Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified. The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort. They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.
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Mark 15:15-17 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified. The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort. They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him. They began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees, did homage to him. When they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, and put his own garments on him. They led him out to crucify him. They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his cross. They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.” They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it.
Parallel Translations
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Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort.
They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.
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And so Pylate willinge to content the people lowsed them Barrabas and delyvered Iesus when he had scourged him for to be crucified.
And the souddeers ledde him awaye into the commen hall and called togedder the whoole multitude
and they clothed him with purple and they platted a croune of thornes and crouned him with all
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So Pilate willing to content the people, loosed them Barabbas, and deliuered Iesus, when he had scourged him, that he might be crucified.
Then the souldiers led him away into the hall, which is the common hall, and called together the whole band,
And clad him with purple, and platted a crowne of thornes, and put it about his head,
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Cross-references (24)
- Matthew 27:27-31 (v16) Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium, and gathered the whole garrison together against him. They stripped him, and…
- Isaiah 50:6 (v15) I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
- Matthew 27:26 (v15) Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus he flogged and delivered to be crucified.
- John 19:1 (v15) So Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him.
- John 19:9 (v16) He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
Show all 24 cross-references
- Psalms 129:3 (v15) The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.
- Proverbs 29:25 (v15) The fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.
- Matthew 27:28-30 (v17) They stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him. They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and…
- Mark 10:34 (v15) They will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
- Psalms 57:11 (v15) Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
- Matthew 26:3 (v16) Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called…
- John 18:28 (v16) They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they…
- John 19:2-5 (v17) The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. They kept saying, “Hail, King of the…
- John 19:16 (v15) So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.
- 1 Peter 2:24 (v15) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Matthew 20:19 (v15) and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”
- Luke 18:33 (v15) They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
- Luke 23:24-25 (v15) Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done. He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for…
- John 18:33 (v16) Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
- Acts 10:1 (v16) Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
- Acts 24:27 (v15) But when two years were fulfilled, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and desiring to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in…
- Acts 25:9 (v15) But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and be judged by me there…
- Luke 23:11 (v17) Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate.
- Galatians 1:19 (v15) But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v17 Christ going about to take away the sins of…
Christ going about to take away the sins of men, who went about to usurp the throne of God himself, is condemned as one that hunted after the kingdom, and mocked with a false show of a kingdom, that we on the other side, who shall indeed be eternal kings, might receive the crown of glory at God’s own hand.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On v15 7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay…
7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.
8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.
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9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.
12 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?
13 And they cried out again, Crucify him.
14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.
15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
Ver. 15. When he had scourged him] Purposely to move the people to pity him, and therefore brought him forth so misused, with, "Behold the man." But this was ill done of Pilate nevertheless, as was also his comparing with Barabbas, though with intent so to have delivered him. For we may not do evil that good may come thereof.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v16 The next part of our Saviour’s sufferings, consisted of…
The next part of our Saviour’s sufferings, consisted of cruel mockings; he had owned himself to be the King of the Jews; that is, a spiritual King in and over his church; but the Jews expecting that the Messiah should have appeared in the pomp of an earthly prince, and finding themselves disappointed of their expectation in our Saviour, they look upon him as a deceiver and imposter; and accordingly treat him as a mock-king,with all the marks of derision and scorn; for first they put a crown upon his head, but a very ignominious and cruel one, a crown of thorns; they place a sceptre in his hand, but that of a reed; a robe of scarlet or purple upon his body, and then bowed their knees before him as they were wont to do before their princes, crying, Hail, King.
Thus were all the marks of scorn imaginable put upon our dear Redeemer; yet what they did in jest, God permitted to be in earnest. For all these things were signs and marks of sovereignty; and Almighty God caused the regal dignity of his Son to shine forth, even in the midst of his greatest abasement; whence was all this jeering and sport, but to flout majesty? And why did Christ undergo all this ignominy, disgrace, and shame, but to shew what was due unto us for our sins? as also to give us an example to bear all the scorn, reproach, and shame imaginable for his sake; who for the joy that was set before him, despised the shame, as well as endured the cross.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v15 Here, I. Pilate, to gratify the Jews' malice, delivers…
Here, I. Pilate, to gratify the Jews' malice, delivers Christ to be crucified, Mar 15:15. Willing to content the people, to do enough for them (so the word is), and make them easy, that he might keep them quiet, he released Barabbas unto them, who was the scandal and plague of their nation, and delivered Jesus to be crucified, who was the glory and blessing of their nation. Though he had scourged him before, hoping that would content them, and then not designing to crucify him, yet he went on to that; for no wonder that he who could persuade himself to chastise one that was innocent (Luk 23:16), could by degrees persuade himself to crucify him.
Christ was crucified, for that was, 1. A bloody death, and without blood no remission, Heb 9:22. The blood is the life (Gen 9:4); it is the vehicle of the animal spirits, which connect the soul and body, so that the exhausting of the blood is the exhausting of the life. Christ was to lay down his life for us, and therefore shed his blood. Blood made atonement for the soul (Lev 17:11), and therefore in every sacrifice of propitiation special order was given for the pouring out of the blood, and the sprinkling of that before the Lord. Now, that Christ might answer all these types, he shed his blood. 2. It was a painful death; the pains were exquisite and acute, for death made its assaults upon the vitals by the exterior parts, which are quickest of sense. Christ died, so as that he might feel himself die, because he was to be both the priest and the sacrifice; so that he might be active in dying; because he was to make his soul an offering for sin. Tully calls crucifixion, Teterrimum supplicium - A most tremendous punishment: Christ would meet death in its greatest terror, and so conquer it. 3. It was a shameful death, the death of slaves, and the vilest malefactors; so it was accounted among the Romans. The cross and the shame are put together. God having been injured in his honour by the sin of man, it is in his honour that Christ makes him satisfaction, not only by denying himself in, and divesting himself of, the honours due to his divine nature, for a time, but by submitting the greatest reproach and ignominy the human nature was capable of being loaded with. Yet this was not the worst. 4. It was a cursed death; thus it was branded by the Jewish law (Deu 21:23); He that is hanged, is accursed of God, is under a particular mark of God's displeasure. It was the death that Saul's sons were put to, when the guilt of their father' bloody house was to be expiated, Sa2 21:6. Haman and his sons were hanged, Est 7:10; Est 9:13. We do not read any of the prophets of the Old Testament that were hanged; but now that Christ has submitted to be hanged upon a tree, the reproach and curse of that kind of death are quite rolled away, so that it ought to be any hindrance to the comfort of those who die either innocently or penitently, nor any diminution fRom. but rather an addition to, the glory of those who die martyrs for Christ, to be as he was, hanged upon a tree.
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II. Pilate, to gratify the gay humour of the Roman soldiers, delivered him to them, to be abused and spitefully treated, while they were preparing for the execution. They called together the whole regiment that was then in waiting, and they went into an inner hall, where they ignominiously abused our Lord Jesus, as a king, just as in the high priest's hall his servants had ignominiously abused him as a Prophet and Saviour. 1. Do kings wear robes of purple or scarlet? They clothed him with purple. This abuse done to Christ in his apparel should be an intimation to Christians, not to make the putting on of apparel their adorning, Pe1 3:4. Shall a purple or scarlet robe be matter of pride to a Christian, which was matter of reproach and shame to Christ. 2. Do kings wear crowns? They platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head. A crown of straw, or rushes, would have been banter enough; but this was pain also. He wore the crown of thorns which we had deserved, that we might wear the crown of glory which he merited. Let us be taught by these thorns, as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, to hate sin, and be uneasy under it, and to be in love with Jesus Christ, who is here a lily among thorns. If we be at any time afflicted with a thorn in the flesh, let it be our comfort, that our high priest is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, having himself known what thorns in the flesh meant. 3. Are kings attended with the acclamations of their subjects, O king, live for ever? That also is mimicked; they saluted him with "Hail, King of the Jews; such a prince, and such a people, even good enough for one another." 4. Kings have sceptres put into their hand, marks of dominion, as the crown is of dignity; to imitate this, they put a reed in his right hand. Those that despise the authority of Jesus Christ, as not to be observed and obeyed, who regard not either the precepts of his word, or the threatenings of his wrath, do, in effect, put a reed in his hand; nay, and, as these here, smite him on the head with it, such is the indignity they do him. 5. Subjects, when they swear allegiance, were wont to kiss their sovereign; and this they offered to do, but, instead of that, spit upon him. 6. Kings used to be addressed upon the knee; and this also they brought into the jest, they bowed the knee, and worshipped him; this they did in scorn, to make themselves and one another laugh. We were by sin become liable to everlasting shame and contempt, to deliver us from which, our Lord Jesus submitted to this shame and contempt for us. He was thus mocked, not in his own clothes, but in another's, to signify that he suffered not for his own sin; the crime was ours, the shame his. Those who pretend subjection to Christ, but at the same time give themselves up to the service of the world and the flesh, do, in effect, the same that they did, who bowed the knee to him in mockery, and abused him with, Hail, king of the Jews, when they said, We have no king but Caesar. Those that bow the knee to Christ, but do not bow the soul, that draw nigh to him with their mouths, and honour him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him, put the same affront upon him that these here did.
