The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark15:21–32

The Crucifixion

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Mark 15:21–32 — The Crucifixion. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

21

Now Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tina Simōna Kyrēnaion ton patera Alexandrou kai Rhouphou paragonta erchomenon ap’ agrou Kai angareuousin hina arē ton stauron autou

Word by word19 · parsed
τιναtina[Now]G5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ΣίμωναSimōnaSimonG4613
√ Σίμων — Simon (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ΚυρηναῖονKyrēnaionof CyreneG2956
√ Κυρηναῖος — iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Κυρηναῖος: a Cyrenian, of Cyrene in north Africa A rare designation (the Verifier finds the lexeme in only 6 verses). Cambridge and Pulpit both note that the Cyrenians kept their own synagogue in Jerusalem (Acts 6:9), so Simon is most likely a Hellenistic Jew up for the Passover, a man from the edge of the diaspora drawn without warning into the centre of the event.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἈλεξάνδρουAlexandrouof AlexanderG223
√ Ἀλέξανδρος — man-defenderNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ῬούφουRhouphouRufusG4504
√ Ῥοῦφος — redNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Ῥοῦφος: Rufus ("red") The Verifier records this name in only 2 verses of the whole Greek canon, here and Romans 16:13. Ellicott, Maclaren, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all raise the same identification and all of them hedge it; Gill is the most careful: "but whether they are or not, is not certain." Mark names the sons because his readers knew the sons, which is itself the evidence that the father's forced service ended somewhere other than resentment.
παράγοντάparagontawas passing byG3855
√ παράγω — to lead near, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐρχόμενονerchomenonon his way inG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἀγροῦagrouthe countryG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚαὶKaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀγγαρεύουσινangareuousin[the soldiers] forced [him]G29
√ ἀγγαρεύω — properly, to be a courier, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀγγαρεύω: to impress into public service (a Persian loanword) Present indicative active, third plural, with no stated subject: "they press him." The word belongs to imperial logistics, the right of the state to seize a passer-by. Cambridge traces it to the mounted couriers of Persia and notes it recurs at Matthew 5:41, where the Lord Himself had commanded that the man so seized go twice the distance. The command He gave is now executed on a stranger on His behalf.
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἄρῃarēcarryG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
αἴρω: to lift up, take up and bear Aorist subjunctive after ἵνα: the purpose of the seizure. Mark does not say Simon carried it after Jesus (Luke adds that); he says only that the soldiers meant the load lifted. Maclaren reads the compulsion for what it was: "He is by the centurion impressed to help the fainting Christ to carry the heavy Cross."
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σταυρὸνstauroncrossG4716
√ σταυρός — a stake or post (as set upright), iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
σταυρός: a stake or upright post Mark's first use of the noun in this scene. It is not yet a symbol, it is a piece of timber too heavy for a scourged man. Cambridge notes the whole scene was read early as Isaac bearing the wood of the burnt offering (Genesis 22:6), a figural reading recorded below under threads and not claimed here as Mark's own statement.
αὐτοῦautouof [Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
22

They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means The Place of the Skull.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai pherousin auton epi ton topon Golgothan ho estin methermēneuomenon topos Kraniou

