Lange Commentary - Mark 15:1 - 15:15

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Lange Commentary - Mark 15:1 - 15:15


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

5. Christ, betrayed to the Gentiles, standing before Pilate at the Tribunal of Temporal Authority: a. The Examination. Christ and the Accusers. The Confession, the Accusations, and the Lord’s Silence. b. The Judge’s attempt to deliver. Christ and Barabbas. The Outcry of the Enemy, the Silence of the Lord. The Surrender. The Mocking. Mar_15:1-15

(Parallels: Mat_27:1-26; Luk_23:1-25; Joh_18:1-16.)

1And straightway in the morningthe chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. 2And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering, said unto him, Thou sayest it. 3And the chief priests accused him of many things; but he answered nothing. 4And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee. 5But Jesus yet 6answered nothing: so that Pilate marvelled. Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. 7And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. 8And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. 9But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? (10For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.) 11But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. 12And 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 ? 13And they cried out again, Crucify him. 14Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? 15And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Comp. the parallels in Matthew and Luke.—Mark, with Matthew, takes notice of the second formal council-meeting on the morning of the crucifixion: he, like Luke, brings more distinctly into view the circumstance that the whole Sanhedrim led Christ away to Pilate; and with him omits the end of Judas, recorded by Matthew, the dream of Pilate’s wife, the washing of the hands, and the cry—“His blood be on us, and our children.” Again, Mark, like Matthew, passes over the fact that Jesus was sent to the bar of Herod, which Luke records; the full examination before Pilate, omitted by all the Synoptics, related by John; and, finally, the repeated hesitations of Pilate in condemning. Mark merely notices what John and Luke relate very fully, that many additional accusations were raised against Jesus, regarding which He maintained an unbroken silence. He limits himself, like Matthew, particularly to the two chief features in the humiliation of Jesus before Pilate: His confession of His Messiahship (King of the Jews), and His being placed side by side with Barabbas. The characterization of Barabbas he gives more accurately, in a manner similar to Luke. He marks the decision of Pilate in a peculiar way, Mar_15:15. It is worthy of note that he, along with Matthew, represents the scourging and mocking of the Lord in Pilate’s prætorium (Luke, on the other hand, relates the putting to shame of Jesus in the palace of Herod) to be part of the crucifixion-agonies; consequently, the second unsuccessful attempt of Pilate to release Him, which, according to John, he sought to effect by bringing forth the scourged One to the people, is passed over unnoticed. The assembling of the populace before the prætorium, and the more exact designation of the prætorium, are peculiar to Mark.

Mar_15:6. He released unto them one prisoner.—This was a voluntary custom of the procurator.

Mar_15:7. In the insurrection.—In which he had been captured. One of the numberless Jewish insurrections; not known more exactly. “Paulus refers to Joseph. Antiq. 18, 4.” Meyer.

Mar_15:8. That had gone up.—The stream of the populace comes, namely, back from the palace of Herod, whither Pilate had sent the Lord. Meanwhile the priests have prepared their people, have instigated and instructed them.

When he had scourged Him, to be crucified.—John, viewing matters from the psychological stand-point, mentions the scourging among the acts of Pilate, as the final attempt to deliver Jesus; Mark and Matthew, viewing the events from the historical stand-point, judge from this act that all is decided, and they look accordingly upon the scourging as the opening act in the awful tragedy of the crucifixion, ðáñÝäùêå öñáãåëëþóáò . Both are equally correct points of view. The scourging should have moved the people; it only led them to obduracy. And, as the matter issued, the crucifixion had already begun. In relating this circumstance, Matthew emphasizes the fact that the scourging resulted in the yielding up of Christ to the Jews ( öñáãåëëþóáò ðáñÝäùêåí ); Mark points out that the scourging was the opening scene in the crucifixion, and took place in consequence of the surrender.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Comp. Matthew.

2. Christ before Pilate, beside Barabbas, amid the soldiers: a threefold climax in the world’s judgment upon the Judge of the world.

