Mark 1:5

ἐξεπορεύετο … ἐβαπτίζοντο. Both actions went on continually. The latter verb is passive (Mark 1:9; Mark 8:3), not middle (Acts 22:16; 1 Corinthians 10:2).

πᾶσα … πάντες. Popular hyperbole, which misleads no one, cf. Mark 1:37. But it is difficult for us to estimate the enthusiasm caused by the hope that, after centuries of silence, Jehovah was again speaking to His people through a Prophet. Most of the people regarded John as a Prophet, most of the hierarchy did not; but the hierarchy did not dare to avow their denial openly (Mark 11:27-33). Mark at the time of John’s preaching was quite old enough to remember the excitement, and he was living in Jerusalem. He may here be giving his own recollections.

ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα. Elsewhere Mk says simply ἡ Ἰουδαία (Mark 3:7; Mark 10:1; Mark 13:14). Judaea proper is meant, not the whole of Palestine.

Ἰεροσολυμεῖται. Smooth breathing; the aspirate has come from a mistaken connexion with ἱερός. So also in Ἰεροσόλυμα. See on Mark 10:32.

ἐβαπτίζοντο. Were one after another baptized.

ἐξομολογούμενοι. Confessing right out, in full and openly. Not classical, and rare in late Grk, except in LXX. and N.T. See on John 1:9. The meaning may be “thereby confessing their sins”; their asking for baptism was ipso facto a confession of sin. More probably it means that they there and then made an acknowledgment in words. Cf. Acts 19:18; James 5:16. In LXX. it commonly means “giving praise”; cf. Luke 10:21; Romans 14:11; Romans 15:9. The two meanings are connected, Joshua 7:19, Δὸς δόξαν τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ δὸς τὴν ἐξομολόγησιν, when Joshua urges Achan to confess his guilt. See also LXX. of Daniel 9:20. Here, as in Mark 1:13; Mark 1:39; Mark 2:23; Mark 3:1, we have an important fact expressed by a participle attached to the finite verb.