Mark 15
The trial before Pilate, the crowd's choice of Barabbas, the crucifixion at the third hour, the cry of dereliction at the ninth, and the centurion's confession: truly this man was the Son of God.
Summary
Mark 15 begins at dawn with Jesus bound and delivered to Pilate. The Markan trial before Pilate (15:1-15) is the briefest of the four gospel accounts. Pilate's single question — are you the King of the Jews? — is answered with su legeis, you say so, and then silence: Jesus answers nothing, not even to the charges the chief priests bring, and Pilate marvels. The Barabbas scene (15:6-15) is carefully balanced: Pilate recognises that the chief priests have handed Jesus over out of envy (15:10), tries to release him, but the crowd stirred by the chief priests presses for crucifixion and Barabbas. Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, releases Barabbas and delivers Jesus to be crucified. The mocking by the soldiers (15:16-20) is the fourth mocking sequence in the Passion (after the Sanhedrin, the high priest's servants, and the crowd at the cross). The purple robe and crown of thorns are a parody of the Roman imperial triumph; the salutation hail, King of the Jews is a parody of the imperial salutation.
The crucifixion (15:21-39) is structured by the hours: third hour — crucifixion; sixth to ninth hour — darkness; ninth hour — the cry of dereliction; death. The timed structure gives the cross a liturgical cadence. The cry — Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani — is in Aramaic, transliterated, and then translated; it is the opening verse of Psalm 22, which the early church read typologically as a messianic psalm, but Mark gives it as the raw cry of abandonment, without the psalm's later vindication. The tearing of the temple curtain from top to bottom is simultaneous with the death, and its theological implication — the end of the barrier between God and humanity, between Jew and Gentile — is left implicit by the gospel. The centurion (15:39) stands facing Jesus, sees the manner of his death, and confesses truly this man was the Son of God. He is a Roman, a Gentile, a soldier; he is the first human in the gospel to confess Jesus' identity, and he confesses it at the death. The women who have been watching from afar (15:40-41) — Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome — are the faithful remnant at the cross when the male disciples have fled. Joseph of Arimathea buries the body before sunset.
- Mark 1Chapter 1 is the gospel's argument in miniature.
- Mark 2Chapter 2 introduces the pattern that will run through chapters 2 and 3: five controversy stories in which Jesus acts or allows an action and the scribes or Pharisees object, and Jesus answers with a counter-question or a pronouncement.
- Mark 3Chapter 3 marks the transition from controversy to conspiracy: after the healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees immediately hold counsel with the Herodians against Jesus, how to destroy him.
- Mark 4Chapter 4 is the only extended teaching section in Mark's gospel before the apocalyptic discourse of chapter 13, and its placement — between the Beelzebul controversy and the series of healings that follows — is deliberate.
- Mark 5Chapter 5 gives three healings in sequence that together define the outer reach of Jesus' authority: the demoniac, the woman, the corpse.
- Mark 6Chapter 6 alternates between contrasting scales of reception.
- Mark 7Chapter 7 is the gospel's sustained engagement with the question of purity, and it opens the ministry decisively to Gentiles.
- Mark 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the gospel.
- Mark 9Chapter 9 runs from the summit of the transfiguration to the valley of the disciples' argument about who is greatest — from the voice from the cloud naming Jesus as beloved Son to the disciples bringing a possessed child they could not heal.
- Mark 10Chapter 10 is the last chapter before the entry into Jerusalem and covers the final stretch of the road from Galilee south through Judea and Jericho.
- Mark 11Chapter 11 marks the gospel's second movement: after eight chapters of Galilean ministry and two of the journey south, the entry into Jerusalem initiates the events that will end at the cross.
- Mark 12Chapter 12 is the Jerusalem controversy section, the temple equivalent of the Capernaum controversies in chapters 2 and 3.
- Mark 13Chapter 13 is the only extended discourse in Mark's gospel outside the parable chapter, and it is placed at the hinge between the temple controversies and the Passion narrative.
- Mark 14Chapter 14 is the longest chapter of the gospel and the point where the narrative finally slows to match the weight of what is happening.
- Mark 15Chapter 15 is the Passion's centre of gravity.
- Mark 16Chapter 16 is the gospel's ending — or rather, its refusal of a conventional ending.