Lange Commentary - Mark 15:16 - 15:38

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Lange Commentary - Mark 15:16 - 15:38


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

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.)

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 ownclothes 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 drinkwine 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.29And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,30Save thyself, and come downfrom 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?which 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 öñáãåëëþóáò ðáñÝäùêå , 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 ïὐὰ 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 ( ðïñöõñáí ), 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 ἀããáñåýåéí , 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 genitive(as if, Golgotha’s place). Because the translation is êñáíßïõ ôüðïò . But the question is, Has not ôüðïò in the first instance a more general import,—the place (Golgotha)? John retranslates êñáíßïõ ôüðïò into Hebrew, Golgotha; Matthew also names the place, Golgotha; Luke simply, Skull. No doubt it is strange that Mark has ôüðïò 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:

[Mar_15:20.—Codd. B., C., Lachmann, Tischendorf read áὐôïῦ instead of ôὰ ἴäéá (A., Receptus).]

[Mar_15:23.—Codd. B., C.*, L., Tischendorf omit ðéåῖí .]

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 Version s. 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., Ä ., 1, 13, 69. Alf ord’s remark, [which Meyer also makes,] that Mark rarely quotes from prophecy, however, is deserving of attention.—Trs.)

Mar_15:29.—The best MSS. read ïἰêïäïìῶí ôñéóὶí ὴìÝñáéò .

Mar_15:30.—Codd. B. , D., L., Ä ., Lachmann, Tischendorf read êáôáâÜò instead of êáôÜâá (Receptus).]

Mar_15:34.—The words ἐëùß ̈, &c., are differently written in the MSS. Lachmann reads ëåìὰ óáâá÷èáíé : Tischendorf, ëåìὰ óáâáêôáíåß (ed. 1865); Fritzsche, ëéìᾶ ; Receptus, ëáììá óáâá÷èáíß .]

[Tischendorf (ed. 1865) reads ἐðὶ ôὸí ãïëãïèᾶí .—Ed.)