Mark 15:29

THEY REVILE HIM ON THE CROSS

Mar 15:29-32; Luk 23:35-43; Mat 27:39-44. “And passing by, they continued to blaspheme Him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise the high priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, continued to say, He saved others; Himself He is not able to save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on Him. He trusted in God; let Him now deliver Him, if He wishes Him: for He said, I am the Son of God.” This scene, led off by the high priests, elders, and scribes, whose honorable example, of course, many thoughtless people followed, both citizens and soldiers, was not only barbaric in the extreme and infinitely worse than brutal, but diabolical in the superlative degree. And yet it was perpetrated by the ministers and elders standing at the head of the Church, illustrating the significant fact that collegiate education, religious professions, official dignity, and clerical sanctity are no guarantee against the vilest and most demoniacal persecutions when the devil is in them. Shall we not all learn a profitable lesson by this scene, and that is, to have no faith in man, but all in God?

“The thieves also, being crucified along with Him, continued to cast this same reproach on Him.” Luk 22:39-43 : “But one of the malefactors, having been hanged up, continued to blaspheme Him, If Thou art the Christ, save Thyself and us.” There is no contradiction of the preceding with the following. Simply recognize the fact that both of the robbers at first joined with the high priest and the rabble in reproaching Him. But after so long a time, something in the look or the manner of Jesus sent conviction deep into the heart of one of the malefactors, superinducing a tremendous reaction, such as to evoke from the repentant thief the following: “And the other one, responding, continued to rebuke him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, because thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the punishment worthy of the crimes which we have committed; but this One has done nothing wrong. He said to Jesus, Lord, when Thou mayest come in Thy kingdom, remember me. And Jesus said to him, Truly I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” On the resurrection morn, three days subsequently, Jesus said to Mary, “I have not yet ascended unto My Father,” setting forth the indisputable fact that He had not met the thief in heaven. He was a Jew, and was saved under the Abrahamic covenant, which all concentrates in Christ. So he went to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16), whither Lazarus and all of the Old Testament saints had been gathering since the days of Abel. Jesus, expiring on the cross, His disembodied human soul (1Pe 3:19) went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison — i. e. the inmates of hell — the victory won on Calvary (Act 2:27-31); then, crossing the impassable chasm, entered the intermediate paradise — i. e., Abraham’s bosom — and met the thief before the expiration of that day at midnight; spent a wonderful hallelujah Sabbath with the patriarchs and prophets and all of the Old Testament saints; early, the first day of the week, abolished the intermediate paradise, and led up all the inmates with Him (Eph 4:8-10), and, coming to the tomb, received His body, the mighty host of Old Testament saints — being invisible, because not having their bodies — accompanied Him the forty days, and finally ascended with Him up to heaven. The prophetic eye of David (Psalms 24) catching the vision of the triumphant host, hears the shout, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of glory come in.” Then the shout roars back from the celestial portals, “Who is this King of glory?” The answer is prompt, “The Lord, mighty to save and strong to deliver; He is the King of glory.” Now the gates swing high, and millions of glorified spirits shout Him welcome, with the triumphant host captured from the cruel clutches of Satan. The grandest ovation heaven has seen in all the ages now monopolizes the interest of the celestial universe, while the Conqueror of Mount Calvary leads His blood-washed pilgrims up into the august presence of the Almighty Father, presenting them before Him, “Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given unto Me.” O what a thrilling testimony-meeting follows, Father Abraham, the patriarchs and prophets, all participating, to the most delectable edification of angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim! A false exegesis has been put on this passage, in order to sustain that miserable materialistic heresy which deprives man of his soul, ignoring the idea that the soul is ever separate from the body, as this false dogma does not concede that you have a soul. As this positive statement of Jesus to the thief, “This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise,” so clearly and unequivocally recognizes the soul of the thief as going out of the body hanging on the cross and entering paradise that very day, to their ineffaceable shame be it said, they have condescended to the diabolical audacity to change the punctuation of the very identical words which Jesus spoke, so moving the comma as to make it read, “Truly I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with Me in paradise,” making the adverb semeron, “this day,” qualify “say unto thee,” instead of “thou shalt be with Me in paradise,” thus making our Savior commit a solecism and talk nonsense. As this occult form of infidelity — i. e., soul-sleeping materialism has been sown by Satan throughout this continent, we feel it our duty to expose it, as it is utterly destitute of truth. The salvation of the thief on the cross is infinitely consolatory to penitent sinners in the hour and article of death. However, it is awfully risky to make our Lord’s mercy in this notable instance an apology for continuing in sin. All should bear in mind the obvious fact that this poor thief had never seen Jesus before, nor hardened his heart by slighting opportunities.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15:29-32 Jesus was being mocked and abused by the people passing by, the religious leaders, and the revolutionaries. • The people passing by shouted abuse (literally blasphemed), wagged their heads in contempt (see Lam 2:15), and ridiculed his claim that he would destroy the Temple (see Mark 14:58).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 15:29. Οὐὰ, Ah!) An interjection and exclamation, having the force of expressing astonishment, as Franc. Bernardinus Ferrarius, L. 3. de Acclam. Vet. c. 15, shows at large. In this passage, it has the force of expressing wonder along with irony.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar_15:29-41. See on Mat_27:39-56. Comp. Luk_23:35-49.

