Lange Commentary - Mark 15:39 - 15:47

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Lange Commentary - Mark 15:39 - 15:47


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

7. The Descent of Jesus into the Realm of Death. His Death, and the Tokens of the New Life. Mar_15:39-47

(Parallels: Mat_27:54-66; Luk_23:39-56; Joh_19:31-42.)

39And 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. 40There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with 42him unto Jerusalem. And now, when the even was come, (because it was the 43preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,) Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and, calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. 45And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought 46fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. 47And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See Matthew and Luke.—In the account of the centurion’s exclamation, Mark harmonizes with Matthew: the occasion of it he makes, characteristically, to have been the loud cry of the expiring Jesus. The three women beneath the cross, he mentions, like Matthew; also Salome by name, adding many other women, whom he does not specialize. Still more generally and comprehensively is this sorrowing circle alluded to by Luke. Like the other two Synoptics, Mark is less full in his narration of the burial than John; nevertheless he declares with exactness, as do John and Luke, the day to have been the ðáñáóêåõÞ . Nicodemus is missing here; Joseph of Arimathea is described as the disciple of Jesus in words different from Matthew, and more explicitly than Luke: “Who waited for the kingdom of God.” In this, the Petrine idea of the kingdom appears. That the step of Joseph was a bold one; that Pilate called the centurion, and assured himself of the certainty of Jesus’ death: these are features which are peculiar to Mark.

Mar_15:39. Said, Truly this man.—Comp. Note upon Matthew.—The noticing of the motive of the centurion’s cry, viz.: that he saw that Christ êñÜîáò ἐîÝðíåõóåí , is peculiar to Mark, and is strikingly characteristic of him. The Lion of Judah is, even in His departing, a dying lion. The expression of a wondrous power of life and spirit in the last sign of life, the triumphant shout in death, was to the warrior, who had learned to know death from a totally different side upon the battle-fields, a new revelation. Theophylact: ïý ̔ ôù äåóðïôéêῶò ἐîÝðíåõóå . De Wette, following some others, gives but a weak conception: He saw in the speedier death of Jesus a favor from the gods. As to the monstrously gnostic explanation of the passage given by Baur, consult Meyer.

Mar_15:40. James the Less.—Meyer makes this remark apply solely to the stature. Comp., on the contrary, Jdg_6:15. No doubt it points to a second James, rather than to James the disciple in the stricter sense, since James the son of Alpheus, as he is elsewhere termed, was not the brother of James the Greater. Comp. Note on Matthew. That this Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses is identical with Mary the wife of Alpheus, is proved by Joh_19:25.

Mar_15:42. And now, when the even was come, because.—We cannot construe this passage: Because it was even, Joseph came. Reasons: 1. The Jews, indeed, who, according to John, prayed Pilate to remove the bodies, had no other ground for the request than that the next day was the Sabbath. Joseph, on the contrary, had quite a different motive. He wished to entomb the Lord’s body with respect, and for this purpose could only employ the circumstance that the Jews themselves wished it removed. The connection of the words, in ἐðὲὶ ἦí , ê . ô . ë ., with ἐëèὼí ’ ÉùóÞö , ê . ô . ë ., would be, notwithstanding all that is said to the contrary, very clumsy; and the correction ἦëèåí , moreover, goes to prove this. 3. Then had Joseph in a legal sense come too late. He must come before the evening. Accordingly, we understand the passage thus: between ὀøßá and ὀøßá there was a difference (sunsetting, and twilight); upon the evening preceding a feast, the earlier ὀøßá was observed. About this time Joseph appeared upon Golgotha, and then he went to Pilate.—Was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath.—See Note on Matthew. Meyer says: “Here, accordingly, there is not a trace that this Friday was itself a festival.” The trace is given fully, Mar_14:12. If the day mentioned there was the 14th Nisan, then the following day must have been the 15th Nisan. Besides, we know that upon a Passover-feast, where the second day of the feast was at the same time a Sabbath, upon this day, according to the Jewish ideas of the Sabbath, the chief feast fell, as is distinctly shown in Joh_19:31. See Wieseler, Chron. Synop. p. 386. By the Sabbath occurring upon the second day of the feast, the first feast-day became the preparation, the day before the Sabbath.

Mar_15:43. Came, and went in boldly—He had come; had seen what occurred as the bones of the crucified were broken; knew that Jesus was about to be taken down; and now he felt that there was no time to be lost, and hence he dared to ask.

Mar_15:44. Whether He had been any while (already long) dead, ðÜëáé .—Before the return of the centurion. He wished to be sure as to what he did.