III. The soldiers, at the hour appointed, led him away from Pilate's judgment-hall to the place of execution (Mar 15:20), as a sheep to the slaughter; he was led forth with the workers of iniquity, though he did no sin. But lest his death, under the load of his cross, which he was to carry, should prevent the further cruelties they intended, they compelled one Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross for him. He passed by, coming out of the country or out of the fields, not thinking of any such matter. Note, We must not think it strange, if crosses come upon us suddenly, and we be surprised by them. The cross was a very troublesome unwieldy load: but he that carried it a few minutes, had the honour to have his name upon the record in the book of God, though otherwise an obscure person; so that, wherever this gospel is preached; so that, wherever this gospel is preached, there shall this be told for a memorial to him: in like manner, though no affliction, no cross, for the present, be joyous, but grievous, yet afterward it yields a crown of glory to them that are exercised thereby.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–17 And the soldiers led him away into the hall,....…
And the soldiers led him away into the hall,.... From the place called the pavement, where was the judge's bench, from which he passed sentence on Christ, to a large room,
called the praetorium, or judgment hall; being the hall, or room, where the praetor, or Roman magistrate, kept his court of judicature; and is the same place the Jews would not go into, lest they should be defiled, and become unmeet to eat the Chagigah that day; and into which Pilate had Jesus more than once alone, Joh 18:28, but now he had a large company with him:
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and they call together the whole band; very likely the soldiers, into whose custody Jesus was put, and who led him away, were the four soldiers that attended his crucifixion, and parted his garments; but for greater diversion they got together the whole band to which they belonged; See Gill on Mat 27:27.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Praetorium - The inner hall, where the praetor, a…
Praetorium - The inner hall, where the praetor, a Roman magistrate, used to give judgment. But St. John calls the whole palace by this name. Matt. xxvii, 27; John xix, 2.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v17 Verse 17. And platted a crown of thorns] In…
Verse 17. And platted a crown of thorns] In the note on Mt 27:29, I have ventured to express a doubt whether our Lord was crowned with thorns, in our sense of the word; this crown being designed as an instrument of torture. I am still of the same opinion, having considered the subject more closely since writing that note. As there I have referred to Bishop Pearce, a man whose merit as a commentator is far beyond my praise, and who, it is to be regretted, did not complete his work on the New Testament, I think it right to insert the whole of his note here.
"The word ακανθων may as well be the plural genitive case of the word ακανθος as of ακανθη: if of the latter, it is rightly translated, of thorns; but the former would signify what we call bear's-foot, and the French, branche ursine. This is not of the thorny kind of plants, but is soft and smooth. Virgil calls it mollis acanthus, Ecl. iii. 45, Geor. iv. 137. So does Pliny, sec. Epist. ver. 6. And Pliny the elder, in his Nat. Hist. xxii. 22, p. 277, edit. Hard., says that it is laevis, smooth; and that it is one of those plants that are cultivated in gardens. I have somewhere read, but cannot at present recollect where, that this soft and smooth herb was very common in and about Jerusalem. I find nothing in the New Testament said concerning this crown, which Pilate's soldiers put on the head of Jesus, to incline one to think that it was of thorns, and intended, as is usually supposed, to put him to pain. The reed put into his hand, and the scarlet robe on his back, were only meant as marks of mockery and contempt. One may also reasonably judge, by the soldiers being said to plat this crown, that it was not composed of such twigs and leaves as were of a thorny nature. I do not find that it is mentioned by any of the primitive Christian writers as an instance of the cruelty used towards our Saviour, before he was led to his crucifixion, till the time of Tertullian, who lived after Jesus's death at the distance of above 160 years. He indeed seems to have understood ακανθων in the sense of thorns, and says, De Corona Militar. sect. xiv. edit. Pamel. Franck. 1597, Quale, oro te, Jesus Christus sertum pro utroque sexu subiit? Ex spinis, opinor, et tribulis. The total silence of Polycarp, Barnabas, Clem. Romanus, and all the other Christian writers whose works are now extant, and who wrote before Tertullian, in particular, will give some weight to incline one to think that this crown was not platted with thorns. But as this is a point on which we have not sufficient evidence, I leave it almost in the same state of uncertainty in which I found it. The reader may see a satisfactory account of acanthus, bear's-foot, in Quincy's English Dispensatory, part ii. sect. 3, edit. 8, 1742."
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This is the whole of the learned and judicious prelate's note; on which I have only to observed that the species of acanthus described by Virgil and the two Plinys, as mollis and laevis, soft and smooth, is, no doubt, the same as that formerly used in medicine, and described by Quincy and other pharmacopaeists; but there are other species of the same plant that are prickly, and particularly those called the acanthus spinosus, and the ilicifolius, the latter of which is common in both the Indies: this has leaves something like our common holly, the jagged edges of which are armed with prickles; but I do not conceive that this kind was used, nor indeed any other plant of a thorny nature, as the Roman soldiers who platted the crown could have no interest in adding to our Lord's sufferings; though they smote him with the rod, yet their chief object was to render him ridiculous, for pretending, as they imagined, to regal authority. The common wild acanthas or bear's-foot, which I have often met in the dry turf bogs in Ireland, though it have the appearance of being prickly, yet is not, in fact, so. Several shoots grow from one root, about four or five inches long, and about as thick as a little finger. A parcel of such branches, platted by their roots in a string, night be made to look even ornamental, tied about the temples and round the head. It would finely imitate a crown or diadem. But I know not if this plant be a native of Judea.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v16 Mar 15:16-19. And the soldiers led him away —…
Mar 15:16-19. And the soldiers led him away — The soldiers, knowing that it was a Roman custom to scourge prisoners just before they were put to death, interpreted Pilate’s order on this head as a declaration that he was immediately to be crucified; therefore they led him to the hall, called the Pretorium — As being the place where the pretor, a Roman magistrate, used to keep his court, and give judgment; but in common language, the term was applied to the palace in general. And they call together the whole band, &c. — Or cohort, to insult and torment him, not being concerned to keep any measures with a person whom they looked upon as entirely abandoned to their will. And they clothed him with purple — As royal robes were usually purple and scarlet, Mark and John term this a purple robe, Matthew a scarlet one. The Tyrian purple is said not to have been very different from scarlet. They clothed Jesus in this gaudy dress that he might have something of a mock resemblance to a prince. And platted a crown of thorns, &c. — Still further to ridicule his pretensions to royalty, which they considered as an affront to their nation and emperor; and began to salute him — In a ludicrous manner, as if he had been a new-created prince, and this his coronation-day. And they smote him on the head —
And so, as it were, nailed down the thorns on his forehead and temples, occasioning thereby as it may be reasonably supposed, exquisite pain, as well as a great effusion of blood. And did spit upon him — Even in his very face; and bowing their knees, worshipped him — Did him reverence in a scoffing and insulting manner: all which indignities and cruelties this holy sufferer bore with the utmost meekness and composure, neither reviling nor threatening them; but silently committing himself to the righteous invisible Judge, 1Pe 2:23. See note on Mat 27:27-31, where these particular circumstances of his humiliation are enlarged upon.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Called Praetorium - The hall of the “praetor,” or…
Called Praetorium - The hall of the “praetor,” or Roman governor, where he sat to administer justice.
Whole band - See the notes at Mat 27:27.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v16 6. Jesus on Golgotha.—His Death, and the Death signs.…
6. Jesus on Golgotha.—His Death, and the Death signs. a. The Mockings and the Lord’s Silence. b. The Crucifixion; and Blasphemy against, and Silence of, the Lord. c. The World Darkened; the Anguish-cry, and the Silence of Victory; the Death-shriek, and the Death silence of the Lord. d. The Rent in the Temple-vail, and the Silence of God upon the End of the Old Covenant. Mar_15:16-38.
(Parallels: Mat_27:27-53; Luk_23:26-46; Joh_19:17-30.)
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A. Mar_15:16-19
16And the soldiers led him away into the hall called Prætorium; and they call together the whole band. 17And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! 19And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and, bowing their knees, worshipped him.
B. Mar_15:20-32
20And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own5clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander andRufus, to bear his cross. 22And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 23And they gave him to drink6wine mingled withmyrrh: but he received it not. 24And when they had crucified him, they parted his gar ments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25And it was the third hour; and they crucified him. 26And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.729And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,830Save thyself, and come down9from the cross. 31Likewise also the chief priests, mocking, said among themselves, with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
C. Mar_15:33-37
33And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?10which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thouforsaken me? 35And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
D. Mar_15:38
38And the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Comp. the parallels in Matthew and Luke.—Mark points out more distinctly the ironical consciousness with which the cowardly Pilate yielded to the demands of the populace. With Matthew, he employs φραγελλώσας παρέδωκε, in which the thought is involved that the surrender was decided in the scourging. In describing the mocking, he omits, like John, the mention of the reed, which the soldiers, according to Matthew, forced into the Lord’s hand, or sought to force, and with which they struck Him (probably because He let it fall). Mark designates Simon of Cyrene the most particularly: he is the father of Alexander and Rufus. The address of the Lord to the daughters of Jerusalem, as they were following, which Luke reports, is omitted by Mark, as well as by Matthew. The bitter wine he names myrrh-wine. He makes the crucifixion to begin at the third hour. The quotation of Jesus from Isa_53:12, which we consider genuine, is given by him alone. The address of Jesus to Mary and to John, beneath the cross, is passed over by him as by the other Synoptics; also the repentance of the thief, in which he agrees with Matthew. He describes more graphically than the other Evangelists the mockery of the passers by, using the word οὐὰ for this purpose; the derision and irony of the priests is given in their own words. He records in the original Syriac, Eloi, Eloi, etc. Of the man who gave the Lord vinegar to drink, he says indefinitely, “A certain one,” and that he called to the others, “Let alone.” Of the seven sayings of the Crucified, he records, like Matthew, only the Eli, Eli, and the last loud, piercing cry of Christ, without stating what the Lord expressed in it.
Mar_15:16. Into the hall (within, into the inner court).—Comp. Note on Mat_27:27. They conducted Him into the palace-court, which we may easily suppose was surrounded by the neighboring buildings of the governor’s palace, forming a kind of barracks.
Mar_15:17. A scarlet military mantle (see on Mat_27:28) was made to represent the imperial purple; hence the designation a purple (πορφυραν), a purple robe, as Mark and John describe it. And because this is the symbolic import of the robe, there is no discrepancy. The scarlet military cloak no more required to be a real purple, than the crown of thorns required to be a real crown, or the reed a real sceptre; for the whole transaction was an ironical drama, and such a one, too, that the infamous abuse might be readily perceived through the pretended glorification. The staff must be a reed, the symbol of impotence; the crown must injure and pierce the brow; and so too must the purple present the symbol of miserable, pretended greatness: and this was done by its being an old camp mantle.
