Repent
I always heard repent in Mark 1:15 as a command to feel sorry. The word is metanoia, a changed mind, and Jesus spoke it because the kingdom had come near.
KING JAMES VERSION
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent (μετάνοια · metanoia) ye, and believe the gospel.
MARK 1 : 15
Say the word repent out loud, and listen to what your own ear does with it. Most of us hear a raised voice and a pointed finger. Somewhere along the way the word came to mean feeling sorry, and feeling sorry hard enough, and long enough, that God might finally be satisfied with the misery.
Then comes the surprise of Mark 1:15. This is the first preaching we hear from Jesus in Mark's Gospel, the opening words of his public ministry, and repent is in them. But listen to how it sits. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. That is not a man demanding misery. That is a man announcing an arrival. Something has come near, and because it has come near, everything must turn.
The word Jesus used is metanoia, spoken as a command, metanoeite. It is built from two small pieces. Meta carries the sense of change. Nous is the mind. Metanoia is a changed mind. It is not a mood or a feeling. It is a mind that thought one way about God and about where life was headed, and now thinks another way, and begins to move in the direction the new mind is facing.
The reason our ear hears sorrow instead is old. When the Bible went into Latin, this word became paenitentia, a word about penalty and sorrow, and the old Latin Bible rendered the command do penance. From that Latin root English got repent. The sorrow rode into our language inside the word itself, centuries before any of us were born. It was never in the Greek.
A changed mind is no small thing. Every one of us steers by what we believe. Let a man become convinced the bridge ahead is out, and nobody will have to beg him to take the other road. His feet obey his mind. That is why Jesus asks for the mind first. Feelings follow sometimes, and sometimes they lag for years. But a mind persuaded that the kingdom of God has come near will begin to walk differently, whether the feelings have caught up or not.
Greek keeps a separate word for being sorry. Matthew reaches for it when he tells us that Judas, seeing what he had done, repented himself. That word is metamelomai, regret. Judas was as sorry as a man can be, and his sorrow never turned him around. It only looked backward, and it carried him to a terrible end. Peter denied the same Lord on the same night, and Peter wept bitterly too. The difference is that Peter turned. His mind about himself and about his Lord was changed, and when the risen Jesus called to him from the shore, he came. Sorrow alone looks backward. Metanoia faces forward.
And notice that Jesus does not leave the word standing alone. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. One breath holds both. The turn and the trust are a single motion, the way a man turning from a wall is in the same motion turning toward the room. Metanoia is not the toll you pay before the good news is handed over. It is what the good news does to a mind that receives it.
Which is why the kingdom comes first in the sentence. Jesus does not say turn, and perhaps God will draw near. He says God has drawn near, therefore turn. The nearness is the reason for the turn, not the reward for it. Repent, in the mouth of Jesus, is not an order to feel worse. It is an invitation to think again, because the King you thought was far away is standing closer than you knew.
The Kingdom of God is not a distant promise. It is the present reality of Christ's rule in every heart that surrenders to Him. When you draw near to Jesus, you discover that His peace, His power, and His presence have been closer than you ever imagined.
MEDITATE ON THIS
Repentance is not feeling sorry enough. It is a new mind, turned toward the King who has come near.
A PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you came near before I ever turned. I confess I have tried to feel sorry enough instead of thinking new. Give me the changed mind your word calls for. Turn my steps to follow where it faces. Amen.
— Mark
The Work Behind This Entry
The Greek and the word study below were worked out with an AI research partner. The seeing and the writing are mine.
The Word. Metanoia (μετάνοια, Strong's G3341) is a noun built from meta, carrying the sense of change, and nous, the mind: a change of mind. In Mark 1:15 Jesus speaks the verb of the same family, metanoeite, from metanoeō (G3340), a present command: be changed in mind, and keep on being changed. Thayer gives the family as changing one's mind for the better. The older Greek dictionaries add the sense of thinking again, thinking after the fact. The study follows the noun, because the noun names the thing the verb commands.
How the Translations Render It. The KJV gives the command as repent ye, and nearly every English version since has kept repent. The rendering is not wrong, but the English word descends from the Latin paenitentia, a word about penalty and sorrow, and the old Latin Bible rendered the command do penance. The sorrow rode into English inside the word itself, centuries ago. It was never in the Greek, which asks for a changed mind and the changed life that follows one.
Where the Word Shows Up. The KJV is remarkably steady with this family. The verb metanoeō appears 34 times in the New Testament, and the KJV renders it repent all 34 times. The noun metanoia appears 24 times, and the KJV gives repentance for all 24. Ranked: repent (34), repentance (24), nothing else. The drift did not happen at the translation table. It happened inside the English word, which took on sorrow from its Latin ancestry while the Greek went on meaning a changed mind.
Going Deeper. BibleHub on Mark 1:15 (biblehub.com/mark/1-15.htm) · Blue Letter Bible lexicon, metanoia G3341 (blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3341) · Blue Letter Bible lexicon, metanoeō G3340 (blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3340) · BibleGateway parallel translations (biblegateway.com)
A Note on the Reading. That metanoia names a change of mind rather than a feeling of sorrow is the broad agreement of the standard dictionaries. That the nearness of the kingdom is the reason for the turn, and not its reward, is my reading of the verse, and I hold it out to you as that.