direct route.
ALSO GROWS
hetoimazō: To make ready or prepare.
ἑτοιμάζω
This is the verb behind the command and names the work of readiness.
hetoimos: Ready or prepared.
ἕτοιμος
This related word names the state toward which the command moves the way.
hetoimasia: Readiness or preparation.
ἑτοιμασία
This noun keeps preparation connected to a condition of being ready.
THE PATTERN
A route becomes passable as what blocks or distorts it is cleared, leveled, and straightened.
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.And make straight tracks for your feet, so that what limps may not be turned aside, but rather be healed.THE THREAD
He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, straighten the way of the LORD, as the prophet Isaiah said."The parallel repeats φωνή (phōnē, “voice”), βοάω (boáō, “cry aloud”), and ἔρημος (erēmos, “wilderness”). It makes the voice itself part of the way-opening: the call sounds from within the wilderness as the Lord’s route is made straight.
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