Mar_15:21. And they compel.—Upon the term ἀγγαρεύειν, comp. Note on Mat_5:41.—The father of Alexander and Rufus.—These men must have been well-known persons in the then existing Church; and they testify to the personal, lively recollection and originality of Mark, as does his “Timæus, the son of Bartimæus.” It is most natural to regard them as persons well known to the Church at Rome. On this account, Rufus, whom Paul greets, Rom_16:13, may well be this Rufus. The Alexander, however, who is spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, Act_19:33, appears not to have been a Christian, but to have belonged to the hostile Judaism. (Lange’s Apostol. Zeitalter, ii p. 275 f.) Whether he was the same person as Alexander the coppersmith, who was the enemy of Paul, cannot be positively made out. Meyer: “But how common were these names, and how many of the then well-known Christians are strangers to us. In ‘Actis Andreœ et Petri’ both are mentioned as the companions of Peter in Rome.” They are, of course, here brought forth from the treasures of the evangelical tradition.—Coming out of the country.—Meyer will have it, that this fact, mentioned likewise by Luke, is a proof that Jesus was not crucified on the first day of the feast. But in this opinion, no attention is paid to the circumstances: 1. That the country, or the country-seat as it might be termed, from which Simon was coming, might have lain within an easy Sabbath-day’s journey of Jerusalem (Meyer maintains,—If so, it must have been stated!); 2. that in case the Passover began with Friday, the second day, as Sabbath and Passover together, would be the chief festival-day; 3. that it is by no means historical to admit no contraventions of the Sabbath-law, and, furthermore, that it would be the very thing to turn the attention of the multitude to Simon, if there was anything remarkable, anything offensive, in his appearing at such a time. Such results are by no means uncommon in the similar instances of multitudes running together; so that the notice rather supports the view which adopts the first feast-day as the one. Jesus was crucified under the pretext that He was the great Sabbath-breaker. The people, in their witticism, might perhaps say, See, there comes another Sabbath breaker from the country; let him suffer a little along with the other.
Mar_15:22. Golgotha.—Meyer makes Golgotha genitive11(as if, Golgotha’s place). Because the translation is κρανίου τόπος. But the question is, Has not τόπος in the first instance a more general import,—the place (Golgotha)? John retranslates κρανίου τόπος into Hebrew, Golgotha; Matthew also names the place, Golgotha; Luke simply, Skull. No doubt it is strange that Mark has τόπος following Golgotha. Probably the place was called sometimes Skull, and sometimes Place of a Skull, and Mark gives the more exact designation. See on Mat_27:33.
Mar_15:23. They gave Him; that is, they offered Him myrrh-wine. This myrrh-wine cannot, from the different descriptions of Mark, be identical with the vinegar, or the wine-vinegar, of which a drink was at a later period given to Jesus. Most likely the wine was in each case the same, but the narcotic intermixture was omitted in the second instance.
Mar_15:24. Parted his garments.—John gives the more exact description. The prevailing point of view among the first three Evangelists was the making the division an occasion for gambling. Comp. Note on Mat_27:35. The form of the play is not closely described. Meyer: “We must leave unsettled the question, Whether the lot-casting was performed with dice, or the lots were shaken in some vessel (a helmet), and that which first fell out decided in favor of him to whom it belonged.”
Mar_15:25. And it was the third hour.—Upon the apparent discrepancy between this declaration of Mark and Matthew, and the statement of John, Joh_19:14, comp. Note on Mat_27:45. We cannot avoid, however, drawing attention to the striking relation subsisting between the third and the sixth hour. At the third hour, by the crucifixion of Jesus, the endurance of the cross for His people was decided, as it meets us in the superscription, The King of the Jews, and is represented in the crucifixion of the thief (and the later deridings of the chief priests, etc.). But when the sixth hour came, and the darkness spread over the whole land—literally, over the whole world and earth—then was the judgment of the whole world decided. The third hour was the dying hour of Judaism: in the sixth hour, the dying hour of the old world was present to the view in typical signs. We have here, also, to carefully note the relation between the superscription, which according to Mark was decided upon about the third hour, and the declaration of John, that it was about the sixth hour: “And he saith to the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with Him, away, crucify Him.” When the third hour had come, and it was advancing to the sixth, then was the crucifixion of Jesus decided in His being scourged, in accordance with the judgment of the people and of Pilate; but in this was, also, the crucifixion of the Jewish people themselves determined, which was first made apparent in the crucifixion of the two thieves in company with Jesus. About the sixth hour, according to John, the judgment of the world was decided along with that of Judaism—the presage of the dies iræ presented itself; that is to say, John has made this sign of the third hour to be the decisive, universal symbol, and has, on this account, probably brought it into connection with the sixth hour.
Mar_15:27. And with Him they crucify.—As to the alleged difference between the accounts of Mark and Luke, consult Note on Mat_27:38; Mat_27:44.
Mar_15:34. Eloi.—See Note on Mat_27:46.
Mar_15:36. Let alone; let us see.—According to Meyer, this is contradictory to the account given by Mat_27:49. But it is not to be overlooked, that there is no reason why, in this moment of the intensest excitement, two divisions might not make the same exclamation, and that, too, in different senses,—the one mocking, the other speaking more earnestly. (Comp. the scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth after the murder.) If this sympathizer meant it humanely with his cry, “Let alone,” perhaps the idea shot through him, that Elias might interpose in the last extremity.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The death.—The death of humanity in its life-germ is here completed in the death of Jesus. Considered in this light, Christ’s death is prophetical of the great dissolution of the world, to ensue at the end of all things. The extinction of the primary life: Christ condemned, His rights unacknowledged; derided, and by this derision looked upon by the world as destroyed; led forth, robbed, crucified, and in this act rejected in His person, and with His work, as the curse of the world; blasphemed, and so made to pronounce sentence of death upon the obdurate; Christ dead upon the cross. Hence there is announced, in presages, the future extinction of the derivative life, (i. e., the death of the world): The sun of the old world darkens at mid-day; the holy of holies of the divine ordinance in the old human world vanishes like a vision of the night, when the temple-vail rends asunder. All is now over with the old world; it has but to live out its remnant of life. It has judged itself; and in that self-condemnation lay God’s condemnation,—a condemnation which nothing but the conquering love of Christ could turn into a blessing.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See Matthew; also the preceding reflections.—Christ was, notwithstanding, the King of the Jews the whole crucifixion through. This is seen: 1. In the accusation of His enemies; 2. in the impression produced upon Pilate, and in his decision; 3. in the kingly ornaments which the soldiers placed upon Him; 4. in the train which bore Him forth with them out of Jerusalem; 5. in the superscription on the cross; 6. in the terror which breaks forth in the blasphemy of His foes; 7. in the miracles accompanying His death.—The great dying on Golgotha: 1. There dieth the King of the Jews; 2. there dieth the Son of God; 3. there dieth the old world; 4. there dieth old sin; 5. there dieth old death.—Simon of Cyrene and his sons; or, the everlasting memory of the cross-bearers and their children.—Simon; or, how man becomes unconsciously separated from his common-placeness, and involved in the great history of the cross.—The terrifying world-darkness at bright mid-day forms a symbol of the terrifying world darkness spread over mankind by their blindness of heart.—Christ the clear light of the world in this night of the world.—His heart and His eye are fixed most earnestly on God during this world judgment; and that preserves the world, which is lost in itself, from sinking into the abyss.—The unholy and the holy Golgotha: 1. The unholy: men of violence, drunkards, gamblers, thieves, blaspheming priests. 2. The holy: the great Sufferer, the temperate One in holy clearness of soul and knowledge, the Laborer, the Warrior of God, the Supplicant.—[The potion rejected and the potion accepted, or holy refreshment in the conflict of suffering enjoyed after the example of Christ: 1. As refreshment at the right time; 2. in the right place; 3. in the right measure 4. in the right consecration.]—The despair in the seeming triumph, and the triumph in the seeming despair: 1. In the conduct and mockery of the enemies; 2. in the supplicatory cry of the Lord: My God, etc.—The signs of hellish madness in the blasphemies with which the chief priests end their work.—Let alone, let us see; or, how, at the life-flame of the dying Jesus, a new life has kindled in the dying world: 1. From the horrors of His death springs the horror of the world; 2. from His trust in God, the world’s belief; 3. from His pity, the compassion of the world.—Let alone, let us see: or, this history is not yet completed; it is only beginning at the time when it seems to approach its completion.—The death-shriek of the Lord is the great waking call to a new life for the world of man.
Starke:—Quesnel:—Christ, by becoming the derision of His creatures, has atoned for the criminality of the creatures in mocking God and religion.—Many would willingly pass by the cross of Christ; but, before they are aware of it, they are laid hold of, and forced into companionship with Christ in suffering.—Participation with Jesus in the cross, is that which alone makes our name in truth eternally renowned, and prevents it from passing into forgetfulness.—At the end, the world is bitter as gall, but heaven is sweet.—Hedinger:—View, O my soul, in faith this picture of martyrdom!—Christ has been reckoned with the transgressors; hence we may console ourselves, that we shall come to God’s blessed companionship, and the company of the holy angels.—The understanding, in its wisdom, is offended at the cross of Christ.—He succeeds ill in the faith, who must see (Joh_20:29), and who will believe when he pleases (Joh_6:44).—Christ died for thee; be thou ready to die for Him.—When the true Lamb of God was offered, all the Levitical offerings found their completion.
Braune:—They caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him, Mat_21:39.—God’s wrath is heavier to bear than Christ’s cross.—Isa_53:12.—“My God,” etc. Let us imitate Him in the employment of the Holy Scriptures; also, that, whet in the anguish of our hearts we cannot pray any more in our own words, we may allow the Spirit, whose work the holy word is, to represent us with groanings that cannot be uttered.
Brieger:—And they that passed by. So thoroughly helpless was Jesus upon the cross, that this crowd easily persuaded themselves that all was deception that they had seen and heard of Jesus.—The chief priests. So spake Satan, too, in the wilderness: If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones, etc. To self-help he there challenged the Holy One of God: here he does the same through his well-approved servants.—Psa_2:5.—The darkness. God must witness against these murderers.—In the destruction of the holy of holies, Jehovah destroyed the temple itself. The Most Holy was taken forth from the city of Jerusalem and laid outside the gate upon Golgotha. There, too, was a vail rent, even the flesh of Christ (Heb_10:20).—Gossner, on Mar_15:30 :—Self-help.—One might often free oneself by a mere word. But if the truth and the honor of God suffer by that word, one may not speak it.—His death was the rising sun for the spirit-world; and therefore the world’s natural sunlight veiled itself before Him. (Lampe:—The sun set over Christ, and rose for me.)
Footnotes:
[5][Mar_15:20.—Codd. B., C., Lachmann, Tischendorf read αὐτοῦ instead of τὰ ἴδια (A., Receptus).]