οὐά] the Latin vah! an exclamation of (here ironical) amazement. Dio Cass. lxiii. 20; Arrian, Epict. iii. 23. 24; Wetstein in loc.

ὁ καταλύων κ.τ.λ.] gives us a glimpse of the original affirmation of the witnesses, as it is preserved in Mat_26:61 (not in Mar_14:58).

Mar_15:31. πρὸς ἀλλήλ., inter se invicem, belongs to ἐμπαίζ.

Mar_15:32. Let the Messiah the King of Israel come down now, etc.,a bitter mockery! The ὁ Χριστός applies to the confession before the supreme council, Mar_14:61 f., and ὁ βασιλ. τ. Ἰσρ. to that before Pilate, Mar_15:2. Moreover, we may attach either the two forms of address (Lachmann, Tischendorf), or the first of them (Ewald), to what precedes. But the customary mode of apprehending it as a double address at the head of what follows is more in keeping with the malicious triumph.

πιστεύσ.] namely, that He is the Messiah, the King of Israel. καὶ οἱ συνεσταυρ.] agrees with Matthew, but not with Luke. See on Mat_27:44. It is to be assumed that Mark had no knowledge of the narrative of Luk_23:39 ff., and that the scene related by Luke belongs to a later tradition, in which had been preserved more special traits of the great event of the crucifixion, but with which the historical character of the exceedingly characteristic scene is not lost. See on Luke, l.c.

Mar_15:34.[176] ἐλωΐ] the Syriac form for אֵלִי (Matthew), which latter appears to have been what Jesus uttered, as is to be inferred from the scoff: ἨΛΊΑΝ ΦΩΝΕῖ.

Mar_15:36. ΛΈΓΩΝ,] a difference from Mat_27:49, whose account is more original (in opposition to Holtzmann), because to remove the aspect of friendliness must appear more in keeping with the later development. In consequence of this difference, moreover, ἄφετε is to be understood quite otherwise than ἄφες in Matthew, namely, allow it, what I am doing, let me have my way,which has reference to the scoffing conception, as though the proffered draught would preserve the life till Elias should come. The view that in Mar_15:35 f. friends of Jesus are meant who misunderstood His cry of ἘΛΩΐ, and one of whom had wished still to cheer Him as regards the possible coming of Elias (Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 490), is in itself improbable even on account of the well-known cry of the Psalm, as indeed the ἄφετε, ἴδωμεν κ.τ.λ., comp. Mar_15:30, sounds only like malicious mockery.

Mar_15:37. ἘΞΈΠΝΕΥΣΕ] He breathed out, i.e. He died. It is often used in this meaning absolutely in the Greek writers (Soph. Aj. 1025; Plut. Arist. 20).