Word by word12 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
φέρουσινpherousinThey broughtG5342
√ φέρω — to "bear" or carry (in a very wide application, literally and figuratively, as follows)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
φέρω: to bear, carry Present indicative active, third plural. The historic present is Mark's habit in this scene and it refuses the past tense: they are bearing Him now. Maclaren observes of the whole section that "The narrative of the crucifixion is, in Mark’s hands, almost entirely a record of what was done to Jesus, and scarcely touches what was done by Him." This verb is the proof of it.
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepitoG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
τόπονtopona placeG5117
√ τόπος — a spot (general in space, but limited by occupancyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ΓολγοθᾶνGolgothan[called] GolgothaG1115
√ Γολγοθᾶ — the skullNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Γολγοθᾶ: Golgotha, the skull The Verifier finds this lexeme in only 3 verses of the canon (here, Matthew 27:33, John 19:17), which makes it a genuinely rare and load-bearing name. The commentators split on why the place was so called: Gill says skulls of the executed lay scattered there, and Cambridge flatly denies it, "for the Jews always buried them," preferring the shape of the knoll. We record the disagreement and do not settle it.
ὅhowhichG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinvvvG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μεθερμηνευόμενονmethermēneuomenonmeansG3177
√ μεθερμηνεύω — to explain over, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
μεθερμηνεύω: to translate, interpret over Present passive participle. The prefix μετά carries the sense of carrying a word across from one tongue into another. Mark uses this verb elsewhere for Aramaic he must render (Talitha koum, Bartimaeus), and it is one of the plainest internal signs that his first readers were not Aramaic speakers.
τόποςtopos[The] PlaceG5117
√ τόπος — a spot (general in space, but limited by occupancyNounNominative Masculine Singular
ΚρανίουKraniouof the SkullG2898
√ κρανίον — a skull ("cranium")NounGenitive Neuter Singular
κρανίον: skull, cranium Genitive of description: the place belonging to a skull. The lexeme occurs in only 4 verses. Mark gives the name, its translation, and nothing else: no comment, no lament. Geneva supplies the theology the narrative withholds, that Christ is led "into a foul place of dead men's carcasses, as a man most unclean, not because of himself, but because of our sins."
23

There they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai edidoun autō oinon esmyrnismenon de hos ouk elaben

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaiThereG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίδουνedidounthey offeredG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
δίδωμι: to give Imperfect indicative active, third plural. The sedative was customary: Gill cites the Talmudic rule that "he that goes to be executed they mix for him... a grain of frankincense in a cup of wine, that his mind may be disturbed, or not sensible," founded on Proverbs 31:6. Cambridge and Gill differ on who provided it here, the wealthy women of Jerusalem or His own friends; neither can be proved from Mark.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οἶνονoinonwineG3631
√ οἶνος — "wine" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐσμυρνισμένονesmyrnismenonmixed with myrrhG4669
√ σμυρνίζω — to tincture with myrrh, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
σμυρνίζω: to drug or tincture with myrrh Perfect passive participle. Ellicott ties Mark's word to the parallel account: "Note this description as in part explaining St. Matthew’s “wine mingled with gall.”" The drug is an anaesthetic, and its refusal is the one thing in this whole paragraph that Jesus actively does.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃςhosHeG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἔλαβενelabendid not take [it]G2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λαμβάνω: to take, receive Aorist indicative active. Mark's only report of a choice by Jesus between Gethsemane and the cry from the cross. Pulpit draws the line the grammar allows: "He would not seek alleviation of the agonies of the crucifixion by any drugged potion which might render him insensible." Gill adds the vow of Mark 14:25 as a second reason. The text gives the refusal and no reason at all.
24

And they crucified Him. They also divided His garments by casting lots to decide what each of them would take.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai staurousin auton kai diamerizontai autou ta himatia ballontes klēron ep’ auta ti tis arē