[6][Mar_15:23.—Codd. B., C.*, L., Tischendorf omit πιεῖν.]
[7]Mar_15:28.—This verse is wanting in A., B., C., D., X.; and Griesbach and Tischendorf have decided against it. But it is found in P., in Origen, Eusebius, and the Versions. The verse has probably been omitted, because it was supposed to involve a discrepancy between Mark and Luke, as in Luk_22:37 the quotation is referred to the apprehension of Jesus. (Lange might have added, as supporting his view, L., Δ., 1, 13, 69. Alford’s remark, [which Meyer also makes,] that Mark rarely quotes from prophecy, however, is deserving of attention.—Trs.)
[8]Mar_15:29.—The best MSS. read οἰκοδομῶν τρισὶν ὴμέραις.
[9]Mar_15:30.—Codd. B., D., L., Δ., Lachmann, Tischendorf read καταβάς instead of κατάβα (Receptus).]
[10]Mar_15:34.—The words ἐλωί̈, &c., are differently written in the MSS. Lachmann reads λεμὰ σαβαχθανι: Tischendorf, λεμὰ σαβακτανεί (ed. 1865); Fritzsche, λιμᾶ; Receptus, λαμμα σαβαχθανί.]
[11][Tischendorf (ed. 1865) reads ἐπὶ τὸν γολγοθᾶν.—Ed.)
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v16 16. Pretorium — The word Pretorium is derived from…
16. Pretorium — The word Pretorium is derived from the Latin word Pretor, signifying leader, a word applied to very different officers — civil, judicial, and military — in different periods of Roman history. The Pretorium signified the place of the Pretor, and in military service it was the general’s tent. But in this present passage it seems to refer to the court, or part of the tower of Antonia, where the Procurator’s guard were stationed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15. And so Pilate] One hope, however, the procurator…
15. And so Pilate] One hope, however, the procurator still seems to have retained. Irresolution indeed had gone too far, and he could not retrace his steps. He thought he must content the people, and therefore released Barabbas unto them. But he imagined there was room for a compromise. Clamorous as was the crowd, perhaps they would be satisfied with a punishment only less terrible than the Cross, and so he gave the order that He, Whom he had pronounced perfectly innocent, should be scourged.
willing to content the people] “willinge for to do ynow to þe peple,” Wyclif. Here we have one of St Mark’s Latinisms. The Greek expression answers exactly to the Latin satisfacere=to satisfy appease, content.
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when he had scourged him] Generally the scourging before crucifixion was inflicted by lictors (Livy, xxxiii. 36; Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 14. 9; v. 11. 1). But Pilate, as sub-governor, had no lictors at his disposal, and therefore the punishment was inflicted by soldiers. Lange, iv. 356 n. The Roman scourging was horribly severe. Drops of lead and small sharp-pointed bones were often plaited into the scourges, and the sufferers not unfrequently died under the infliction. Compare the horribile flagellum of Hor. Sat. i. iii. 119; and “flagrum pecuinis ossibus catenatum,” Apul. Met. viii. That the soldiers could not have performed their duty with forbearance on this occasion, is plain from the wanton malice, with which they added mockery to the scourging.
to be crucified] But the compromise did not content the excited multitude. The spectacle of so much suffering so meekly borne did not suffice. “If thou let this man go,” they cried, “thou art not Cæsar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar” (Joh_19:12). This crafty well-chosen cry roused all Pilate’s fears. He could only too well divine the consequences if they accused him of sparing a prisoner who had been accused of treason before the gloomy suspicious Tiberius (“atrocissimè exercebat leges majestatis,” Suet. Vit. Tib. c. 58; Tac. Ann. iii. 38). His fears for his own personal safety turned the scale. After one more effort therefore (Joh_19:13-15), he gave the word, the irrevocable word, “Let Him be crucified” (Joh_19:16), and the long struggle was over. St John, it is to be observed, mentions the scourging as one of Pilate’s final attempts to release Jesus. St Mark, like St Matthew, looks upon it as the first act in the awful tragedy of the Crucifixion. Both views are equally true. The scourging should have moved the people; it only led them to greater obduracy; it proved, as St Mark brings out, the opening scene in the Crucifixion.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–17 (15-21) And so Pilate, willing to content the people.—The…
(15-21) And so Pilate, willing to content the people.—The word which St. Mark uses for “content” appears to be the Greek equivalent for the Latin satisfacere, and so takes its place in the evidence for St. Mark’s connection with Rome and the Roman Church.
Scourged him.—The word, like that in St. Matthew, is formed from the Latin flagellum, and forms another link in the chain of evidence just referred to.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15–17 And Pilate, wishing boulomenov to content the multitude, released…
And Pilate, wishing boulomenov to content the multitude, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. St. Luke and St. John are more full in details here. From their narratives it appears that when Pilate found that his attempt to rescue our Lord, by putting Barabbas in contrast with him, had failed, he next hoped to move the multitude to pity by the terrible punishment of scourging, after which he trusted that they would relent. Scourging was a vile punishment, inflicted on slaves. But it was also inflicted upon those who were condemned to death, even though freemen This scourging, which was a part of the punishment of crucifixion, was of frightful severity. Horace ("Sat." 1:3, 119) speaks of it as "horrible flagellum." But it appears from St. John (Joh_21:1) that the scourging of Jesus took place before his formal condemnation to be crucified; we may therefore suppose that it was not a part of the ordinary punishment of crucifixion. At all events, there is nothing, upon a careful comparison of the narratives, to lead us to the conclusion that our blessed Lord was scourged twice. In fact, Pilate anticipated the time of the scourging, in the vain hope that he might by this means save our Lord from the capital punishment. A comparison of the narratives of St. Matthew and St. Mark with that of St. John will make this clear; for they all three refer to one and the same scourging. Recent investigations at Jerusalem have disclosed what may probably have been the place of the punishment. In a subterranean chamber, discovered by Captain Warren, on what Mr. Fergusson holds to be the site of Antonia, Pilate"s praetorium, stands a truncated column, no part of the structure itself, but just such a dwarf pillar as criminals would be tied to be scourged. The chamber cannot be later than the time of Herod (see Professor Westcott on St. John 19).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv15, 17 And so Pilate, willing to content the people.
Mar_15:15
And so Pilate, willing to content the people.
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Pilate and Jesus
I. What sort of man was Pilate? Probably not worse than many Roman governors; not very unlike Festus, Felix, Gallio, and the rest.
1. Cruel.
2. Determined.
3. Worldly.
II. What was he to do with Jesus? This was his difficulty; this was the rock on which he was stranded. The voice of the nation demanded Christs death. Insurrection, possibly even war, impended, if the demand was refused. What was to be done?
III. Pilate tries to evade the responsibility of deciding.
IV. Why did not Pilate dare to refuse the Jews demand?
1. He had an evil conscience.
2. By defending Jesus, he would run the risk of earthly loss.
3. He had no fixed belief to support him.
V. Observe the effect of living habitually for the present world. A man of the world, who lives only for the things of time and sense, content if he can satisfy Caesar and the people, has authority given him to deal with the cause of Christ. He cannot make up his mind to take up the cross and follow Him; for he has lived for self alone, and walked only by sight. What will such a man do in time of sudden trial but follow Pontius Pilate. If I must, I must. I see it is wrong. I would give much to escape, but there is no other way open. I must be content to satisfy the people. Jesus of Nazareth, His Church, His kingdom, His interest, His people, I surrender them to your will. (C. H. Waller, M. A.)
Pilates weakness and the chief priests guilt
I. Principle will, but policy will not, preserve you from sin. If you will not make the sacrifice which goodness requires, give up all hope of keeping your goodness. Courage is absolutely necessary for goodness.
II. A mans sins weigh him heavily. If Pilate had had a guiltless conscience, he would have defied the clamour of the rulers. He walks along the downward path to hell with his eyes open.
III. Beware of compromise. Come to no terms with evil, but resist it.
IV. If we can prevent wrong being done, we cannot by verbal protests escape the responsibility for it. Pilates hand washing has many imitators, men substituting a feeble protest for vigorous and dutiful action. But in vain does Pilate think to wash his hands of guilt.
V. The hollowness of earthly pride and pomp comes out here.
VI. There is an exhibition here of the sinful side of human nature. Self-will seems a bright, brave thing, very excusable. Behold its guiltiness here. Weakness seems a harmless, good-tempered thing; it may easily commit the greatest crime.
VII. The hardships of transgressors ways is illustrated here. Pilate would have found it ten times easier to do right. Think of his shame, self-contempt; of the horror he would feel when Christ rose from the dead; of the penalties which followed. It was not more than seven or eight years before Caiaphas and Pilate were both degraded from their posts; and shortly after, Pilate, weary with misfortunes, killed himself. Nor, when we hear the men of Jerusalem ask the Roman governor for a cross, can we help remembering that they got their fill of crosses from the Romans; when, Titus crucifying sometimes 500 a day of those seeking to escape from the doomed city, at length, in the circuit of Jerusalem, room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.
VIII. Our weakness increases the Saviours troubles.
IX. Christ never goes without a witness. Pilate, Herod, Pilates wife, and even the hypocrisy of the crowd, all proclaim, There is no fault in Him.
X. The Saviours sufferings claim our gratitude, but they also call on us to take up our cross and go after Him. Let us copy the Divine meekness, majesty, and love which met in the cross of Christ. (R. Glover.)
Pilate
The miserable governor is an example to us of a man of infirm principle who seeks to tide over a difficulty by temporising. He proposed to inflict ignominious sufferings on Christ, grievous in themselves, but yet short of death; hoping in this way to appease the multitude, and by moving their fickle humour by the sight of blood, to induce them to remit the punishment they had just cried out to have executed on Christ. Pilate had no strength of character, no moral rectitude and fortitude. He could not do a right thing unless he were backed up by the people. He must have the popular voice with him to do justice or to commit an injustice. A terrible instance is Pilate to us of what comes of seeking a principle of action, direction, outside of our own selves, of being swayed by popular opinion. Pilate knew too well what were the Jewish expectations of a Messiah to suppose for an instant that the High Priests had delivered Jesus over because He sought to rescue His nation from a foreign domination. He appears never to have been deceived for a moment as to the malignant motives of those who sought the death of Christ; but he had not the moral courage to stand out against the popular voice. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)
Triumph of evil only apparent
Jesus is given over to death. Wickedness has had its way; righteousness and pity have been trodden down. Yet no Divine defeat here. Though seemingly a victory for hell, it was really a triumph for heaven.
