Mark part twenty nine

We are at Mark 15:38 Jesus has just breathed his last. He did not ask god to forgive his executioners and those crucified with him were not told they would be with him in paradise. His side was not pierced. He said nothing but a lament. Then, according to the text, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This would not have been seen by anyone unless they were at the temple, and certainly not by anyone at the execution. It is also not recorded in extrabiblical history.

A centurion who heard Jesus's lament and saw him die said, "surely this man was the son of god." I don't see how he came to that conclusion. Some women watched the crucifixion from a distance. One was Mary Magdalene, who is first mentioned here. Another was Mary the mother of James, Joses, and Salome. These women were part of a group of women who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem from Galilee. They had been "taking care of his needs." This probably means they cooked and washed for him, because for some reason he couldn't do it for himself. (It couldn't be because he was sexist and thought that was women's work, could it?) The text does not say Jesus's mother or any of the twelve disciples was there.

In verse 42 we are told it was preparation day, the day before the Sabbath, Friday. Either Passover fell on a Friday that year or something about the timeline in Mark is off. It is still Passover if we follow the text. Evening is coming. The Sabbath begins at dusk. Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked for Jesus's body. Pilate confirmed with the centurion that Jesus was already dead and then gave the body to Joseph. The body was wrapped in linen and put in a tomb. A stone was rolled in front of it. The text does not say the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. The two Marys previously mentioned saw where the body was laid.

We are now in chapter 16. The Sabbath is over. It is just after sunrise on the first day of the week, Sunday. Jesus has been dead approximately 39 hours, less than two full days, if you count hours. If you count the names of the days he has been dead, I guess it makes three: part of Friday, all of  Saturday, and part of Sunday. But that seems like cheating to me.

The two Marys are going to the tomb to anoint the body with spices. They aren't sure who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. When they got there, the stone was already rolled away. A young man dressed in white was sitting inside the tomb. The ladies were alarmed but the young man told them not to be. He said Jesus had risen. They were to go tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee and they would see him there.

The women were naturally frightened and confused. They ran away from the tomb and told no one what had happened!  So, how does the author know anything about it? This is where the story ends in the earliest manuscripts, suggesting that perhaps Jesus was never actually seen alive again.

Mark 16:9-16 appear to have been added to the text at a later date, making its events highly unlikely. We will cover that passage next time.

Mark part twenty seven

We are at Mark 14:66. Jesus has been condemned to death by the leaders of the Jews, for blasphemy. While Jesus's "trial" is going on, Peter is hanging around in the courtyard. A servant girl sees him and recognizes him as a follower of Jesus. Peter told her he didn't know what she was talking about and moved to another spot. The girl saw him again and told the other people standing around her suspicions. Peter denied it again. Later, some more people standing around could somehow tell he was a Galilean and again suggested he must be one of Jesus's followers. A third time, Peter swore he did not know Jesus. (There's that number three again) Immediately the rooster crowed a second time. (We were never told when the first crow was.) That reminded Peter of Jesus's prophecy about these very events. He began to weep.

We are now at chapter 15. All this stuff has been happening in the night, on Passover, if the story is happening in real linear time and not skipping days.. Nobody has had any sleep, as far as I can tell. Very early in the morning, still Passover, all the Jewish leaders decide to hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews. Jesus says yes he is. Why would Pilate ask Jesus that? Could it be that the messiah was supposed to be a Jewish king? Why does Jesus say yes?

 It should be noted that there was no  "king of the Jews" at that time. After Herod the great died in 4BCE, the kingdom was split among his three sons, who were called tetrarchs. The tetrarch of Judea, Archelaeus, was ousted by the Romans in 6CE and Judea became a province of Rome with an appointed governor. Pilate was governor of Judea from 26-36 CE. I imagine Jesus's claim would have either angered or amused him. Pilate tells Jesus to answer the many charges against himself, but he does not reply.

The text tells us it was the custom to release a prisoner at the request of the people, during the feast (passover). A crowd had gathered to make this request. Pilate asked if they wanted Jesus (the king of the Jews) released to them, but the chief priests influenced the crowd to release a man named Barabbas. Barabbas had been in prison with some insurrectionists who had committed murder in an uprising. We do not know which uprising this was, because there were many. Some were caused by the actions of Pontius Pilate himself, who set up Roman standards on the temple grounds and used temple money, naturally angering many Jews. It should also be noted that Barabbas means "son of the father." He could have been another contender for the son of god title.

The crowd asked for Barabbas to be released and shouted for Jesus to be crucified, in spite of Pilate's weak attempt to figure out why they wanted him dead. So Pilate had Jesus beaten (surely not necessary)  and handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus to the praetorium, gave him a purple robe, and a crown of thorns. They mocked him, pretending he was a king, struck him on the head with a staff, and spit on him. Then they took off the robe, put his clothes back on and led him out to be crucified. So, how does the narrator know this? It was not done in public. Only the soldiers who participated would have known about it. This is another case of omniscient narrator. The same could be said of Jesus's passover night trial by the Sanhedrin. Where did the author of Mark get his information?

Notice that the crowd Pilate spoke to also rejected Jesus three times. In spite of what I have heard preached many times, there is no reason to believe the same people who sang his praises when he rode in to town on a donkey are the same people who yelled, "crucify him!"