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σταυροῦσινstaurousinthey crucifiedG4717
√ σταυρόω — to impale on the crossVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
σταυρόω: to impale on a cross Present indicative active, third plural. The central act of the unit is told in one verb with no adjective, no adverb and no object but a pronoun; Mark spends more words on the soldiers' dice than on the nailing. Cambridge reconstructs what the bare verb covers (the crux immissa, the arms stretched along the cross-beams, the body resting on a sedile), and Benson insists on its lexical limit, that the Greek "means no more than to fasten to the cross with nails." Mark's restraint is itself the commentary, and Maclaren praises exactly this, that the narrative is "perfectly calm, as well as reverently reticent."
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διαμερίζονταιdiamerizontaiThey also dividedG1266
√ διαμερίζω — to partition thoroughly (literally in distribution, figuratively in dissension)VerbPresent Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
διαμερίζω: to divide thoroughly, distribute Present middle, third plural. The Verifier finds the lexeme in 11 verses; three of them are this scene in Matthew, Mark and John. Cambridge explains the division practically, the seamed outer tallîth torn into fourths while the seamless inner robe had to be gambled for whole.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ἱμάτιαhimatiagarmentsG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἱμάτιον: outer garment Plural, the loose outer clothing with its girdle, distinguished by Pulpit from the close-fitting χιτών underneath. The stripping is total: He is left with nothing, which Geneva reads as the exchange by which we "being clothed with his righteousness" are covered.
βάλλοντεςballontesby castingG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
κλῆρονklēronlotsG2819
√ κλῆρος — a die (for drawing chances)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
κλῆρος: a die, a lot cast for chance The same noun that names an inheritance, a portion allotted. Soldiers gamble for the clothing of a man they have just stripped, and the wording of Mark's sentence is the wording of Psalm 22:18. Cambridge says the soldiers were "unconsciously fulfilling the words spoken long ago by the Psalmist." Because the refs cross the Testaments, we record that link below as structural, not verbal.
ἐπ’ep’to decideG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτὰautaG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
τίςtis[each of them]G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἄρῃarēwould takeG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
25

It was the third hour when they crucified Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ēn tritē hōra kai estaurōsan auton

Word by word7 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἮνĒnIt wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τρίτηtritē[the] thirdG5154
√ τρίτος — thirdAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
τρίτος: third Mark alone times the crucifixion. Ellicott: "The precise statement of the hour is peculiar to St. Mark." Gill notes what falls at that hour in the Temple, "The time of the daily sacrifice of the morning, at which the priests ought to have been," and the chief priests of v. 31 are instead at Golgotha.
ὥραhōrahourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Singular
ὥρα: an hour, a watch The apparent conflict with John 19:14 ("about the sixth hour") is the oldest chronological crux in the Passion narrative. Barnes canvasses a scribal confusion of the letter gamma (three) for sigma (six) and is honest that "no great reliance is to be placed on this account"; Cambridge says only that John "clearly point[s] to a different mode of reckoning." We record the problem and take no side.
καὶkaiwhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐσταύρωσανestaurōsanthey crucifiedG4717
√ σταυρόω — to impale on the crossVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
σταυρόω: to crucify Aorist indicative active, third plural, and the subject is still unnamed. Mark has now stated the crucifixion twice in two verses, once in the present (v. 24) and once in the aorist here, which is why Pulpit reads v. 25 as a time-span laid over an act already narrated rather than a second event. Across the whole unit the killers are a bare third plural: they press, they bear, they crucify, they divide, they inscribe. The only participant Mark names is Simon, who was made to help.
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
26

And the charge inscribed against Him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hē aitias epigraphē tēs autou ēn epigegrammenē HO BASILEUS TŌN IOUDAIŌN