I. As a vindication of character. In no other way could such irresistible proof have been given of Christs sinlessness. Deadly foes, with everything their own way, cannot find against Him a single cause of just accusation. Six times He is declared by two Roman officials to be without fault. Throughout the scene it is continually forced on us that Jew and Roman are on trial, and Jesus is the judge. Not by His charges, but by His silence, they are made to convict themselves of prejudice, envy, hypocrisy, falsehood, outrage of justice, cruelty, and murder.
II. As a fulfilment of the Divine plan. The hope of the world was fulfilled at this hour. Edens distant anticipation of bruising the heel of Him who should bruise the serpents head; Abraham, across the altar of his son, beholding this day afar off; Moses, lifting up the serpent in the wilderness; the Psalmists picture of rejection, trial, and death; that chapter in Isaiah where we are made to stand beside the cross; all these, and many another prophetic assurance, waited for this tragic hour of salvation. Not alone through the love of friends, but even more through the wrath of man, the purpose of God marched on through tears and Crime to redemption.
III. The final outcome of Christs condemnation displayed with startling power where defeat and triumph rested. Pilate gave up Jesus to death to save his place; soon he was accused to his master, and driven forth, a broken-hearted exile. The priests persuaded the people to give Jesus to death to save their place and nation; that generation had not passed away before their own madness brought down on them, ten thousand times repeated, all the cruelty and outrage to which they had surrendered Him. But the crucified One-on the third day rises, and on the fortieth ascends to the throne of God. Today, while the Roman Empire is only a name, and the Jew is a restless and afflicted wanderer, Jesus triumphs. (C. M. Southgate.)
Christ willing to be crucified
Among the Romans the despotic power was so terrible, that if a slave had attempted the life his master, all the rest had been crucified with the guilty person. But our gracious Master died for His slaves who had conspired against Him. He shed His blood for those who spilt it. He was willing to be crucified, that we might be glorified. Our redemption was sweeter to Him than death was hitter, by which it was to be obtained. It was excellently said by Pherecides that God transformed Himself into love when He made the world. But with greater reason it is said by the apostle, God is love, when He redeemed it. (Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.)
The scourging
I will chastise Him, said Pilate. The word used (παιδεύειν) is contemptuous; it means to correct as a naughty child, or, as a slave, to scare him against again committing the same offence. By Roman usage, when a slave was about to be set free, his master led him before the Praetor, and the latter then slightly beat the slave on the back with a rod (virgulta), as a reminder to him of the slavery in which he had been, and from which he was about to be set free. And now, see, the Jewish people lead Jesus, bound as a slave, before the Roman governor, and Pilate ignorantly deals with Him according to the law for the manumission of slaves. He beats Him-but Jesus does not pass at once from His court to freedom. He must first traverse the dark valley of death, and go to His death through the way of sorrows. There were various kinds of scourges employed among the Romans. There was the stick (fustis), the rod (virga), the whip (lorum), which was of leather-platted thongs, and into the plats were woven iron spikes (scorpio) or knuckle bones of animals. When Rehoboam said to the deputation, My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions, he contrasted the simple scourge of leather thongs with that which was made more terrible with the nails and spikes, and which was called the scorpion, and was in use among the Jews as well as among the Romans. The lictors who stood about the Praetor bore axes tied in bundles of rods. The rods were for beating, the axes for decapitating; but they only used the rods for persons of distinction and quality. A Praetor such as Pilate had six of such officers by him. We may be quite sure that they did not proceed to unbind their bundles of rods to scourge Jesus with them-that would be rendering Him too much respect. He would not be beaten with the lictors rods, but be scourged with the thonged whip, armed either with scorpions or knuckle bones, the instrument of chastisement for slaves and common criminals. Before Christ was scourged He was stripped of His raiment before the people, His hands being bound and attached to a pillar. We have descriptions from old heathen writers of the manner in which such a scourging was performed. In Rome, says Aulus Gellins, in the Forum was a post by itself, and to this the most illustrious man was brought, his clothes stripped off, and he was beaten with rods. There is a profane Life of Christ, of uncertain date, written in Hebrew, circulating anciently among the Jews, that embodies their traditions about Christ, and in it it is said that The elders of Jerusalem took Jesus and bound Him to a marble pillar in the City, and scourged Him there with whips, crying out, Where now are the wondrous works that Thou hast done? In the Jewish laws it is ordered that behind the man to be scourged shall stand a stone, upon which the executioner shall take his place, so as to be well raised, that thereby the blows he deals may fall with greater effect. It is probable that before Herods palace, where Pilate held his court, was a low pillar, and the prescribed square block on which the executioner was to stand, whilst the person to be scourged was fastened to the low pillar in a bowed position, the ropes knotted about his wrists being passed through a ring strongly soldered into the stone pillar. Thus the scourger stood above the man he beat and struck downwards at his bent back. The tradition that the scourging of Jesus took place somehow thus, that He was attached to a pillar when beaten, is very old. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)
Contrast between a scourged Christ and a pampered Christian
Christ shows us how the flesh is to be mastered by the spirit, how we are to strive to obtain such a dominion over our bodies that we can bear pain without outcry and anger. God Himself sends us pain sometimes, and we are disposed to be restive under it, to murmur, and to reproach Him. Let us look to Jesus, scourged at the pillar, and see how He endured patiently. Let us learn to keep the body under, and bring it into subjection; ease, luxury, self-indulgence have a deadening effect on the soul, and this is an age of self-indulgence. We are always intent on heaping to ourselves comforts; we have no idea of enduring hardships. We must have softer, deeper carpets for our feet; garments that fit us most perfectly and becomingly, easy chairs, soft springy beds, more warmth, better food, purple, fine linen, sumptuous fare every day. Our rooms must be artistic, the decorations and colours aesthetic; the eye, the ear, the nose, the touch must all be gratified, and we seek to live for the pleasures of the sense, and think it a sort of duty to have the senses tickled or soothed. How strangely does the figure of Jesus, bowed at the pillar, with His back exposed, and the soldiers lashing at Him with their whips loaded with knuckle bones, contrast with this modern foppishness and effeminacy! What a lesson he teaches of the control of the senses, of the conquest of the flesh! I would not say that it is wrong to cultivate art and to love that which is beautiful; but it is wrong to be so given up to it as to allow the love of the ease and beauty and gracefulness in modern life to take the fibre out of our souls, and reduce us to moral limpness. We must endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; we must strive to be above the comforts and adornments of modern life, and make of them the accident and not the substance of our existence. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)
Duty and interest
In Pilates case, the particular influence that prevented was the fear of man. What will the Jews say, what will the Jews do, if I discharge this Prisoner whom they wish me to condemn? When once men are governed in their conduct, not by the sense of right, but by the desire to obtain the worlds approval, or the fear of incurring the worlds hatred, they are at the mercy of the binds and waves, without chart or rudder. They are not rocks against which the waters break, but which stand unmoved because they are rooted into the solid earth, but they are things that drift upon the surface, borne hither and thither as the current sets or the breezes drive them. The man who owns Christ only when the world tolerates it, or as far as the world bears it, will deny Christ when the world frowns. It is impossible to be a lover of Christ and a lover of the world; it is impossible to fear God and man too; it is absolutely impossible to please men and be the servant of Christ. (Oxford Lent Sermons.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v16 Mar_15:16. See R.V.
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar_15:16. See R.V.
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Mar_15:17. Render: And they invest Him with “a purple”—the official robe of gs and rulers, no matter what its colour.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_15:16-20
(PARALLEL: Mat_27:27-31.)
The Son of God mocked and wounded.—Solar eclipses are not miraculous appearances. Men acquainted with the situations and revolutions of the celestial orbs foretell these appearances. The humiliation of the Son of God is the eclipse of the Sun of Righteousness. Infamy and reproach covered Him in the days of His flesh, and toward the end of these days intercepted His rays, hiding, like a dark body, the brightness of His glory from the eyes of the world. Foreseeing this, a prophet says, “His visage was so marred more than any man,” etc.; and relating this, an apostle says, “Who being in the form of God,” etc. The obscuration of the Sun of Righteousness in His humiliation was not, however, a total eclipse. A prophet foretells one day that shall be “not day nor night,” the light being not clear nor dark, but a mixture of both qualities. So is the light of the Sun of Righteousness in His humiliation; and in looking down to Him at this period, we behold an unparalleled mixture of light and shade, of glory and infamy, of honour and dishonour, and of beauty, meanness, and shame.
I. Concerning the Sufferer.—
1. The Sufferer is the Son of the Highest. “The Highest” is one of the lofty titles which distinguish and exalt the living and true God; and “the Son of the Highest” is a glorious title, with which, according to the prediction of Gabriel, the Saviour of the world is honoured. The real import of it is given by the apostle when he affirms Him to be “the brightness of glory, and the express image of the Father.” Every perfection essential to the Father dwells bodily and essentially in the Son; and the singular titles, “Own Son,” “Dear Son,” “Beloved Son” “Only Begotten Son,” exalt Him above creatures, and equal Him to the Highest.
2. The Sufferer is the Kinsman of the human race. To a part of our race the Lord Jesus bears a special relation, but He dwells in the nature common to the whole. Partaking of flesh and blood, of which all, as well as the children, are partakers, every man under heaven, upon the revelation of Him, is warranted to call Him kinsman.
3. The Sufferer is the Undertaker for the elect. All that the precept of the law of works required to be done by them He undertook to perform, and what its penalty denounced He engaged Himself to bear. Nor hath He failed in either. The satisfaction which by suffering and dying He made is the shield that protects them from its vengeance.
4. The Sufferer is the Horn of Salvation which God raised up in the house of David. The horn of an animal is its weapon, both for defence and vengeance. With this it defends itself, and with this it pushes down the enemy. In some prophecies horn is an emblem of the power of a king and the strength of his kingdom, and with the highest propriety is transferred to the Lamb of God, in whose office the powers of salvation and destruction are vested, and in whose administration these powers are exerted. The horns of the bulls of Bashan were not able to break the horn of the Lamb,
5. The Sufferer is the Author and Finisher of faith. In His own exercise He is the Prince and Leader who goes before believers, and who, in trusting and hoping Himself, leaves them a finished and perfect pattern of trust and hope.
