Three Approaches To Explaining Mark 16:16

Written by Max Patterson, this appeared in the April 1, 1982 edition of the Gospel Advocate.


Perhaps no passage in the New Testament is neglected and misinterpreted more than Mark 16:16. Yet, from any approach of study, it is one of the plainest and easiest of all passages to understand. In this article I shall set out this simplicity in three approaches to explaining this passage.

The first approach to explaining Mark 16:16 is to read the passage and use common judgment in determining its meaning. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." There are two factors mentioned in the verse, belief and baptism, that are necessary to obtaining the desired result of being saved. This salvation is from our past sins.

The passage under consideration is a statement of the Holy Spirit and is parallel to saying, "He that eateth and digesteth food shall live; but he that eateth not shall die." It would seem obvious that there are two things in this parallel sentence that must be done in order to live, that is, we must eat food and digest it. So it is with Mark 16:16. We must believe and be baptized to be saved.

Someone may object, "but it does not say, 'he that believeth not and is baptized not shall be damned.'" There is no point in talking about digesting food that has never been eaten. Just so, there is no need to talk about baptizing someone who does not believe. The passage reads, therefore, "he that believeth not shall be damned," not, "he that believeth not and is not baptized shall be damned." Obviously, if one does not believe, he is not in a position to be baptized. In fact, it would be wrong to baptize someone who did not believe. The real meaning of the passage is that we must believe and be baptized and salvation will result.

Some have attempted to evade the force of this verse by the use of a pseudo parallel sentence, "He that getteth on a train and is seated shall arrive in Chicago." The allegation would then be that while it was true that one must get on the train, one did not necessarily have to be seated in order to arrive in Chicago. According to those making this pseudo parallel, one is saved at the point of faith, prior to and without baptism. But, this claim renders ridiculous the alleged parallel. The illustration, to be true to their belief, would need to say, "the one who gets on a train is already in Chicago before he has time to be seated," a remarkable feat indeed. That which proves too much does not prove anything. The error lies in the effort to explain away a clear fact of the Bible by an illustration. I believe the reader can see that the sentence does not void the force of our Lord's teaching.

A second approach to an understanding of Mark 16:16 is to discuss the verse from the standpoint of English grammar. The first half of the verse is a complex sentence with two clauses, one independent and one subordinate. The independent clause is "He shall be saved." "He" is the subject and "shall be saved" is the verb. Who shall be saved? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. "That" is a relative pronoun whose antecedent is "he" and serves as the subject of the subordinate clause, "that believeth and is baptized." "Believeth and is baptized" is the compound predicate of "that" and this subordinate clause serves as an adjective that describes who the "he" is. It is not just any "he" that shall be saved but rather, the one who believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Notice also the coordinating conjunction "and." This places the verbs "believeth" and "baptized" on the same level and shows that both are equally necessary to accomplish salvation.

A third way to approach an understanding of Mark 16:16 is from the original language. In the Greek, "believeth" is an aorist active participle and "baptized" is an aorist passive participle. Literally the sentence reads, "The one having believed and the one having been baptized shall be saved."

It is a well known fact among Greke grammarians that the aorist participle represents action taking place before the action of the leading verb, no matter what the tense of the leading verb is. Machen, in his New Testament Greek for Beginners, says, "the aorist participle denotes action prior to the action denoted by the leading verb, whether the action denoted by the leading verb is past, present or future" (Page 116). In the case of the sentence under consideration, the leading verb "shall be saved" is future tense. The action of believing and being baptized is action taking place before the action of the leading verb. Therefore, it is impossible to conclude anything else on the basis of the grammar, except that believing and being baptized must take place before one is saved.

The conclusion from all of this discussion is that it does not matter from what standpoint one views Mark 16:16. The truth is, it sets forth the good news of the Lord's Great Commission and the requirements of those wanting to be saved. The only way around the verb is to deny it. Yet, even then, the verse still says what it says, and teaches what it teaches.