{In the Jordan} (eis ton Iordan(886e)). So in verse 10 , ek
tou hudatos, out of the water, after the baptism into the
Jordan. Mark is as fond of "straightway" (euthus) as Matthew is
of "then" ( ote). {Rent asunder} (schizomenous). Split like a
garment, present passive participle. Jesus saw the heavens
parting as he came up out of the water, a more vivid picture than
the "opened" in Mt 3:16 and Lu 3:21 . Evidently the Baptist
saw all this and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove
because he later mentions it ( Joh 1:32 ). The Cerinthian
Gnostics took the dove to mean the heavenly _aeon Christ_ that
here descended upon the man Jesus and remained with him till the
Cross when it left him, a sort of forecast of the modern
distinction between the Jesus of history and the theological
Christ.
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