6. The Sufferer is the Sun of Righteousness, or Light of the World. In His birth He was deeply obscured. From His agony and seizure in the garden to His death and resurrection this glorious Sun was thought to be totally eclipsed. His visage was marred, His face discoloured with spittle, His head crowned with thorns, His back furrowed with cords, and His hands and feet pierced with nails. But under this darkness the title Sun of Righteousness existed, and through it light beams upon the world.
II. Concerning the indignities which our lord suffered.—These are related in the text without colouring and without reflexions. The holy writer neither praises the fortitude and glory of the Sufferer, nor reprobates the baseness and inhumanity of the wicked by whom He was abused. Facts are truly stated in the relation, and simplicity is rigidly observed.
1. When made under the law, our Lord subjected Himself to the suffering of these indignities.
2. In suffering the insolences of the ungodly our Lord was not ashamed and confounded. Behold the Sufferer, not a desponding and cowardly but a bold and mighty Sufferer, whose back, furrowed by the lash, and covered with the scarlet robe, upheld the universe—whose countenance, marred with shame and spitting, was harder than flint and bolder than Lebanon—and whose faith, assailed and affronted by every indignity, stood firmer than the pillars of heaven and earth! Trusting in God, and beholding the joy set before Him, He despised the shame, endured the pain, and triumphed over the diversion and wantonness of wickedness and inhumanity.
3. The Lord Jesus suffered these indignities for and instead of the elect. Indignation at the rudeness and brutality of the soldiers is not the only passion which the record of these abuses should kindle in our breasts. Rather it should kindle indignation against ourselves, for whose iniquities He submitted to abuse.
4. The suffering of these indignities was a part of the ransom which our Kinsman gave for the redemption of the elect. Redemption is an expensive undertaking; none but Himself was equal to it, and it cost Him dear.
5. In suffering these indignities our Lord Jesus left us an example that we should follow His steps.
III. Concerning the glory of Christ in suffering these indignities—The sacred writer relates His sufferings without revealing His glory. But by the light of other parts of Scripture we behold it; and without a display of it the knowledge of the fellowship of His sufferings could not be attained.
1. In suffering these indignities the glory of His faith and trust appears bright and resplendent. Unmoved, undismayed, unashamed, He stood firm, and without fainting held fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
2. In the common hall, where the Lord Jesus suffered the indignities, the glory of His love appears in splendour and dignity. Observe the scarlet robe, the reed, and the crown of thorns; behold the vilest ruffians bowing the knee, striking, reviling, and spitting upon the Blessed and Only Potentate, and say, “Behold how He loved us!”
3. In suffering the reproaches and indignities of the ungodly glory appears in the zeal of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. In suffering the indignities and insolences of the wicked the humility of the Lord Jesus is glorious. Found in fashion as a man, they treated Him not as a man, but trampled on Him as a worm. Astonishing humiliation! Astonishing, indeed, when we consider that He humbled Himself so low to declare the righteousness of God, in “raising up the poor out of the dust, and lifting up the beggar” and the criminal “from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.”
5. In suffering the insolences of brutish men the meekness of Jesus Christ is glorious. The testimony of the false witnesses He heard in silence. The rudeness of the wicked, who spit in His face, and buffeted Him, and smote Him with the palms of their hands, He endured with composure. The derision and pain in the common hall He suffered with boldness and mildness. Nothing defective appeared in His temper, His language, nor in His behaviour.
6. In suffering the insolences and abuses of men the patience of Jesus Christ is glorious. “He suffered, but threatened not with stoical apathy and sullen and philosophical pride, but with bold tranquillity and reverential and humble and holy composure.
7. In suffering the resignation of the Lord Jesus is glorious. As the hour of suffering approached a conflict was felt—a conflict not between sin and grace, but between the weakness of His human nature and the strength and glory of His grace; while at the same time resignation triumphed (Joh_12:27). Another conflict was in His agony, when resignation also triumphed (Mar_14:36). The palm, the scourge, the reed, the thorn, the purple, the spittle, the cross, and the nails were bitter and painful infusions; yet these, all these dregs, He submitted to wring out and drink.
Lessons.—
1. The harmony between the predictions of prophets and the relations of evangelists concerning the sufferings of Christ is obvious and striking.
2. In His person and office the Lord Jesus is inconceivably glorious. “Brightness of Glory” is one of His distinguishing titles.
3. The grand design of revelation is to manifest the glory of Christ in His person—God-man.
4. The various representations which have been made of the person, sufferings, and glory of Christ are suitable means of working in believers a lively frame of heart for shewing His death at His table.
5. The various representations exhibited of the person, sufferings, and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ lead to the satisfactory answer of a question of the highest importance to the unbelieving, the ungodly, and the unholy. “What must we do to be saved?” Behold, O perishing and helpless creatures! behold the Doer and the Sufferer! To the Doer and Sufferer thou must be united, betrothed, and joined, and married. Obey His voice, and receive His grace; believe in His name, and rejoice in His salvation.—A. Shanks.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar_15:17-19. Lessons from the mockery of the soldiers.—
1. Notice in the conduct of the tormentors of Jesus the abuse of one of the gifts of God. Laughter is a kind of spice which the Creator has given to be taken along with the somewhat unpalatable food of ordinary life. But when directed against sacred things and holy persons, when used to belittle and degrade what is great and reverend, when employed as a weapon with which to torture weakness and cover innocence with ridicule, then, instead of being the foam on the cup of the banquet of life, it becomes a deadly poison. Laughter guided these soldiers in their inhuman acts; it concealed from them the true nature of what they were doing; and it wounded Christ more deeply than even the scourge of Pilate.
2. It was against the kingly office of the Redeemer that the opposition of men was directed on this occasion. The soldiers considered it an absurdity and a joke that one apparently so mean, friendless, and powerless should make any such pretensions. Many a time since then has the same derision been awakened by this claim of Christ. He is the King of nations. But earthly kings and statesmen have ridiculed the idea that His will and His law should control them in their schemes and ambitions. Even where His authority is nominally acknowledged, both aristocracies and democracies are slow to recognise that their legislation and customs should be regulated by His words. Most vital of all is the acknowledgment of Christ’s kingship in the realm of the individual life; but it is here that His will is most resisted.
3. In what Jesus bore on this occasion. He was suffering for us. Thorns were the sign of the curse. And does not the thorn, staring from the naked bough of winter in threatening ugliness, lurking beneath the leaves or flowers of summer to wound the approaching hand, tearing the clothes or the flesh of the traveller who tries to make his way through the thicket, burning in the flesh where it has sunk, fitly stand for that side of life which we associate with sin—the side of care, fret, pain, disappointment, disease, and death? In a word, it symbolises the curse. But it was the mission of Christ to bear the curse; and as He lifted it on His own head, He took it off the world.
4. Christ’s sufferings are a rebuke to our softness and self-pleasing. It is not, indeed, wrong to enjoy the comforts and the pleasures of life. God sends these, and if we receive them with gratitude they may lift us nearer to Himself. But we are too terrified to be parted from them, and too afraid of pain and poverty. Many would like to be Christians, but are kept back from decision by dread of the laughter of profane companions or by the prospect of some worldly loss. But we cannot look at the suffering Saviour without being ashamed of such cowardly fears.—J. Stalker, D.D.
Christ was intended for the whole world.—Let us see the Divine intention in the Crucifixion. In that are mingling lines of glory and of humiliation. The King of humanity appears with a scarlet camp-mantle flung contemptuously over His shoulders; but to the eye of faith it is the purple of empire. He is crowned with the acanthus wreath; but the wreath of mockery is the royalty of our race. He is crucified between two thieves; but His Cross is a judgment-throne, and at His right hand and His left are the two separated worlds of belief and unbelief. All the Evangelists tell us that a superscription, a title of accusation, was written over His Cross; two of them add that it was written over Him “in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew” (or in Hebrew, Greek, Latin). In Hebrew,—the sacred tongue of patriarchs and seers, of the nation all whose members were in idea and destination those of whom God said, “My prophets.” In Greek,—the “musical and golden tongue which gave a soul to the objects of sense and a body to the abstractions of philosophy”; the language of a people whose mission it was to give a principle of fermentation to all races of mankind, susceptible of those subtle and largely indefinable influences which are called collectively Progress. In Latin,—the dialect of a people originally the strongest of all the sons of men. The three languages represent the three races and their ideas,—revelation, art, literature; progress, war, and jurisprudence. Wherever these three tendencies of the human race exist, wherever annunciation can be made in human language, wherever there is a heart to sin, a tongue to speak, and eye to read, the Cross has a message.—Bishop Wm. Alexander.
Mar_15:17. The crown of thorns.—The imposition of the mock crown was only one among many indignities. It was not only a mock crown, but a circlet of torture.
I. To wear this crown Christ had laid aside that of Divine majesty.—We can pity the fallen and weep for the great who are degraded, or who are made to feel the hardship of reversed fortune—we can measure the depth of the descent because they are human; but we have no power to gauge the height from which He came when He “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.”
II. By wearing this crown of mockery Christ added a glory to that He wears eternally.—He conquered suffering, sorrow, death, for us, and now every branch and spike of the mock crown is a jewel inwrought with that of His Divine majesty. Thus the very scorn of man Christ transforms into the sign of Divine regal power.
III. By wearing the mock crown Christ gained the further right to bestow a crown of life on all the faithful.
IV. Consider the power Christ gained over human souls by wearing that mock crown.—
1. Men are led to mourn the guilt that brought Him such pain.
2. He gains such intense affection as He could have obtained in no other way. We should not have loved mere majesty or power, however great; but Jesus we can love as God manifest in the flesh. “The love of Christ constraineth.”—Anon.
The crown of thorns.—In the thorns composing the Redeemer’s crown we see reflected—
1. The true character of sin as the deadly curse in the life and history of man.
2. The triumphant conquest and carrying away of sin.
3. The glorious transformation of the consequences of sin.
4. A symbol of Christ’s work. Crowned with thorns! Oh the deep disgrace to those who did it! Yet what so pathetically appropriate, what so beautifully significant, that at the close and climax of such a life as His, full of travail of soul and agony of spirit, bitterness and reproach of men and devils and sin’s burden, there should be placed on His head a crown such as should be the expression and picture of it all! Jesus Christ, the ideal King of humanity, who shall yet be historic King, found His kingdom “lying in the beast” of prejudice and passion, and ever since with kingly courage He has been engaged in lifting it into the “beauty of the Lord”—bitter, heart-breaking, thorny work.—W. B. Melville.
