New Testament · Gospel

Mark 6:12

Rejected and Relentless

So they set out and preached that the people should repent. Mark 6:12 · Berean Standard Bible
What It Means

Mark 6:12, in plain English

So the disciples went out and preached that people should turn their lives around — repent. They carried Jesus' message to places he couldn't personally go.

Why it's here

Their message was simple and powerful: change direction, turn toward God. The same message Jesus preached, now multiplied through twelve teams.

Who's speaking

Mark summarizes what the disciples did on their mission trip.

Where it sits in the story

They did it. They went out, spoke up, and called people to repentance. Jesus' message was now spreading farther and faster than ever through his sent-out followers.

A Closer Look

The scholarly reading

The disciples' message centers on repentance (metanoia) — a change of mind and direction — consistent with both John the Baptist's (1:4) and Jesus' (1:15) proclamation. Their preaching extends Jesus' own kerygma.

Language and setting

The call to repentance as the disciples' core message connects their mission to the broader prophetic tradition and to the kingdom announcement that frames Mark's Gospel from its opening verses.

Voice

Mark summarizes the content and activity of the disciples' mission.

Significance

The Twelve set out and preach the same message as their teacher: repent. Their mission is an extension of Jesus' own ministry — the kingdom proclamation now multiplied through twelve voices.

In context

Mark 6:10–14

10And He told them, “When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area.

11If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.”

12So they set out and preached that the people should repent.

13They also drove out many demons and healed many of the sick, anointing them with oil.

14Now King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Read all of Mark 6 — His hometown dismisses him, a king beheads his cousin, and the crowds won't stop coming. Jesus feeds five thousand anyway.

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