3. Barabbas, the murderer, a representative of the first murderer, the father of lies, as Christ stood there in the name of His Father.—The people’s choice between the two: 1. The miscalculated and improper juxtaposition caused by the political party, a self-condemnation of worldly polity; 2. the evil advice of the chief priests, a self-condemnation of the hierarchical guardianship of the people; 3. the horrifying choice, a self-condemnation of the self destroying populace.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Matthew.—The world assembled to judge the Lord: 1. Jerusalem (the chief council); 2. Rome (Pilate); 3. the whole wide world (the soldiery).—Jesus condemned as Messiah, as the Christ of God. As Christ: 1. Condemned by the chief council; 2. given over to judgment by Pilate; 3. mocked by the soldiery.—The surrender of the prisoner at the paschal festival (probably a Passover-drama to represent the atonement for the first-born of Israel) is here a judgment upon completed blindness.—Barabbas is made by the Jews to represent the first-born of Israel, Christ the first-born of Egypt.—Christ justified upon His trial by the hostile judges: 1. By the judge: he seeks to free Him; 2. by the accusers and the people: their petition for the release of Barabbas reveals the bitterness of their hate; 3. by the soldiers, who adorn Him with the symbols of His patience and His spiritual glory.—The very mockery of truth must witness, even by its caricatures, to the glorious original.

Starke:—When superior judges act unjustly, they accumulate upon their heads much more guilt than the subordinate authorities; for in that case the oppressed have no further appeal.—Quesnel:—The assembling of the magistrates is orderly and beautiful: but the more proper their appearance, the more sinful the abuse of their authority in the oppression of the innocent.—Hedinger:—When innocence itself must appear and be accused before the judges, is it anything strange that Thou, precious Jesus, art persecuted by the devil, accused, slandered, and condemned?—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Liars’ mouths can devise much; enough, if thou art guiltless.—Envy is hateful in every man, especially in ministers of the Gospel, who should content themselves in God.—Quesnel:—What envy did here against Christ, the Chief Shepherd, that it does still to His servants, and will not cease to do till the world’s end.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—If the rulers among the people, who should put a stop to evil, themselves instigate and make the people sin, then must Christ be crucified.—Hedinger:—In the last day the heathen will put many Christians to shame.—Quesnel:—Love of honor and the fear of the world may lead a judge (who is not firmly settled in his love to justice) to many sins.—One single sinful passion makes slaves of men.—Natural honor a weak shield against temptation.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—The King of glory wears a crown of thorns, in order that He may take the curse away from the earth, and gain for us the crown of holiness.—The crowns of princes, also, have their thorns. Should they wear these to the honor of the crowned Jesus, then will they discharge aright the duties of their difficult office.—Hypocrites and the godless still insult Christ, though they even bow the knee at His name.

Braune:—The deeper He went down in suffering, the less He pleased them.—All that God did to perplex the enemies of Jesus in their acts, was in vain (Peter’s tears, the acknowledgment of Judas, the silence of Herod on the chief point, the witness of Pilate, the dream of Procula; the comparison between the insurrectionist and murderer Barabbas, and Jesus in His majesty and tranquil greatness).—Brieger:—Pilate did not concede the truthfulness of the accusations of the Jews, yet condemned the Son of God to death. He thereby fulfilled in two respects the wisdom of God:—First, that the Lord should be crucified, and not stoned; second, that Jews and Gentiles should unite in His death.—Bauer:—Sad is the scene which here meets our eyes; as it ever is when goodness has to protect itself by the votes of the masses.

Footnotes:

[Mar_15:1.—Codd. B., C., D., Lachmann, Tischendorf read only ðñùß ̈.]

[Mar_15:7.—Codd. B., C., D., Lachmann, Tischendorf read óôáóéáóôῶí .]

[Mar_15:8.—Codd. B., D., Lachmann, Tischendorf, ἀíáâÜò instead of ἀíáâïÞóáò .]

[Lange adopts the reading ἀíáâÜò in his translation. Luther’s version does the same.—Ed.]