Mark 15 Study Notes

15:1 This verse is often seen as a third Jewish trial in which the whole Sanhedrin legalized their verdict in the morning (cp. Lk 22:66-71). Decisions reached at night were not binding. Being handed . . . over is repeatedly emphasized in this chapter (vv. 1,10,15) and throughout Mark. Pilate was a Roman official among the Jews during AD 26-36. Pilate resided at Caesarea Maritima but found it expedient to stay in Jerusalem during Passover and other major Jewish festivals because of the large number of pilgrims flooding the city and the potential for unrest.

15:2 Pilate focused on whether Jesus claimed to be King of the Jews. Clearly the Sanhedrin’s condemnation based on blasphemy (14:64) had turned into charges of sedition and treason. This is the first use of this title in Mark’s Gospel, but Pilate repeatedly used it (15:2,9,12,26; cp. v. 32). The words recall the quest of the wise men at Jesus’s birth (Mt 2:2). Jesus’s reply, you say so, can be understood as either noncommittal or as an acknowledgement, but not as a denial.

15:3-5 Pilate’s question involves a double negative. It is matched by Mark’s double negative that Jesus did not answer. Pilate was amazed at Jesus’s silence because he could free him if his answers were satisfactory.

15:6 Mark is silent about Pilate’s attempt to extricate himself from the situation by sending Jesus to Herod Antipas (cp. Lk 23:5-12), the same Herod as in Mk 6:14-29. Here, in 15:6-15, Pilate tried another maneuver involving a custom to release for the people a prisoner. This custom is not documented outside the NT and was apparently done only at the Passover festival (Jn 18:39).

15:7 The rebels who were in prison with Barabbas probably included the two criminals who were crucified with Jesus. Mark gave no other details about the rebellion, which may indicate that his readers were familiar with it and thus did not need him to spell it out.

15:8-9 The crowd, coached by Jesus’s enemies, asked Pilate to follow his custom of releasing a prisoner. Pilate instinctively offered them the King of the Jews (vv. 2,9,12,26). Thus Pilate unknowingly confessed Jesus’s true status.

15:10 Pilate recognized that envy was why the chief priests wanted Jesus dead.

15:11-12 Again the chief priests (vv. 1,3,10) manipulated the course of events. Stirred up suggests they incited the crowd to riot. Ironically, the crowd chose Barabbas (“son of the father”) over Jesus, the true Son of the Father.

15:13-14 This is Mark’s first reference to crucifixion. None of Jesus’s death predictions specifically mentioned crucifixion, though he had hinted at it (8:34). R.T. France points out that it was the usual provincial penalty for political rebellion.

15:15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd at the cost of justice, Pilate handed Jesus over. Being flogged means Jesus was whipped with leather cords that had pieces of bone or metal tied in them that would rip the flesh off one’s back. Being crucified was a punishment for slaves and rebels.

15:16 Company reflects the Greek equivalent of the Latin “cohors/cohort,” which totaled six hundred soldiers. Mark does not use “company” in its technical sense, but he indicates that a large group of soldiers mocked Jesus.

15:17 The soldiers used makeshift substitutes for the robe . . . crown, and scepter of a king. Purple was a royal color.

15:18 Hail, King of the Jews was a mocking corruption of the greeting, “Hail, Caesar.”

15:19 They beat the King of the Jews on the head with a stick.

15:20 The phrase led him out to crucify him refers to the centurion and the execution squad, not to the company of soldiers.

15:21 Condemned prisoners customarily carried the crossbeam, or patibulum, to the site of their execution, where it was attached to the vertical beam. The Greek biographer Plutarch wrote: “Every criminal condemned to death bears his cross on his back” (Moralia, 554 A/B). Apparently Jesus was too weak from being flogged and beaten to carry it all the way. Roman soldiers had the right to press citizens of subject nations into compulsory service (Mt 5:41), so they forced Simon to carry Jesus’s cross. Simon was a Jewish Cyrenian from the north coast of Africa. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus, indicating that readers in Rome probably knew these men (Rm 16:13). Simon apparently became a Christian due to this experience.

15:22 Golgotha is Aramaic for Place of the Skull. The traditional site of the crucifixion is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located outside the city walls (Lv 24:14; Nm 15:35-36; Heb 13:12).

15:23 Wine mixed with myrrh was a primitive narcotic. The offer fulfilled Ps 69:21.

15:24 They crucified him is all Mark writes about the main event of the gospel. The crucifixion took place on Friday, now known as Good Friday. That the four soldiers of the execution squad divided his clothes and cast lots for them fulfilled Ps 22:18 (cp. Jn 19:23-24).

15:25 Nine in the morning is literally “the third hour.” Jews reckoned the time of day from sunrise.

15:26 The charge on which a person was condemned was often written on a placard and hung around his neck. In Jesus’s case, it was nailed to his cross (Jn 19:19). All four Gospels record the words differently (cp. Mt 27:37; Lk 23:38; Jn 19:19), possibly because the inscription was trilingual (Jn 19:20). The King of the Jews ironically proclaimed the truth about Jesus.

