10/21/2024 – Day 120 – Mark – Chapters 15 & 16 /From “Jesus Faces Pilate” to the end of our reading in the gospel of Mark: “The Ascension”.
I highly recommend looking at the posts from the last two cycles if you haven’t to this point:
Search on “Day 121”.
’06/27/2022 – Re 15:39: “Truly This Man was the Son of God!” And read this fascinating “fictional” account, details we just don’t know, from the perspective of the Roman gladiator assigned to Jesus’ crucifixion detail, titled “The Witness” by Danny Hotea.
09/21/2020 – re: Pilate asking Jesus: “What is truth”. How eerie is that he had the one man in all of history to give him the answer. But he walked away…
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Let’s look at 15:34: “And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?
“The Apologetics Study Bible” commentary on this verse:
“The greatest mystery of the gospel is that Jesus was both God and man in one person. Though the Gospel do not tell us, we can deduce from the rest of Scripture that Jesus was forsaken by God due to his bearing the sin of the world on the cross (Isaiah 59:2; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). The rupture in relationship was between God and Jesus in His humanity. On the final words of Jesus, see notes on Matthew 27:46 and Luke 23: 46.”
Insert: Jimmy comment – I run into this often: I don’t understand why we use “God and Jesus in his humanity” here. Jesus is God as well. Can’t we use “God the Father” in place of “God”. And God is not his name, it refers to all three in the trinity. So, can we instead use: “Yahweh” ; “Jehovah Jirah”; “Elohim”; or “El Shaddai”,… to distinguish God the Father from Yeshua (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. Thoughts?
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This commentary from the same bible is from the “Burial of Jesus” section, verses 15: 42 – 46:
“Victims of crucifixion were generally left as carrion for vultures and other wild animals to eat. But evidence indicates that a simple burial was more common in Palestine because of Jewish scruples about corpses. Joseph of Arimathea seems to have been an influential since he was granted permission by Pilate to give Jesus a proper burial. This may support the portrayal of Pilate in the trial scenes as finding Jesus and His movement harmless to Roman rule. Otherwise, he probably would not have released Jesus’ body to his followers.”
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15:47: “Now Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus were watching where He was placed.”
The commentary:
“Mark reports that Mary Magdalene and ‘Mary the mother of Jesus’ were at the cross and they observed that Jesus was placed in Joseph’s tomb. Matthew’s account includes these two women at the cross and adds ‘the mother of the Zebedee sons’ (Matthew 27:56). Luke’s narrative does not name any specific women who had come with Him from Galilee (Luke 23:55). The Gospel of John indicates that Jesus’ mother was at the cross, as well as Mary Magdalene and ‘Mary the wife of Clopas’ (John 19:25). This Mary was probably the same person as Mary the mother of Joses in Mark’s account.
The difference among these narratives may be disturbing to some people. But we must remember that the Gospels were not committed to writing until 30 to 50 years after the death of Jesus. They circulated as oral accounts for may years before finally being written down. The Gospel writers did not get together as a group to make sure their reports matched in every detail. They wrote from their recollections of the life and ministry of Jesus and the eyewitness reports from others who had know Jesus in the flesh. Just as the witnesses of an auto accident will remember different details of what they saw, the variation in these accounts is understandable and actually argues for the authority of the Gospels.
These variations in the Gospels have been known since the early days of the church. Church leaders creating neat, completely harmonious accounts would raise concerns about the authenticity of the account. As it was, the church was confident enough in the truthfulness of these accounts not to have to hide or eliminate the places that were challenging to a unified account.”
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Questions for fellowship generation, the lifelong sanctification process:
- What does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.
Soli Deo Gloria!