Mar_15:39. According to Mark, the centurion concluded from the fact of Jesus dying after having cried out in such a manner, i.e. with so loud a voice (Mar_15:37), that He was a hero. The extraordinary power (ΟὝΤΩ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΙΚῶς ἘΞΈΠΝΕΥΣΕ, Theophylact, comp. Victor Antiochenus: ΜΕΤʼ ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑς ἈΠΈΘΑΝΕ) which the Crucified One manifested in His very departing, made on the Gentile this impressionin which his judgment was naturally guided by the circumstance that he had heard (Mat_27:40) of the charge brought against Jesus, that He claimed to be Son of God. According to others (as Michaelis, Kuinoel, de Wette), the unexpectedly speedy dying of Jesus, who had just before emitted a vigorous cry, made that impression, upon the Gentile, who saw in it a favour of the gods. But in order to express this, there would have been necessary under the circumstances before ἘΞΈΠΝ. an accompanying definition, such as ἬΔΗ or ΕὐΘΈΩς. Baur, Markusev. p. 108 f., illustrates the remark even from the crying out of the demons as they went forth (Mar_1:26, Mar_5:7, Mar_9:26); holding that Mark correspondingly conceived of the forcible separation of the higher spirit, through which Jesus had been the Son of God,therefore after a Gnostic manner. Comp. also Hilgenfeld and Köstlin. Wrongly; because opposed to the doctrine of the entire N. T. regarding Christ the born Son of God, as indeed the heathen centurion, according to the measure of his conception of sons of God, could not conceive of Him otherwise. We may add that the circumstantial and plain statement of motive, as given by Matthew and Luke for the centurions judgment, betrays the later manipulators (Zeller in Hilgenfelds Zeitschr. 1865, p. 385 ff., gives a contrary opinion), to whom Mark in this place seemed obscure or unsatisfactory.

ἦν] in His life.

Mar_15:40. ἮΣΑΝ] aderant; comp. Mar_8:1.

καὶ Μαρ.] among others also Mary.

ΤΟῦ ΜΙΚΡΟῦ] cannot according to the meaning of the word be without arbitrariness explained as: the younger, although the James designated is the so-called Younger, but as: the little (of stature, comp. Luk_19:3). Hom. Il. v. 801: Τυδεύς τοι μικρὸς μὲν ἔην δέμας, Xen. Cyr. viii. 4. 20. An appeal is wrongly made to Jdg_6:15, where in fact ΜΙΚΡΌς is not the youngest, but the least, that is, the weakest in warlike aptitude.

Mark does not name Salome, but he indicates her. According to Joh_19:25, she was the sister of the mother of Jesus. Comp. also Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 171. Thus there are three women here recorded by Mark. So also Mat_27:56. To distinguish the Mary of James from the mother of Joses, so that four should be adduced (Ewald, l.c. p. 324), there appears to be no sufficient ground (comp. the Remark after Mar_15:47); on the contrary, Mark and Matthew would have here expressed themselves in a way very liable to be misunderstood; comp. on Matthew.

Mar_15:41. αἳ καὶ κ.τ.λ.] as they were now in the company around Jesus, so also they were, while He was in Galilee, in His train, ΑἽ applies, we may add, to the three who were named. Beside these there were among the women present yet many others, who had gone up with Him to Jerusalem.

[176] Mark has only this one of the sayings of Jesus on the cross, and Schenkel regards only this one as absolutely undoubted,in which opinion he does great injustice specially to John. Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 451, takes offence at this very saying, and only finds it conceivable as a reference to the whole twenty-second Psalm.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 15:29-32 . Taunts of spectators (Mat 27:39-44 , Luk 23:35 ; Luk 23:37 ; Luk 23:39 ).

Mar 15:29 . οὐὰ = Latin, vah , expressing here ironical admiration: “admirandi vim cum ironia habet,” Bengel. Raphel remarks that this word was not given in the Greek Lexicons, but that it is not therefore to be regarded as a Latinism peculiar to Mk., but rather as a word which had been adopted and used by the later Greeks, e.g. , Arrian. Here only in N. T.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(29) Ah.—The interjection, which in its Greek form expresses a kind of inarticulate scorn, is peculiar to St. Mark, and may be noted as another instance of his habit of reproducing the very sounds that had been uttered.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. railed on him] The instincts of ordinary pity were quenched in the fierceness of malignant hatred and religious bigotry.