The crown of thorns.—
I. Jesus Christ claimed the highest dignity: “King.”—Proved by—
1. His own words and deeds.
2. The service of angels.
3. The dread of demons.
4. The phenomena of nature.
5. The appearance of the departed.
6. The acknowledgment of God.
II. The claim of Christ to the highest dignity was treated with contempt.—“Crown of thorns.”
1. Its reason.
(1) Its ordinary human appearance.
(2) The spirituality of His kingdom.
(3) The preconceived notions of men.
2. Its form. Mockery and pain. This arose from—
(1) A cruel occupation: “soldiers.”
(2) Servile obedience.
(3) Heathenish cruelty.
(4) Example of superiors.
(5) Sinful excitement.
III. Contempt for the claim of Christ to the highest dignity was overruled to the advantage of Christ.—
1. Suffering revealed His greatness. Love, patience, forgiveness.
2. Greatness gave value to His sufferings. Sufferings of the God-man, dignity of Godhead, and sufferings of manhood-atonement. The “curse” represented by the “thorns” becomes a blessing represented by the “crown of thorns.—B. D. Johns.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 15
Mar_15:20. Christ mocked.—A strange illustration of the scene is afforded by what happened only a few years afterwards at Alexandria, when the people, in derision of King Agrippa I., arrayed a well-known maniac in a common door-mat, put a papyrus crown on his head, and a reed in his hand, and saluted him as “maris” (lord).—A. Edersheim, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v16 Section 3. (Mar 15:16-47.)
Section 3. (Mar 15:16-47.)
The Cup drunk.
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1. Now we approach the drinking of the cup. He is crowned with thorns, the sign of the curse, as in Matthew, clothed with the purple, but without the reed-sceptre: that only smites Him. And it is indeed but a reed that smites the Rock; yet presently, through the marvelous working of God, the waters will flow out; and the waters will become a great river, going forth on all sides to gladden the earth.
Notice that the robe is purple* here, not scarlet, as in Matthew. The blood-color is here, but mingled: as we have seen; even the precious blood of atonement, that it might sanctify the people, must be that of a sacrifice offered outside the camp (Heb 13:11-12). And "so Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." Here is the true sin-offering, and here is the purple, the composite color, - the blood, the death-penalty taken; but with that, the heavenly side also, that is, the blue. For that was heaven’s side, the consequence of sin laid upon Him, the hiding of the face of God from Him, - for us heaven opened.
{*"A scarlet military mantle," says Lange, "was made to represent the imperial purple: hence the designation, a purple (porphuran) a purple robe, as Mark and John describe it. And because this is the symbolic import of the robe, there is no discrepancy. The scarlet military robe no more required to be a real purple than the crown of thorns required to be a real crown, or the reed a real sceptre; for the whole transaction was an ironical drama, and such an one, too, that the infamous abuse might be readily perceived through the pretended glorification. The staff must be a reed, the symbol of impotence; the crown must injure and pierce the brow; and so too must the purple present the symbol of miserable, pretended greatness; and this was done by its being an old camp-mantle."
But how, through all this, God was working, to turn all to the bringing out His glory as infinitely higher than that of earthly potentates, we may surely see clearly.}
These are both royal colors also, as we plainly see; the scarlet of Matthew and the purple of Mark, just as the crown of thorns, the crown of curse, for Him was really a crown. The Sufferer reigns as that, in the Kingdom peculiarly His; and so only could He have, among the sinners of man’s race, such a throne as could satisfy Him.
2. The impressment of Simon the Cyrenian upon the road, to bear His cross, is recorded here, as in Matthew; but with an addition here which shows Simon, the "hearkener" and cross bearer, as the father of Alexander and Rufus, God’s grace being fruitful in him. Is not this the true way of fruitfulness ever, to hearken and bear the cross?
Golgotha, the place of a skull, is reached, and then the vinegar and gall are offered Him, only to be rejected: Mark gives "wine mingled with myrrh;" the former, the sour wine of common use, much like vinegar; the latter is probably a different thing from "gall," which would hardly seem a fitting term to describe it. The parting of His garments, according to the view that has been given of it,* is as naturally found in all the Gospels as the particularization as to it suits and is found in John. The mockery of the bystanders, and especially of the heads of the people is given almost exactly as in Matthew.
{*See Notes on Matthew.}
3. And now from the sixth to the ninth hour, there falls a darkness over all the land. We have already considered its meaning generally, but every particular specified has surely its importance. The three hours, as such, speak naturally of the manifestation of what is hidden; and may most simply speak of the opening of the sanctuary, which takes place at its close. It is the blood of the sin-offering which on the day of atonement in Israel opened it for the moment to let in the high priest, the representative of the people. But that was but for a moment: the characteristic of the legal dispensation was in the veil which hung continuously before the presence of God, so that from man’s point of view He dwelt in the thick darkness. It was a darkness forbidding man’s approach, and speaking of sin unmet, spite of the hecatombs of victims dying for it. And the true Sacrifice having now come, He must find His way through the darkness, laden with the sin which had forced God thus into distance from the creature of His love.
The three hours of darkness were to Him the measure of what to any other would have been an infinite hopeless distance. The cry of desertion interpreted the darkness. The veil rent from top to bottom proclaimed that it was traversed and removed. The sixth hour speaks of the barrier-limit reached; the ninth, of perfected manifestation.
The agonizing question shows the nature of the darkness, which is not outward but within upon His soul. The quotation from the twenty-second psalm gives us the clue to find the answer which the psalm gives to the question. If a holy God is to abide among the praises of a people taken from among sinful men, He under the weight of that sin must declare that holiness in God’s judgment of it. God is glorified in this redemption-work beyond the possibility of all man’s sin to cloud again for ever. The light bursts forth now, and as never yet. God is in the light. The separating veil is rent from top to bottom.
To the mockers around the cross, the darkness is as dense as ever. They exclaim that He is calling for Elias. And while one brings to Him upon a reed the vinegar for His thirst, he joins in the cry they raise, to wait and see if Elias will come to take Him down. But Jesus cries again with a loud voice, and expires.
Through all this account we have already seen how, by the omission of particulars recorded by Matthew, Mark emphasizes the sin-offering character of Christ’s sacrifice.* But there are positive testimonies, also, that we have noted. And now, as we go on to the after events of the book, we shall find the same character attaching to it, until we see the glorious Risen Man seated in heaven at the right hand of God. The veil is passed, but never closed again: He is gone in, our Forerunner, and we walk in the light as God is in the light.
{*See Introduction, pp. 26-28.}
4. Before we have left the Cross and its glory of sorrow, intimation is given of victories which it is to achieve, and changes resultant. The first voice, save that of the dying robber, which, in the midst of Jewish blasphemy and dishonor, owns the supreme glory of the Son of God, is that of the Gentile centurion. Christ already has His own among the uncircumcised, the beginning of the great host that are soon to follow Him.
Then this company of ministering women gathered by His cross, and to be the first heralds of His victory over death, is not without significance. "The Lord gave the word; great was the company of the women that published it" (Psa 68:11). The victory is so achieved, that not the men of might are needed, but the feebleness of women was abundantly enough. Indeed the men of might, the fighters on the Lord’s behalf, had not found their hands. But now the battle was over: He had fought alone, and of the people there were none with Him: with the last great shout of the battle-field, the cry of victory and not of exhaustion; He had entered into His rest. The women are now free to minister. The shadow of the Cross is but the shadow of the sheltering wings of divine love.
It is this victory-shout which, according to Mark, impresses the soldier: "when the centurion saw that He so cried out and expired, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God." He had seen death upon the battlefield, perhaps in many a shape, but never a death like this. If we take John’s account, it is the cry that has rung through so many hearts since then, Tetelestai, "It is finished." If it be not the great cry itself, it certainly went with it; and how has that become for Gentile faith the gospel-utterance! It has assured of peace made with God, stilled to rest the tumult of other things, and subdued the heart to Jesus, to the Son of God who loved and gave Himself for the sons of men.
5. "They assigned Him His grave with wicked men; but with the rich man when He had died." So had Isaiah long before predicted, and now we have the fulfilment of it. The malefactor’s grave which would have naturally followed the death of the cross could not be permitted Him. That substitutionary work was accomplished which alone had made Him to be numbered with transgressors. In that character He could appear no more; and the righteousness of God, which He had declared in His death, claimed now divine intervention in His behalf. While He yet slept He must sleep in honor, and as it has been well said, the One born of a Virgin-womb could only be fittingly honored in a virgin-tomb. He who could not see corruption; could not lie in a tomb which corruption had defiled. Thus all was in harmony, and God silently controlling all things before visible intervention could take place. Joseph of Arimathea, inspired with a boldness he had not yet shown, goes in to Pilate and asks of him the body of Jesus. Pilate, finding from the centurion that He is indeed already dead, commands it to be given; and in the new tomb, awaiting its predicted resurrection on the third day, that sacred body rests.
Subdivision 3.
Resurrection; and Heaven really opened.
As every one knows, doubt has been cast upon the authenticity of the last twelve verses of this Gospel; and if they are, as Meyer calls them, but an "apocryphal fragment," a waif without parentage known; introduced into Mark we know not how, to mend the ragged end of his mutilated or unfinished work, doubt would naturally be cast on more than its authenticity, and most of all for those who are slow to believe in inspiration moving after this fashion. We need not, however, discuss it here, as the authority for the full text is abundant in both MSS. and Versions. The spiritual relationship of the closing verses to the Gospel as a whole is perfect; and this, if proved, is a better argument of itself in favor of authenticity than all besides that has ever been produced against it.
Moreover there is reason of an internal kind for the difference that in fact exists between the two parts of this last chapter, - the first, which gives the promise from the (unseen) Lord to meet His disciples in Galilee: a promise of which Mark gives no fulfilment: while the second briefly relates His actual appearances in and around Jerusalem, and His sending them forth with signs attesting their commission to preach the gospel in all the world. These two parts we have now to consider in their scope and connection with one another.