Mar_15:45. Gave the body.—Joseph being known as a wealthy man, we might have expected, from the character of Pilate, that he would have extorted money, because the bodies were frequently sold (see the quotations in Meyer). This generosity was the mark of a strange state of mind. Probably he was glad to hear that Jesus was really dead, because the Saviour in His higher nature had grown awful to him.

Mar_15:47. Where He was laid: ðïῦ ôÝèåéôáé .—From this time onward, there appears to have been a relation of confidence and friendship between the old disciples (the women), and the new disciples (Joseph and Nicodemus). In consequence of this new-born confidence and friendship, the Galilean women enter without hesitation the garden of the rich counsellor, and kneel down before the grave. According to Mark and Luke, their intention was at the same time to mark accurately the grave; already they were thinking of the anointing after the Sabbath. Bauer: It was not always the custom in Israel to employ a shroud in burying, and the shortness of time on, this occasion did not admit of it.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See the parallel passages in Matthew.

2. The signs of the new life, which present themselves in the death of Jesus.

3. The Lord’s death-cry, as expressing the might of His life and spirit, was the awakening of the heathen captain. Death is swallowed up in victory, 1 Corinthians 15. The death of believers is henceforth a new death, the prospect of a new world, the presentation of a new world for contemplation.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The last word of the Jewish priest: He was a blasphemer, is contradicted by, the first word of the heathen soldier: He was the Son of God.—Golgotha becomes changed by the Lord’s death: 1. The enemies, mockers, and blasphemers have vanished; 2. the friends, confessors, and worshippers appear.—The alternation of life and death in the dying hour of Christ: 1. While He still lived, all sank in death; 2. when He died, all awoke to a new life.—With Christ’s death, the presentiments of His resurrection spring up in the minds of believers.—The miraculous workings of the death of Jesus upon those who come under its influence, so different and yet so uniform: 1. So different: the heathen, Roman warrior, the emblem of the Roman Empire shattered to its foundations; the timid Jewish women transformed into heroines; the honorable Jewish counsellor, a Christian grave-digger to the Lord; Pilate, the proud man of the world, himself overcome by the spirit of mildness. 2. So uniform: all agree in the self-forgetful manifestation of their homage, and in an expression of readiness to do or to suffer, evidencing the beginning of a new life.—The soft sleep of the Saviour, and His sacred watchers: two female disciples on Good Friday, two angels on Easter morning.—The little congregation at the grave of Jesus, the germ of all Christian congregations.—All Christian Churches are Churches of the Holy Sepulchre.

Starke:—Christ is also the heathen’s Saviour.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Even in the assembly of the wicked, and in a godless council, there may be a pious councillor; therefore beware of impious judgments.—Quesnel:—God knows where to find persons who will carry out His plans, how dangerous soever they may be.—What appears to be destroyed, will turn out well at the end. Therefore despair not, dear Christian; believe and trust.—Whosoever hazards anything for the Lord, God will enable that venturer to succeed.—The counsel of the godless never succeeds; that of the righteous stands sure.—Look more to Christ’s glory than to self-interest and personal praise.—It is a beautiful work of love when the rich bury the poor.—Let the grave be as deep and as well-guarded as it may, the omnipotence of God will open it, and bring forth the dead.—Braune:—The Head, like the members, was carried to resurrection through the grave.

Brieger:—The pious confessors (the first, the penitent thief; the second, the captain) condemn the chief council and all the people, Isa_53:9. He was to have been buried, like other transgressors, on Golgotha. The heavenly Father had decreed otherwise.—Bauer:—From this time forward, God’s witnesses for the crucified Jesus come forward into view.

Footnotes:

[Mar_15:39.—Codd. B., L., Tischendorf omit êñÜîáò ; Lachmann retains it with Receptus.]

[Mar_15:42.—A., B., Lachmann read ðñὸò óÜââáôïí (Meyer: only an error of the copyist); Tischendorf reads with the Receptus ðñïóÜââáôïí .]

[Mar_15:43.—A., B., C., Lachmann, Tischendorf read åëèþí instead of ἦëèåí .]

[Mar_15:45.—B., D., L., Lachmann, Tischendorf read ðôῶìá (corpse) instead of óῶìá .]

[Mar_15:46.—B., D., L., Lachmann, Tischendorf read ἔèçêåí ; Receptus, êáôÝèçêåí ; Cod. A., êÜèçêåí .]

[Mar_15:47.—Cod. A. reads ἸùóÞö ; B., Ä ., Lachmann, Tischendorf read Ἰùóῆôïò , which is merely the Greek form of Éùóῆ .

[Mar_15:47.—A., B., C., Lachmann, Tischendorf read ôÝèåéôáé ; Receptus, ôßèåôáé .]