The Authority of Jesus is Revealed in The Way He Teaches (1:21-22).
‘And they go into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority and not as the scribes.'
Mark rarely mentions place names but he mentions one here. Capernaum (originally ‘village of Nahum') was a fairly large township located at Tell Hum by the side of the Sea of Galilee, on its North West shore. It was near a copious spring, the ‘place of seven springs'. It was regularly visited by Jesus and He and His family made it their home when they left Nazareth (Matthew 4:13). It would later come under condemnation because in spite of the mighty works revealed there it on the whole failed to fully respond (Matthew 11:23). It is interesting in this regard that Jesus is never described as being in the larger cities of Galilee such as Sepphoris or Tarichaea or in Tiberias. He appears mainly to have kept to the smaller towns and villages and the open countryside. Possibly He felt that His ministry would be more effective in those areas and was satisfied that people from the larger cities would come out to hear Him, and would do it in places where they were more likely to give more careful heed to His words.
When the Sabbath day came, the people would regularly go to the Synagogue to pray and hear the Scriptures read and taught. Synagogues were basically places for formal prayer and teaching the Scriptures, set up in different towns and locally controlled. They had probably originally arisen in the Exile, and there were synagogues scattered among many nations. In larger cities such as Jerusalem there would be a number of synagogues catering for different classes of Jews. The Ruler of the Synagogue could and would call on any competent distinguished visitor to speak, and we have no record of Jesus ever having been refused the privilege, although no doubt such a situation might have arisen at certain synagogues in Jerusalem had He sought it.
The Ruler of the Synagogue was responsible for the administration of the affairs of the Synagogue, and especially for the arrangements for the services, but he was not himself specifically a teacher. There was also the Chazzan who was responsible for taking out and storing away the scrolls on which the Scriptures were written, and the Dispensers of Alms who distributed the daily cash collections to the poor. The synagogue as a whole was administered by ruling officials also called ‘rulers' (Mark 5:35). But there was no duly appointed teacher.
So Jesus entered the Synagogue and was called on to teach. And His teaching astonished and excited them. Although in general following Rabbinic patterns He spoke as One Who could speak on His own authority, as a prophet of God, rather than like their own teachers, the Scribes, who taught by citing other authorities, especially the traditions of the Elders, the oral tradition built up in the past. An example of Jesus' authoritative teaching can be found in Matthew 5 where He regularly says, ‘but I say to you'. Yet to some extent He won the respect of these teachers for they also called Him ‘Teacher' (Mark 10:17; Mark 12:19 compare Matthew 8:19 which is near Capernaum).
But Mark's purpose is to draw out the authority of the teaching of Jesus. He is the One Who has received the Spirit, appoints lifelong disciples and teaches with unusual authority. For here is One Who is unique and authoritative in the power of the Spirit of God, a prophet and more than a prophet.