Mark 15

on two pages of Minuscule 2445 from the 12th century script on Uncial 0184 from the 6th century 15:36–37,40–41in Greek-Coptic from Uncial 0184 (Vindobonensis Pap. K. 8662; 6th century) The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 47 verses. Textual witnesses Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: • Codex Vaticanus (~325–350) • Codex Sinaiticus (~330–360) • Codex Bezae (~400) • Codex Washingtonianus (~400) • Codex Alexandrinus (~400–440) • Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450; complete) Old Testament references • : Psalm • : Psalm • : Psalm • : Psalm New Testament parallels • : ; ; • : ; • : ; ; • : ; ; • : ; ; == Trial before Pilate ==

Verse 1 :Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. In the previous chapter, Mark has stressed that "all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes", "all the council", had taken part in the overnight trial of Jesus. "As soon as it was morning", the council or Sanhedrin reaches a decision, and agrees to hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. Pilate was the Roman Prefect (governor) of Iudaea Province from 26 to 36, which was the Roman combination of Idumea, Judea and Samaria and did not include Galilee, which was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. William Robertson Nicoll suggests that the "consultation" should be understood as the "resolution" resulting from the consultation, given that the whole council had been involved in the trial, and George Maclear suggests this was "a second and more formal meeting of the Sanhedrim" following the first, overnight, meeting. Verse 2 : ''Pilate asked him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?'' :: ''He answered him, 'You say so.' ''(NRSV) The Greek Textus Receptus/Majority Text reads: : καὶ ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτὸν ὁ Πιλάτος, Σὺ εἶ ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων; :: ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Σὺ λέγεις. Cross references: Matthew 27:11; Luke 23:3; John 18:37 An interpretation is that Pilate is asking Jesus if he is the messiah, just as the high priest before in , but with an explicit emphasis on the Messiah's political role, that of Jewish King. According to John's gospel, in response to Pilate's question Jesus has a short conversation with Pilate and then answers, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Historically it is likely that perceived insurrection against Rome was for what Pilate executed Jesus. According to , however, Jesus said one should pay the Roman tax and was thus not a revolutionary. The 1985 Jesus Seminar reached the conclusion that the temple incident was the cause of the crucifixion. Verse 3 :Then the chief priests accused him of many things, or :And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. The chief priests remain in attendance before Pilate and make several further, unspecified, allegations, "heaping accusations on Him". Nicoll surmises that the single accusation, that Jesus had declared himself king, was not sufficient to convince Pilate of any wrongdoing. Pilate pushes him for one but he still remains silent, which amazes or surprises Pilate. According to Luke, Pilate at this point sent Jesus to Herod Antipas because Jesus, as a Galilean, was under Herod's jurisdiction. Herod was excited to see Jesus at first, but ended up mocking him and sending him back to Pilate. Verse 4 :And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you." While Mark has Pilate highlight that there are multiple charges against Jesus, Irish archbishop John McEvilly notes that Luke's Gospel provides more specific details of the charges than either Matthew's gospel or Mark here: see Luke 23:2. Jesus does not respond to any of their accusations. Release of Barabbas According to Mark's account, it was a custom to release a prisoner at Passover, which was a celebration of freedom. No other historical record of the time records Pilate doing this, and he is known to have been cruel, for which he was eventually expelled from his post. (JA18.4.2) All the other Gospels however also agree with Mark on this tradition. Some theologians suggest that Pilate did this once or a few times According to Matthew, Pilate received a message from his wife that she believed Jesus was innocent because of a disturbing dream she had just had. He asks the crowd if they want the King of the Jews released to them because, according to Mark, Pilate knew the priests were envious of Jesus and so presumably wanted to free him without a fight with them. , 19th century: Pontius Pilate presents a scourged Jesus of Nazareth to onlookers. The priests however convince the crowd to ask for the release of Barabbas, a prisoner. Mark says he was in prison chained "with" insurrectionists who had committed murder during a recent στασισ (stasis, a riot), probably "one of ... numerous insurrections against the Roman power". Theologian John Gill says he was "at the head" of the rebels. Both Luke and John say he was a revolutionary. Jesus seems to have already been declared guilty as this seems a choice between releasing two prisoners. Pilate might have asked what should be done "with Jesus", but in his choice of words, "him whom you call the King of the Jews", he may "have hoped that the sound of the title might have not been in vain on the ears of those who had lately cried, 'Blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord'" when Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem. Crucifixion was a particularly shameful or unmentionable form of death, with a stigma put onto even the condemned's family. Roman magistrates had wide discretion in executing their tasks, and some question whether Pilate would have been so captive to the demands of the crowd. Summarily executing someone to calm the situation however would have been a tool a Roman governor would have used. ==The soldiers mock Jesus==