1. In the first part we have then promise which, as far as Mark’s account of it goes, is not fulfilled. Jesus does not meet them in Galilee; and the end for them, the account closing abruptly, is in fear and trembling, rather than the joy and gladness we should have expected from it.
If, then, nothing is without a purpose here (and we at least are not going to question this), there must be for us some meaning in this non-fulfilment, this fear instead of joy. If we think, also, of the disciples as what they were undoubtedly till after (and a good while after) the resurrection, - a Jewish remnant, with hopes still clustering round the Old Testament promises, we can see something very like what Mark pictures here. Christ is come, Christ is risen; there is a promise for believing Israelites which to them as such is not fulfilled; and in short their history, and that of the ministry to the circumcision; with which especially is connected Peter’s name (ver. 7, Gal 2:7; Gal 2:9), is just such a broken fragment as is here presented to us. It will be completed, but only in another dispensation, after the parenthesis of the Church’s history shall be over, and the "remnant of" the King’s "brethren shall return to the children of Israel" (Mic 5:3): that is, when Israelites converted to God shall again be partakers in the hopes and promises of the nation.
This, I doubt not, is what is intimated in the first verses of Mark’s closing chapter. We shall find similar things in the close of John’s Gospel, and more fully brought out there: things hard to he uttered, indeed, when the meaning, even of divine history, is so generally considered to be merely in the letter, and when belief in the inspiration of God’s word - in any proper sense of inspiration - is being so largely given up. That cannot affect the truth itself, nor its importance for those that have ears to hear.
2. The second part begins once more with the resurrection, and is of another character. Here the Lord Himself appears, and first to one who had been delivered from the power of Satan; which had completely possessed her. This supremacy of power over the whole array of the enemy - seven demons - characterizes the full salvation which is now to be proclaimed. The message given her we find only in John; here only that at first it was disbelieved. The very men who are to be the heralds of it in the world are at first incredulous as to what they long to receive. As Luke says of what took place afterwards, "they believed not for joy": it was, according to the common phrase, "too good to be true."
The appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus, next referred to, is still incompetent to bring conviction; and the Lord then Himself appears to the eleven - the company now spoken of as that number, though Thomas, as we know, was not among them at the first, - and upbraids them with their unbelief and hardness of heart.
The commission that follows is entirely different from that in Matthew, though some have represented it as but another version of it. They were given at different times and places clearly; while they reflect each the character of its respective Gospel. Matthew, whose subject is the Kingdom, gives the mode of reception into it by baptism and teaching. This supposes Mark’s commission as being already acted on, - the "what shall we do?" of those already wrought upon by the good news proclaimed. Mark’s view of the sin-offering is the basis of the gospel: this blessed work accomplished, the going forth of the good news naturally results.
Faith, therefore, which is implied in the commission in Matthew, is insisted on here: "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." On the other hand, "he that disbelieveth" - no baptism affecting the case of such an one - "shall be condemned."
The signs that follow those who believe introduce us into a region of controversy in different quarters. It is plain, however, that even in the apostles, days they were not signs which necessarily followed in every individual. "Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues?" implies the negative. But the apostle asks moreover, "Are all workers of miracles?" - any kind of miracles? - and this must have a similar answer (1Co 12:29-30).
Here then is what at once destroys any argument founded upon the universality of such gifts as these. It could not be said of any Christians that as such they would have them. The question was a much simpler one, - a question of fact: who have them? who have them not? If no one in a generation had them, we could not say they ought to have had, according to the Lord’s words. As "signs," the apostle’s words as to one of them might apply to others, or to all, "wherefore tongues are for a sign; not to those that believe, but to those that believe not" (1Co 14:22); and if unbelievers ceased, we might even expect that these would cease.
But miracles do not produce faith; though they may produce conviction. Those who "believed in His Name when they saw the miracles that He did," He "did not commit Himself to, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man" (Joh 2:23-25). It was but an intellectual conviction; quite possible to men without divine work at all; so that if this were accomplished - if only the gospel were going out amidst a people who accepted Christianity as true - one still would not expect these signs to follow.
Thus we are brought very near to the actual condition of things that obtains in Christendom today. Nor do the Lord’s words make that condition a hard matter to reconcile with them. The signs did follow, and fulfilled the object for which they were designed. As Christianity became known; and the truth came to get hearing, the miraculous accompaniments ceased, after the manner of all such whenever their purpose was fulfilled. Miracles have always been temporary, gathering around certain crises in the divine history of mankind, times of special divine intervention, and then passing away; and Christianity is no exception to the rule. As to power for conviction; where the word of God is once fairly before men; the Lord Himself has assured us that, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
That which comes first among these signs has special significance. Satan had possessed himself of the world largely by means of the religions of men; the perversions of that original worship which through successive generations became ever more corrupt. "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice," says the apostle; "they sacrifice to demons, and not, to God" (1Co 10:20). And as in Egypt, when God brought out His people, the delivering judgments fell upon their gods, so now in Christianity. "They shall cast out demons in My Name" is the proclamation of Christ’s supremacy over the religious rulers of the heathen world.
The gift of new tongues was grace surmounting the judgment of Babel, while yet the primitive "one speech and one language" could not be restored.
The taking up of serpents and the innocuousness of any deadly draught would fence round life from the insidious attack of the destroyer; while the miraculous healings were a manifestation of power over the power of death in others. All together testified to the Lord’s victory over Satan; over death, and over sin: for sin was that which gave power to both death and Satan. Nothing could affect these which had not gone to the bottom of the question of sin.
Thus, then, were the messengers of salvation equipped for their work.
3. And now, His end achieved, the shadow taken from the face of God, the sanctuary opened to all seekers of Him, the Servant-Son returns up where He was before. But He returns not as He was before. He returns with the humanity that He has taken: sure pledge that though He has changed the sphere of His service, the service itself He has not given up. He takes humanity itself up to the throne of God, and sits down there with it at the right hand of God.
He has been in the lowest place: He receives the highest. It is the same Gospel which fitly shows Him to us in both. The blood of the sin-offering opens the sanctuary; but more, He who has shed it has entered heaven in the power of it; has entered it a Man, and with this link of Manhood connecting Him thus with others who are men, and for whom He offered Himself.
The consequences of this are not pursued in this Gospel. They must be sought in after-communications of divine grace, which has traced for us His path step by step from lowest humiliation to glory, and how we are concerned in every step. The place at the right hand of God is, of course, peculiar to Himself; but not only does His heart still abide with His people here, but His hand also works for them and with them; and thus Mark presents Him at the close as One whose love makes Him still the Servant of man’s need. For "they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv16–17 the hall
the hall
Or, the court which is the judgment-hall.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 Condemnation, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus.
Condemnation, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus.
The sentence and the mockery by the soldiers:
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v. 15. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified.
v. 16. And the soldiers led Him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.
v. 17. And they clothed Him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about His head,
v. 18. and began to salute Him, Hail, King of the Jews!
v. 19. And they smote Him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon Him, and, bowing their knees, worshiped Him.
A most significant phrase: Willing, not to do justice, to insist upon the justice for which the Roman courts were known, but: willing to content the people, to give the mob the satisfaction it demanded, to yield to them all that they wanted. It was a sad travesty upon justice, a trial which would have been carried out with greater show of right and fair play in the most ignorant barbarian country. He released to them Barabbas, a fitting sarcasm. One more murderer more or less in a whole nation of murderers would make little difference; let the innocent people be confined in prison and be adjudged guilty of death, while the murderers are not only at large, but in the enjoyment of the highest positions! Jesus, His flagellation, or scourging, having taken place, was officially delivered to be crucified according to the Roman method of dealing with criminals found guilty of death. Note: The scourging, though really pertaining to the acts which Pilate did before the condemnation of Jesus, in order to awaken the pity of the people and thus to gain his object, may also be thought to be, and is here so represented, as the first part of the agony of the crucifixion. It was a fitting introduction to the tortures of the mockery which the cruelty of the soldiers invented and which the anguish of the cross crowned. For it was now the soldier’s opportunity; the prisoner was in their hands. They led Him, first of all, into the court of the palace, which served for their barracks and was called Praetorium. Here they called together the entire cohort, or band. Here was a rare chance for sport in which they delighted. In rough playfulness, like children that delight in playing at dressing up, they put a mantle of a purple color upon Him, to represent the kingly garment. A wreath, or crown, of thorns was quickly platted and placed about His head, fittingly to represent the golden circle of the earthly rulers. And then the jeering mockery began, which reflected also upon the Jews. They began to greet, to salute Him, to hail Him as the King of the Jews; for this title they found exceptionally funny: a fitting king for this people that was hated and despised by the Romans. With the reed which they had previously given Him in place of a scepter they now, as the fun began to pall on them, hit Him on the head, to drive the sharp spikes into the tender flesh of the head, They, spat upon Him as upon a vile and loathsome creature; they fell upon their knees in scoffing worship. Such was the Savior’s experience, for His Passion stands out most prominently in the whole account. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; He did not hide His face from shame and spitting, Isa 50:6. It was the mercy and the long-suffering of the Redeemer of the world.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 the courtyard (which is the government headquarters)
the courtyard (which is the government headquarters)
This was where the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem lived, and where the governor stayed when he was in Jerusalem. AT: "the courtyard of the soldiers' barracks" or "the courtyard of the governor's residence"
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the whole cohort of soldiers
"the whole unit of soldiers"
They put a purple robe on Jesus
Purple was a color worn by royalty. The soldiers did not believe that Jesus was king. They clothed him this way to mock him because others said that he was the King of the Jews.
a crown of thorns
"a crown made of thorny branches"
Hail, King of the Jews
The greeting "Hail" with a raised hand was only used to greet the Roman emperor. The soldiers did not believe that Jesus was the king of the Jews. Rather they said this to mock him. (See: Irony)
translationWords
court
purple
robe
Jesus
crown
thorn
hail
King of the Jews
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15–17 15:15 to pacify the crowd: To protect his job,…
15:15 to pacify the crowd: To protect his job, Pilate ordered a completely innocent man to be crucified. • He ordered Jesus flogged: Flogging was preliminary to crucifixion. It was done with leather thongs tipped with metal, stone, or bone. This laceration of the flesh could itself bring death. Jesus’ prediction in 10:34 was now being fulfilled.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.