“And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
A voice came from heaven: you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased — the heavenly declaration combines Psalm 2:7 (the royal enthronement psalm: you are my Son), Isaiah 42:1 (my chosen one in whom I delight, the first Servant Song), and possibly Genesis 22:2 (your son, your only son, whom you love). Jesus is simultaneously the royal Messiah of Psalm 2, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 42, and the beloved Son in the pattern of Isaac. The voice speaks to Jesus in the second person (you are my Son), making the baptism a private divine confirmation before the public ministry begins. The entire Trinity is present: Son in the water, Spirit descending, Father speaking.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:11
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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