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
αἰτίαςaitiaschargeG156
√ αἰτία — a cause (as if asked for), iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
αἰτία: legal cause, charge, accusation Genitive, dependent on ἐπιγραφή: the inscription of the charge. The lexicon glosses the root "a cause (as if asked for)," the answer to the question why this man is dying, and it is the technical Roman term; Gill renders it "the cause of his death... the crime for which he suffered." Mark preserves no verdict, no sentence and no trial summary in this chapter: this board is the entire legal record he gives us. ⚙ And the charge is not false. That is the irony the verse turns on, that Rome states the truth as an indictment, and the truth is the reason He is being executed.
ἐπιγραφὴepigraphēinscribedG1923
√ ἐπιγραφή — an inscriptionNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐπιγραφή: an inscription The Verifier finds this lexeme in only 5 verses. Cambridge describes the object: "The cause of execution was generally, as we have seen, inscribed on a white tablet, titulus, smeared with gypsum," carried before the condemned and then nailed above the head.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouagainst HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἦνēnvvvG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπιγεγραμμένηepigegrammenēreadG1924
√ ἐπιγράφω — to inscribe (physically or mentally)VerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Feminine Singular
ἐπιγράφω: to write upon, inscribe Perfect passive participle. The same verb is used in the Greek of the new covenant promise that the law will be written on hearts (Hebrews 8:10, a shared lexeme the Verifier records), and a comparison worth noticing but not worth a claim: the word here is ordinary bureaucratic Greek for posting a notice.
ΟHOTHEG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣBASILEUSKINGG935
√ βασιλεύς — a sovereign (abstractly, relatively, or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
βασιλεύς: king, sovereign Pilate's insult, written in three languages so no one could miss it (Cambridge, from John 19:20), is the only public proclamation of the kingship in the whole Gospel that is never retracted. Henry draws the reader's conclusion: "Whenever we look unto Christ crucified, we must remember what was written over his head."
ΤΩΝTŌNOF THEG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝIOUDAIŌNJEWSG2453
√ Ἰουδαῖος — Judæan, iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
27

Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai syn autō staurousin dyo lēstas hena ek dexiōn kai hena ex autou euōnymōn

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKai[Along]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σὺνsynwithG4862
√ σύν — with or together (but much closer than G3326 (μετά) or G3844 (παρά)), iPreposition
σύν: together with, in close company The lexicon marks σύν as closer than μετά or παρά: not merely a simultaneous execution but a shared one, and the same preposition is built into the compound συνεσταυρωμένοι at v. 32. Mark states no fulfilment here, since v. 28, which would have quoted Isaiah 53:12, is absent from the earliest manuscripts; he only sets the three crosses in order and lets the arrangement say it. Barnes gives the careful sense of the Isaiah phrase in any case, that "in dying he had a place with transgressors," not that God reckoned Him a sinner.
αὐτῷautō[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
σταυροῦσινstaurousinthey crucifiedG4717
√ σταυρόω — to impale on the crossVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
λῃστάςlēstasrobbersG3027
√ λῃστής — a brigandNounAccusative Masculine Plural
λῃστής: brigand, insurrectionist Cambridge argues these two "belonged to the band of Barabbas," which would explain why the crowd jeers at Jesus and not at them: "They were the popular heroes." The man Pilate released and the men crucified beside Him are of one company; Jesus takes the place of the whole band.
ἕναhenaoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐκekonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
δεξιῶνdexiōn[His] rightG1188
√ δεξιός — the right side or (feminine) hand (as that which usually takes)AdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
δεξιός: the right side or hand The place of honour, asked for by James and John at Mark 10:37 and answered there with a question about a cup and a baptism. The only men ever seen at His right and left in this Gospel are two condemned robbers.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἕναhenaoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐξexonG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εὐωνύμωνeuōnymōnleftG2176
√ εὐώνυμος — properly, well-named (good-omened), iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
εὐώνυμος: left (literally "well-named") With δεξιῶν it forms the standing pair of the last judgment. Pulpit records the ancient reading of the scene from Augustine, that the cross "was a judgment-seat" with one man freed and one condemned; that is a figural reading of Luke's fuller account, and Mark at this point says only that both reviled Him (v. 32).
28

⚙ The critical text omits the original-language words of this verse (a textual variant); the BSB prints it. No word cards are shown — a stated gap, not invented text.

