Mark 15

Mark 15:17

[a] clothed him with purple] Many particulars mentioned in their dealing with Christ were not from the Jewish, but the Roman customs. Some were mentioned in note [d] Matt. xxvii. 15; and such was here the putting the purple or scarlet robe upon him; which the text here saith was done by the soldiers; and Luke, by Herod’s servants, or else the Roman guards, Luke xxiii. 11. And so saith: Lazarus Bayfius, this purple or scarlet gown, or robe, was the Roman fashion, called toga picta; and accordingly by St. Luke, ἐσθῆς λομπρὰ, ch. xxiii. 11; and was by way of scoff brought to Christ by the soldiers, as if it had been sent by the senate and people of Rome to him, which, as the Jews said, pretended to be their king. See further note [b] Luke xxiii.

Mark 15:25

And betwixt the third and the sixth hour, John xix. 14, that is, betwixt nine and twelve of the clock, he was condemned by Pilate, and soon hurried away by the soldiers and fastened to the cross.

Mark 15:26

And according to the Roman custom his indictment or charge for which he was put to death was written and fixed over his head.

[b] superscription of &c.] That it was the Romans’ custom to write the crime for which any man suffered death in a table, and carry it before him to execution, appears by Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. a’. where of Attalus the Christian martyr it is said, that he was led about the amphitheatre, πίνακος αὐτὸν προάγοντος, ἐν ᾧ ἐγέγραπτο, &c., “with a table carried before him, in which was written in Latin, This is Attalus the Christian.” So in Suetonius, Domit. c. 10, Detractum in arenam canibus objecit, cum hoc titulo, Impie locutus, &c. “He brought him out, and cast him to the dogs, with this title or inscription, He spake impiously.” This elsewhere he calleth elogium, a way of publishing the fault, in Calig., and so Tertullian in his Apology, c. 11. And as of other kinds of death, so particularly of those that are crucified. This is mentioned by Dio of a servant, that he was carried to the cross, μετὰ γραμμάτων τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς θανατώσεως δηλούντων, “with a writing, or words, declaring the cause of his being put to death.” From these records of the Romans appears the propriety of all these expressions in the several evangelists: ἐπιγραφὴ τῆς αἰτίας, the superscription of the cause, or of his crime here in Mark; ἡ αἰτία ἐπάνω τῆς κεφαλῆς γεγραμμένη, the charge, or cause, written over his head, Matt. xxvii. 37; and simply, ἐπιγραφή, inscription, Luke xxiii. 38; and τίτλος, (the Latin word titulus,) title, John xix. 19; all to the same purpose, noting this Roman custom observed in the dealing with him more Romano, “after the manner of the Romans.”

Mark 15:28

And by this means that prophecy, Isaiah liii. 12, was fulfilled— using an expression of detestation, said, Thou that destroyest— rulers of the sanhedrim mocking him said among themselves, He undertook to be a saviour of others, and did many miraculous cures on others, but himself he cannot save—

Mark 15:33

And when the trumpet that sounded twelve at noon had gone, there was— " aloud, saying, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and so gave up the ghost— " See Matt. xxvii. 51. " the commander of the band of soldiers and other of the soldiers, Matt. xxvii. 54, which stood— " that when he had so cried he gave, ὃτι οὗ τω κρύξαι ἐξέπνευεν.

Mark 15:40

[c] James the less] That the positive, μικρὸς, is here taken for the comparative, the less, or the younger, doth not appear by any circumstance of this text or analogy of other places. And there were three James’s so known; two apostles, and the third the brother of the Lord; that this title of the less, in the comparative, could be no character of the third of these, to distinguish him from the other two. That which is most probable is, that being a kind of cognomen here, it is an abbreviate of μικρὸς τῇ ἡλικίᾳ, little in stature, the phrase used of Zacchaeus, Luke xix. 3, and so notes this James to have been about Zacchaeus’s size or pitch, and so distinguish him from the others of that name, who, it should seem, were not so.

c De re vest.

Mark 15:71

And with a solemn imprecation on himself he swore that he knew him not, was none of his followers. it was the second cockcrowing, about three in the morn, and upon hearing of a cock crow Peter called to mind what Jesus had said to him, Before &c., and casting his eye up to Christ, he saw him look earnestly upon him, Luke xxii. 61, which, together with the crowing of the cock, put him in mind of what he had done, and thereupon he wept (as himself confesses here by his amanuensis St. Mark,) but, say the others, he wept bitterly. ### CHAP. XV. AND straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the ¶ the chief priests, elders, and scribes, that is, the whole sanhedrim, having sat in consultation, and re-