“And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:”
As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove — the Greek word for torn open (schizō) is violent; this is not a gentle opening but a rending of the boundary between the divine and human realms. Isaiah 64:1 had prayed that God would tear open the heavens and come down — Mark's use of the same word signals the prayer's answer. The Spirit descending like a dove echoes the Spirit hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2, positioning the baptism as the beginning of the new creation. The dove may also evoke Noah's dove returning after the flood — the Spirit resting on Jesus as the sign that the new world is beginning.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:10
Mark the Evangelist, like a hart, longing after the fountains of water, leaps forward over places, smooth and steep; and, as a bee laden with honey, he sips the tops of the flowers.
He was baptized, that by being baptized Himself He might shew His approval of John’s baptism [ed. note: vol i, pl 109, note h], and that, by sanctifying the waters of Jordan through the descent of the dove, He might shew the coming of the Holy Ghost in the laver of believers.
Wherefore Matthew relates that the voice said, 'This is my beloved Son;' for he wished to shew that the words, 'This is My Son,' were in fact said, that thus the persons who heard it might know that He, and not another, was the Son of God.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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