29

And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi paraporeuomenoi eblasphēmoun auton kinountes autōn tas kephalas kai legontes Oua ho katalyōn ton naon kai oikodomōn en trisin hēmerais

Word by word21 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoithose whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
παραπορευόμενοιparaporeuomenoipassed byG3899
√ παραπορεύομαι — to travel nearVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἐβλασφήμουνeblasphēmounheaped abuse onG987
√ βλασφημέω — to vilifyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
βλασφημέω: to vilify, speak injuriously Imperfect indicative active. Mark sets the word deliberately: the court killed Him for blasphemy and the passers-by now commit it against Him. Cambridge notes the same distinction against v. 31, "The ordinary bystanders blaspheme ( Mark 15:29 ), the members of the Sanhedrim mock."
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
κινοῦντεςkinountesshakingG2795
√ κινέω — to stir (transitively), literally or figurativelyVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
κινέω: to move, stir, wag The Verifier finds the lexeme in only 8 verses and pairs this with Matthew 27:39, where the same gesture is described with the same word. The wording of the mockery here matches Psalm 22:7-8 closely; because the refs cross the Testaments we tier that link structural below and do not call it a quotation.
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
κεφαλὰςkephalasheadsG2776
√ κεφαλή — the head (as the part most readily taken hold of), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγοντεςlegontessayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΟὐὰOuaAhaG3758
√ οὐά — "ah"Interjection
οὐά: Aha! An interjection found nowhere else in the New Testament. Ellicott notices what it shows about the writer: it "expresses a kind of inarticulate scorn, is peculiar to St. Mark, and may be noted as another instance of his habit of reproducing the very sounds that had been uttered." Mark is preserving a noise, not a sentence.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Singular
καταλύωνkatalyōnYou who are going to destroyG2647
√ καταλύω — to loosen down (disintegrate), iVerbPresent Participle ActiveVocative Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ναὸνnaontempleG3485
√ ναός — a fane, shrine, templeNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ναός: shrine, sanctuary, the inner house Not ἱερόν, the whole temple complex, but the sanctuary proper, the dwelling itself. The mockers do not know they are naming the thing that is happening: within hours the veil of this ναός is torn (Mark 15:38), and the body they are destroying is the sanctuary that will be raised in three days.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἰκοδομῶνoikodomōnrebuild [it]G3618
√ οἰκοδομέω — to be a house-builder, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveVocative Masculine Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τρισὶνtrisinthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveDative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραιςhēmeraisdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Plural
ἡμέρα: day "In three days" is thrown at Him as an absurdity. It is the only prediction of the resurrection spoken aloud at Golgotha, and it is spoken by His enemies. Henry: "they did not believe, though he gave them a more convincing sign when he came up from the grave."
30

come down from the cross and save Yourself!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

katabas apo tou staurou sōson seauton

Word by word6 · parsed
καταβὰςkatabascome downG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
καταβαίνω: to descend, come down Aorist participle, nominative masculine singular. The demand is that He reverse the direction of the incarnation. He had said the Son of Man came down; they now insist He prove it by coming down again. Gill reads the sneer plainly: it suggests "he might easily free himself from the cross, and make his escape."
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σταυροῦstauroucrossG4716
√ σταυρός — a stake or post (as set upright), iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
σταυρός: cross, upright stake Third occurrence of the noun in the unit (vv. 21, 30, 32). Each time it is something to be got rid of: carried by another, come down from, come down from now. Mark never once calls it glorious.
σῶσονsōson[and] saveG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
σῴζω: to save, rescue, make whole Aorist imperative active, second singular. This verb runs through the next two verses (vv. 30, 31 twice) and is the hinge of the whole mockery. Every use is in the mouth of an enemy, and every use is true in a sense the speaker does not intend.
σεαυτὸνseautonYourselfG4572
√ σεαυτοῦ — of (with, to) thyselfPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
31

In the same way, the chief priests and scribes mocked Him among themselves, saying, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself!