Ah] “Fyz,” Wyclif. It is an exclamation of exultant derision = the Latin Vah.

that destroyest the temple] This saying of our Lord at His first cleansing of the Temple was never forgotten. Perhaps some of the false witnesses of the previous night were now present.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let Christ the king of Israel,.... Who sets up for the Messiah, and whose followers call him the king of Israel, whom the nation expected: and if he is so, let him

descend now from the cross, that we may see; see him come down, and be eyewitnesses of his power:

and believe; that he is the Messiah that was prophesied of, and has been waiting for:

and they that were crucified with him reviled him; that is, the thieves, at least one of them; See Gill on Mat 27:44.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Vers. 29, 30. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads. Here was another fulfillment of prophecy, and other aggravation of the misery of Christ. "All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him". (Psa_22:7, Psa_22:8) The torment of crucifixion itself was terrible; but it was a still greater torment to the Crucified to be insulted in his agony. Our Lord may well have had these words in his mind, persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they tell of the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded". (Psa_69:26) They that passed by. Calvary was probably near to one of the thoroughfares leading to the city; so that there would be a continual stream of persons passing to and fro; more especially at this time, when Jerusalem was thronged with visitors. And no doubt the words of the accusation against him in its incorrect form would pass freely from mouth to mouth, Ha! thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If you could make such a boast as this, show your power by coming down from the cross.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. xxvii, 39.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

shaking their heads

This is an action people do to show that they disapproved of Jesus.

Aha!

This is a exclamation of mockery. Use the appropriate exclamation in your language. (See: Exclamations)

You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days

The people refer to Jesus by what he earlier prophesied that he would do. AT: "You who said you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

temple

cross

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

29. οἱ παραπορευόμενοι. Syr-Sin. omits. Cicero (In Verr. v. 66) says that public places along the highways were chosen for crucifixions; that the sufferers might serve as scares to criminals and warnings to passers by. The executed were treated as vermin, nailed to a tree or door. To this public place outside Jerusalem “passers by” would be brought by animosity, curiosity, business, or accident. The expression at once recalls Lam 1:12; Lam 2:15; but Psa 22:8 may also be in the minds of the Synoptists. In O.T. “shaking the head” is often given as a sign of mock pity or derision; 2Ki 19:21; Psa 22:7; Psa 109:25; Job 16:4; Isa 37:22.

ἐβλασφήμουν. Cf. Act 13:45; Act 18:6; Rom 3:8.

Οὐᾶ. Here only in Bibl. Grk. It expresses respect or amazement, genuine or sarcastic, while οὐαί, which is frequent in LXX. and N.T., expresses pity. There is much the same difference between vah and vae.

ὁ καταλύων. Nom. with art. for voc. as often; cf. Mar 5:8; Mar 5:41, Mar 9:25; and especially Rev 18:10.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29-32.] He is mocked on the cross. Mat 27:39-44.Luk 23:35-37Luk 23:35-37, Luk 23:39-43. (Joh 19:25-27.) Our narrative, derived from a common source with that of Matt., omits the scriptural allusion, ‘He trusted in God,’ &c. Matt. ver. 43.

29.] οὐά, an expression of reproach:—sometimes one of admiration and respect, as in Dio Cassius, lxiii. 20, where the Romans shout after Nero, on his triumphal entry after his victories in the Grecian games, ὀλυμπιονίκα, οὐά, πυθιονίκα, οὐὰ αὔγουστε, αὔγουστε.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29, 30. These taunts that follow have all the single point that now is the time to test all of Jesus’ pretensions, especially to supernatural power and aid, and that his powerlessness now at this supreme moment makes these pretensions absurd. Οὐα,1 ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναόν, καὶ οἰκοδομῶν (ἐν) τρισὶν ἡμέραις, σῶσον σεαυτόν, καταβὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ—Ha, you that destroy the temple, and build it in three days,2 save yourself by coming down from the cross. The part. καταβὰς denotes the manner of σῶσον. The populace seize on this claim, the only one that Jesus ever made of the same kind, and match its seeming pretentiousness against his powerlessness now.

καταβὰς, instead of καὶ κατάβα, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א ABDgr. LΔ, one mss. Lat. Vet. Vulg. Memph.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ah! [ουα] . The Latin vah!

Destroyest. The same word as at Mr 13:2.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.