Mark says that the soldiers took Jesus to the Praetorium, either Herod's palace or the Fortress Antonia. These were probably mostly recruits from the area of Palestine or Syria. The whole scene is colored with divine irony, as everything the soldiers do to mock Jesus' claim of being a King is used by Mark to show this, at the height of the Passion, as Jesus' crowning as messiah according to God's plan. According to John's account, after the flogging Pilate brought Jesus back a second time and tried to convince the crowd that he was innocent, but the crowd still demanded Jesus' death and so then Pilate had him crucified. Luke has no account of the soldiers beating Jesus. ==Jesus' crucifixion==

in Jerusalem on the Via Dolorosa from the Lions' Gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. and the Tomb of Jesus On the way to their final destination the soldiers force a man passing by, Simon of Cyrene, to carry Jesus' cross for him, though Mark does not say why. Cyrene was in North Africa and Simon would have moved from there or would have been visiting. Mark lists his children, Alexander and Rufus. Verse 21 :Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross. That Mark takes the time to list only Alexander and Rufus as the names of Simon's children suggests they might have been Early Christians known to Mark's intended audience. Luke has Jesus talking to some of his women followers along the way. They arrive at Golgotha, which Mark says means the place of the skull. This was probably an exhausted rock quarry whose remaining rock had been damaged in an earthquake. They offer Jesus wine laced with myrrh to lessen the pain, but he refuses. Mark then simply says they crucified him. They then take his clothes and draw lots to distribute them. Maclear suggests that they are "unconsciously fulfilling" the words of , Mark might be stressing that if one follows Jesus, who Mark believes is the messiah, then one can expect help from God, such as Jesus' miracles, but one will not be saved from the pains of this world, and indeed in some way they are necessary to achieve a greater goal as Jesus' death is necessary for his role as the messiah. ==The death of Jesus==

According to Mark: Verses 33–39 :And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And 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. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. The soldier might be recognizing something that no one else could and thus vindicating Jesus, or he might be saying this sarcastically. This statement may bring the Gospel full circle to Mark 1:1 where Jesus is identified by the writer as "the Son of God" (only in some versions, see Mark 1 for details). Luke records that he said that Jesus was a righteous man. Matthew adds that at the moment of Jesus' death tombs in Jerusalem were opened and many bodies of "the saints" were raised from the dead. They were seen subsequently in the "holy city," Jerusalem, by many (Matthew 27:53–54). The veil of the Temple was the barrier between the inner Temple, thought to be God's place on Earth, and the rest. Its destruction is a vindication of Jesus. This might be a metaphor for God now no longer being separated but free for all the world. Given the imagery of the temple veil (there were cherubim woven into it, like the cherub set as guard over the entrance to Eden after Adam and Eve were cast out) as a symbol of the barrier between the Holy God and sinful men, the rending of the veil indicates a propitiation of God's wrath. According to John, Jesus' mother Mary and her sister Mary were there with the disciple whom Jesus loved and Jesus told the disciple to take Mary into his home. It is notable that, according to Mark, it is only Jesus' women followers who are now still with him: Verses 40–41 :There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene has not been mentioned so far in Mark, and the other Mary is identified by Jerome as Mary of Clopas, the sister of Jesus' mother Mary. Salome was James' and John's mother. The fact the Mark has not explicitly related any of Jesus' interaction with them shows that Mark has left out many of the events of the life of the "Historical Jesus" and only related events he deems necessary to make his points about Jesus. John says the soldiers were told to take down the bodies for the Sabbath and broke the other two men's legs but stabbed Jesus with a spear to make sure he was dead. John claims this is eyewitness testimony. ==Jesus' entombment==

For the subject in art, see Entombment of Christ Evening is approaching and Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the sanhedrin, who was also waiting for the "Kingdom of God," goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus' body. The Scholars Version notes this as "unexpected .. Is Joseph in effect bringing Jesus into his family?" As the next day was the Sabbath Jesus would have to have been buried before sundown or then not until the next night. According to Mosaic law (), if someone was hanged on a tree they were not to remain there at night. Maclear suggests reading this verse as "observed carefully". ==See also==