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Homoiōs kai hoi archiereis meta tōn grammateōn empaizontes pros allēlous elegon esōsen Allous ou dynatai sōsai heauton

Word by word17 · parsed
ὉμοίωςHomoiōsIn the same wayG3668
√ ὁμοίως — similarlyAdverb
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεῖςarchiereischief priestsG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεύς: chief priest, high priest Cambridge presses the office against the act: these are men "whose high dignity and sacred office should have taught them better than to descend to the low passions of the mob." It is the hour of the morning sacrifice (see v. 25) and the priests are at the execution ground.
μετὰmetaandG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
γραμματέωνgrammateōnscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐμπαίζοντεςempaizontesmocked [Him]G1702
√ ἐμπαίζω — to jeer at, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἐμπαίζω: to jeer, mock, make sport of Present participle. The same verb was used of the soldiers in the praetorium (Mark 15:20). Mark shows the mockery passing from Gentile soldiers to Jewish rulers to passers-by to the fellow-crucified, until no class of humanity is left outside it.
πρὸςprosamongG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
ἀλλήλουςallēlousthemselvesG240
√ ἀλλήλων — one anotherPersonal / Reciprocal PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔλεγονelegonsayingG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἔσωσενesōsenHe savedG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
σῴζω: to save Aorist, "he saved others," an admission made in contempt. Pulpit argues the priests meant to reattach the old charge of Beelzebub, since "if they had been wrought by a Divine power, the same power would now be exercised for his deliverance." Their premise is that power always rescues itself.
ἌλλουςAllousothersG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
δύναταιdynatai[but] He cannotG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
δύναμαι: to be able, to have power The unintended centre of the unit. He cannot save Himself, not because power is absent but because it is committed: Pulpit says "His omnipotence restrained the natural longings of his suffering humanity." ⚙ The inability is a moral one, and it is the reason others are saved.
σῶσαιsōsaisaveG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἑαυτὸνheautonHimselfG1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἑαυτόν: himself (reflexive) The reflexive pronoun is the last word of the taunt and the thing the cross exists to refuse. Every actor in this scene acts for himself, the soldiers for their perquisites, the priests for their victory; the one who does not is the one being killed.
32

Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” And even those who were crucified with Him berated Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho Christos ho Basileus Israēl katabatō nyn apo tou staurou hina idōmen kai pisteusōmen kai hoi synestaurōmenoi syn autō ōneidizon auton

Word by word21 · parsed
ὁho{Let} theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΧριστὸςChristosChristG5547
√ Χριστός — anointed, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
Χριστός: anointed one, Messiah With the article. The confession Peter made at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:29) and which Jesus then forbade to be spoken is here shouted at Golgotha as a joke. In Mark the title becomes safe to say only when the cross has defined it.
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΒασιλεὺςBasileusKingG935
√ βασιλεύς — a sovereign (abstractly, relatively, or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἸσραὴλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καταβάτωkatabatōcome downG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
καταβαίνω: to come down Third person aorist imperative with νῦν, "now." ⚙ The adverb is the point: they will grant Him everything except delay. Pulpit's answer, that "If he had chosen to descend from the cross, he would not have ascended," is homiletic rather than exegetical, but it names the alternative honestly.
νῦνnynnowG3568
√ νῦν — "now" (as adverb of date, a transition or emphasis)Adverb
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σταυροῦstauroucrossG4716
√ σταυρός — a stake or post (as set upright), iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἵναhinaso thatG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἴδωμενidōmenwe may seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πιστεύσωμενpisteusōmenbelieveG4100
√ πιστεύω — to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
πιστεύω: to have faith, to trust Aorist subjunctive, first plural. The only occurrence of the faith verb in the entire crucifixion narrative, and it is hypothetical and insincere. Mark's Gospel has taught throughout that signs do not create faith (Mark 8:11-12); here the demand for one is made at the foot of the sign itself.
καὶkaiAnd evenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoithose whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
συνεσταυρωμένοιsynestaurōmenoiwere crucifiedG4957
√ συσταυρόω — to impale in company with (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
συσταυρόω: to crucify together with Perfect passive participle, a rare compound (5 verses). Paul later takes this exact verb for the believer's union with Christ (Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20). Here the only men ever described as crucified together with Him use the position to revile Him, which is as honest a picture of humanity as Mark gives.
σὺνsynwithG4862
√ σύν — with or together (but much closer than G3326 (μετά) or G3844 (παρά)), iPreposition
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὠνείδιζονōneidizonberatedG3679
√ ὀνειδίζω — to defame, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ὀνειδίζω: to reproach, defame, cast in the teeth Imperfect, a continuing action. Cambridge notes the same verb is rendered "cast the same in his teeth" at Matthew 27:44, and that Luke 23:39-43 records the later change in one of the two. Mark records only the reviling and leaves the scene without a single friendly voice.
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The man they seized: a stranger carries the wood — 15:21

