2. Theater: The stories of Mark are not realistic,

but theatrical, theater within theater, play within play. In Mark 1:4, John stands baptizing (so literally in the Greek) in the desert.

But how is John to baptize if he has no water to wash away sins?

In 1:5, where the act of baptism is told, the ancient manuscripts already added the water, there it says: they were baptized in the Jordan.