Mark 15

Mark 15:25

25. — it was the third hour.] See note at John xix. 14.

Mark 15:32

32. — that we may see and believe.] This they said, not that they either desired or would have yielded to further conviction, but merely for the purpose of insulting him. Dr. S. Clarke.

The rejection of Christianity by the great bulk of the Jewish nation, assuredly forms no valid objection to the connexion and consistency of the Law and the Gospel. This rejection was not obscurely intimated by the Prophets, Issi. xlix. 16; liii. 1—9; was expressly predicted by our Lord, Matt. xvi. 21; xxvi. 2; and was the natural consequence of that national ambition, that carnal and worldly temper, which induced the great bulk of the Jewish nation to misunderstand and misinterpret the prophecies; by directing their attention exclusively to those predictions which speak of the supremacy and extent of the Messiah’s kingdom, and which they understood of a temporal instead of a spiritual reign, by which the Jewish nation, as they vainly imagined, was to be rescued from the Roman yoke, and exalted to the dominion of the world; while they wilfully overlooked the equally clear predictions of the same Messiah’s humiliation and sufferings, and the express declarations, that the new dispensation should not be confined to one chosen people, like the old; but should embrace, without distinction, all nations, who, according to the original promise of God to the great Patriarch Abraham, were to “be blessed in his seed.” But the true interpretation and application of the prophecies is not obscured, or the proof of Divine foreknowledge and co-operation in the establishment of the Gospel arising from them subverted, by the errors or the obstinacy of the Jews. The prophecies are open to our inspection as well as theirs; and, when by combining the temporal humiliation with the spiritual dominion of the Messiah, both which the Gospel attests, we perceive all the predictions respecting Him accomplished, however apparently opposite; the proof hence resulting is the more decisive, as it was more difficult for mere human sagacity to anticipate, or mere human agency to produce, so extraordinary a coincidence. Dr. Graves.

Mark 15:34

34. — Eloi, Eloi.] St. Matthew gives the words Eli, Eli, in the Hebrew, exactly the same as they occur at Ps. xxii. 1. St. Mark gives them according to the Syrochaldack dialect; which was in common use at the time of our Saviour. Dr. Lightfoot.

We should observe what calmness of mind is conspicuous in the unimpassioned but not unfeeling manner

Mark 15:36

36. — saying,] The rest saying, &c. See Matt. xxvii. 49.

Mark 15:39

39. — and gave up the ghost.] Our Lord appeared as great in His sufferings as in His actions, in His death as in His life; and exhibited a wonderful example of forgiveness and composure, of magnanimity and conscious dignity, of filial love and pious resignation, in the midst of the most horrible tortures which human nature is capable of sustaining. Abp. Newcome.

40. And when the centurion, &c.] What a marvellous concurrence was here of strong and irrefragable

Mark 15:42

42. — the day before the sabbath.] This explanation of the term “the preparation” is added by St. Mark, for the information of the Gentiles, for whom principally he wrote. Grotius.

Chap. XVI. ver. 1. And when the sabbath &c.] Respecting this chapter, see further notes at Matt. xxviii, and other passages referred to in the margin.

— had bought sweet spices.] They had prepared their spices before, as is more fully related by St. Luke,