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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Mark 15:24 - 15:24
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24. σταυροῦσιν αὐτόν. All the Evangelists pass over the horrors of the process of crucifixion in reverent silence. There is no attempt to excite emotion by detailing them. We have no means of determining whether our Lord’s feet were nailed or tied, for Luk 24:39 is not decisive. In the Gospel of Peter, before the burial, nails are taken from the hands only, which indicates that “Peter” knew the Fourth Gospel. The Synoptists say nothing about the nailing, and Jn speaks only of the hands (Joh 20:25; Joh 20:27). Writers and painters, perhaps influenced by Psa 22:17, have commonly assumed the nailing of the feet, and this is probably correct (see Meyer on Mt.). In that case each foot would almost certainly be nailed separately.
διαμερίζονται τὰ ἱμάτια. This was not an exceptional brutality; the clothing of an executed criminal was a perquisite of the executioners. All four call attention to the parting of the garments in wording which is influenced by Psa 22:18, which Jn (Joh 19:24) quotes verbatim from LXX. The Hebrew distinguishes the upper and under garments, as does Jn in his narrative; LXX. and the Synoptists do not.
βάλλοντες κλῆρον ἐπʼ αὐτά. Here again the Evangelist who was present is more definite than the Synoptists. He records how lots were cast for the under-garment only, while the upper was divided into four.
τίς τί ἄρῃ. Lit. “Who should take what,” quis quid tolleret (Vulg.). The double question occurs nowhere else in N.T., though some authorities have it Luk 19:15, ἵνα γνῷ τίς τί διεπραγματεύσατο. Syr-Syn. omits it here. It is not rare in class. Grk. ἡ τίσι τί ἀποδιδοῦσα τέχνη δικαιοσύνη ἂν καλοῖτο (Plato Rep. 332 D). Similarly πῶς τί; Field, pp. 43, 44, quotes other instances.