Mark opens the crucifixion not with Jesus but with a bystander. The verb is ἀγγαρεύουσιν (angareuousin), and Cambridge identifies it exactly: "The original word translated “ compel ” is a Persian word," the vocabulary of an imperial courier service that could requisition any man on the road. Maclaren states the plain sense of it: "He is by the centurion impressed to help the fainting Christ to carry the heavy Cross." Mark then does something no other evangelist does: he names the man's sons. Ellicott calls this "one of the most striking instances of the independent character of St. Mark’s Gospel," and both he and Pulpit connect Rufus with the Rufus greeted at Romans 16:13, while conceding, as Gill does outright, that the identification cannot be proved. Poole draws the conclusion the naming invites and marks it as inference: "The father bare Christ’s cross, (or one end of it), there is all we read of him. The sons believe on him who died upon it." ⚙ What the Greek gives with certainty is smaller and stranger than the tradition: the one participant in the crucifixion whom Mark names is not an apostle, not a priest, not a soldier, but a man who was walking into town and got conscripted.

ii. The place of a skull, and a drink He would not drink — 15:22-15:23

The verb changes at v. 22, and Pulpit catches it: "At ver. 20 another word has been used ἐξάγουσιν “they lead him out,”" but now it is φέρουσιν, they bear Him. Mark stops to translate Γολγοθᾶ for readers who have no Aramaic, and the commentators divide on why the place had the name: Gill repeats the tradition that unburied skulls lay scattered there, and Cambridge denies it flatly, "for the Jews always buried them," preferring a rounded, skull-shaped knoll outside the gate. Geneva supplies the theology Mark withholds, that Christ is led "into a foul place of dead men's carcasses, as a man most unclean, not because of himself, but because of our sins." Then the myrrhed wine. Cambridge and Gill agree on the custom and disagree on who provided it; Gill quotes the rabbinic rule, that the condemned were given a cup "that his mind may be disturbed, or not sensible," founded on Proverbs 31:6. The refusal, οὐκ ἔλαβεν, is the one act of the Lord's own will in this whole paragraph, and Pulpit reads it as such: "He would bear the full burden consciously."

iii. Four soldiers, a die, and a board above His head — 15:24-15:27

The central act is one present-tense verb, σταυροῦσιν, with nothing added. Pulpit notes that the evangelist "states the fact without staying to dwell on the painful circumstances connected with the act of nailing him to the cross," and Maclaren praises the same restraint across the section: the narrative is "perfectly calm, as well as reverently reticent." What Mark does describe is the gambling. Cambridge reconstructs it in detail (the seamed outer tallîth torn into four, the seamless inner robe thrown for with dice in a helmet) and observes that the soldiers were "unconsciously fulfilling the words spoken long ago by the Psalmist." The timing then draws Mark's only clock-reading in the Passion; Ellicott notes that "The precise statement of the hour is peculiar to St. Mark," and Barnes, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all wrestle with John 19:14, Barnes canvassing a scribal confusion of gamma for sigma and admitting "no great reliance is to be placed on this account." Above the head goes the ἐπιγραφή, the whitened titulus, carrying the αἰτία, the legal cause of death. Cambridge: "Pilate had caused it to be written in three languages, that all classes might be able to read it." And beside Him, two λῃσταί, which Ellicott insists means robbers and not thieves, and which Cambridge thinks names men of Barabbas's band: "They were the popular heroes." That would explain the silence Mark leaves unexplained, that nobody jeers at them.

