YLT:
13 and he was there in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by the Adversary, and he was with the beasts, and the messengers were ministering to him.
14 And after the delivering up [παραδοθῆναι] of John, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of the reign of God,
15 and saying -- `Fulfilled hath been the time, and the reign of God hath come nigh, reform ye, and believe in the good news.'
But what does παραδοθῆναι really mean and how was it used outside of the Bible? The only translations of the word I can find all come from Biblical usages. It apparently occurs just once in the LXX meaning something like "move away": https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/le ... E%B1%CE%B9
I'm convinced that it was John who was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan here, not Jesus. And that the "delivering up" of John is referring to the "delivering up" of John to Satan.
First of all, the claim that John was being "taken away" comes out of nowhere in the traditional reading of Mark. Jesus was baptized by John, then he's driven into the wilderness, then the next thing we hear, with no explanation is that John was taken away.
But this is resolved if instead what the story says is that Jesus was baptized and then John was driven into the wilderness, and thus after John had been driven away Jesus started proclaiming his message. Then the statement that John had been "driven away" concludes the driving of John into the wilderness, so now this claim doesn't come out of nowhere.
But, it would be helpful here to have a better understanding of what παραδοθῆναι really meant in Greek and how it could be interpreted, outside of Biblical examples. From this context, I would like to be able to interpret it as "driven away". Is that a valid interpretation?