15:27 Criminals is the word used to describe Barabbas in Jn 18:40 (cp. Mk 14:48). Jesus’s crucifixion between criminals was meant as a parody of his kingship (as if he had attendants on either side) but by God’s design the whole event really was his royal enthronement. The phrase one on his right and one on his left recalls the request of James and John (10:37,40).

15:29-30 Insults means “blasphemies.” Those who passed by were thus guilty of the very thing for which the Sanhedrin had condemned Jesus (14:64). The bystanders’ insults and shaking of their heads fulfilled Ps 22:7 and Lm 2:15.

15:31 Once again the chief priests led the mockery of Jesus. Their derision along with that of the scribes went to the heart of Jesus’s mission: To save others, Jesus refused to save himself (10:45).

15:32 On Messiah, see note at 8:29. The religious leaders’ mockery recalls the second charge Jesus faced before the Sanhedrin (14:61). Mark reported that the two crucified with Jesus also taunted him. One of them repented (Lk 23:39-43).

15:33 Noon was literally “the sixth hour,” and three in the afternoon was “the ninth hour.” The darkness was supernatural and represented God’s judgment (Ex 10:21-23; Am 8:9-10).

15:34 At 3:00 p.m. Jesus cried out with a loud voice the Aramaic phrase, Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni. As usual, Mark provided a translation. Even when Jesus felt most abandoned by God, he affirmed his relationship with his Father—my God, my God, quoting the opening words of Ps 22:1. Jesus endured God’s wrath as the sin-bearer.

15:35-36 Perhaps bystanders mistook Eloi for Elijah (Aramaic Eli) since there was a tradition in Judaism that Elijah would return (9:11-13; Mal 4:5). Sour wine, made with vinegar and water, was a drink of the soldiers, not the wine of v. 23. This action fulfilled Ps 69:21 (see note at Jn 19:28-29).

15:37 The content of Jesus’s loud cry (reported by all three Synoptic Gospels) is specified in Jn 19:30—“It is finished.” Luke records Jesus’s final words (Lk 23:46).

15:38 The curtain of the temple hung before the most holy place in the temple. Its tearing symbolizes unhindered access to God, made possible because of Jesus’s atonement for sin on the cross (Heb 6:19-20; 9:3; 10:19-22). The only other use of the Greek word for torn in Mark is in 1:10 when God tore open the heavens at Jesus’s baptism.

15:39 The Gentile centurion who presided over the execution was the first in Mark’s Gospel to confess Jesus as the Son of God (cp. 1:11,24; 3:11; 5:9; 9:7). His confession matched Mark’s opening statement (1:1).

15:40 This is the first reference to Mary Magdalene in Mark. Jesus expelled seven demons from her (16:9; Lk 8:2). She came from Magdala on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses is called “the other Mary” in Mt 27:61. Possibly she was the mother of James the son of Alphaeus (Mk 3:18). Salome is named only in Mark (v. 40; 16:1). She was the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mt 20:20; 27:56).

15:41 In Mark, only women (v. 41; 1:31) and angels (1:13) serve or help Jesus. The many other women who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem did so for Passover.

15:42-47 Jesus’s burial, an important element in early Christian proclamation (1Co 15:3-4), is recorded also in Mt 27:57-61; Lk 23:50-56; and Jn 19:38-42.

15:42 Jesus’s burial was hastily performed because it was already evening on Friday. The Sabbath was soon to begin, a time when burial labors were not permitted. The day of preparation (the day before the Sabbath) was when pious Jews prepared whatever they needed for the Sabbath.

15:43 Joseph of Arimathea was a secret follower of Jesus (Mt 27:57; Jn 19:38). That he was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin and opposed their verdict (Lk 23:51) shows that this group was not unanimous in its decision to seek Jesus’s execution (cp. Mk 14:55,64; 15:1). Joseph went boldly to Pilate to ask for Jesus’s body. This contrasts with his formerly secret discipleship (Jn 19:38). The Romans often let criminals rot on their crosses, but the Jews objected to leaving the dead hanging overnight (Dt 21:22-23).

15:44 Crucifixion victims often survived for days before dying. Jesus died in about six hours. Thus he surprised Pilate a second time (v. 5).

15:45 Pilate gave Joseph Jesus’s body without demanding the bribe that families sometimes had to pay to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.

15:46 Only Mark mentions that Joseph bought some linen cloth in which Jesus was wrapped. Matthew (Mt 27:60) informs readers that the tomb was Joseph’s own. Luke (Lk 23:53) and John (Jn 19:41) add that it had never been used. Readers should understand the tomb as a family tomb, not an individual burial crypt. To seal the tomb and prevent looting, they rolled a stone against the entrance. The large, circular, flat stone rolled in a track cut into the rock at the tomb entrance.

15:47 The women who witnessed Jesus’s death also witnessed his burial.