iv. The disputed verse — 15:28

This verse has no interlinear because it has no secure text. Ellicott is the most exact: "The verse, if genuine, would be noticeable as one of the few instances in which St. Mark dwells on the fulfilment of prophecy; but it is omitted by nearly all the better MSS., and probably originated in a marginal note," drawn from the Lord's own citation of Isaiah 53:12 at Luke 22:37. Cambridge says only that "the verse is omitted in some MSS," and Pulpit that it "is omitted in the oldest manuscripts." Barnes and Gill comment on the Isaiah text itself without weighing the textual question at all, and Barnes's gloss stands whatever is decided about the verse: "This does not mean that he “was” a transgressor, but simply that in dying he “had a place” with transgressors." ⚙ We record the sense and flag the verse. The arrangement of the three crosses in v. 27 already says what v. 28 asserts, which may be exactly why an early reader wrote it in the margin.

v. Three mockeries and one verb: save — 15:29-15:32

Mark builds the mockery in ascending rank and one vocabulary. The passers-by ἐβλασφήμουν, the imperfect of the very charge on which the Sanhedrin condemned Him, wagging their heads; Ellicott hears in the interjection Οὐά "a kind of inarticulate scorn" that is "peculiar to St. Mark," a preserved noise. Pulpit names the resonance without overclaiming: "Here was another fulfillment of prophecy," citing Psalm 22:7-8. Cambridge then marks the social gradation precisely: "The ordinary bystanders blaspheme ( Mark 15:29 ), the members of the Sanhedrim mock , for they think they have achieved a complete victory," and adds against the priests that their "high dignity and sacred office should have taught them better than to descend to the low passions of the mob." The priests will not even address Him: πρὸς ἀλλήλους, toward one another, and Gill records the Syriac's "laughed at one another." Their sentence contains the unit's key verb three times: σῴζω. Pulpit reconstructs their reasoning, that a divine power would now deliver Him and its absence proves the miracles were Beelzebub's. Finally the demand for a sign, "so that we may see and believe," answered in advance by Henry: "they did not believe, though he gave them a more convincing sign when he came up from the grave." And then Mark's last, bleakest clause: even οἱ συνεσταυρωμένοι, the men crucified together with Him, revile Him. Cambridge, reading across to Luke, says that "even from “the Tree” the Lord began to reign"; Mark's own page ends this unit with no friend left speaking.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the machine layer, fallible and offered to be tested against the text. Mark tells the crucifixion almost entirely in verbs whose subject is somebody else. They press Simon into service, they bear Him, they keep offering the drug, they crucify, they divide, they gamble, they inscribe, they blaspheme, they mock, they revile. In twelve verses Jesus does exactly one thing: οὐκ ἔλαβεν, He did not take the myrrhed wine. Maclaren saw the pattern and said so, that the narrative "is almost entirely a record of what was done to Jesus, and scarcely touches what was done by Him." ⚙ Our reading is that Mark's grammar is the argument. The mockers demand the opposite kind of verb, an active one with Jesus as subject: come down, save yourself, let the Christ descend now. They are asking for a Messiah in the active voice, and they are not wrong that He could give them one. The accusation nailed over His head, Ο ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝ, is the truest sentence anyone speaks in the chapter, and it is posted by a Roman governor as a charge of sedition. So the unit turns on the one word the priests get exactly right by accident: οὐ δύναται, He is not able. Not weakness, but a power that has bound itself. The verb σῴζω cannot run in both directions at once; self-rescue and the rescue of others are, at this hour, mutually exclusive, and He has already chosen. Every self-interested actor at Golgotha gets what he came for, the soldiers their clothing, the priests their victory, the crowd its spectacle. The one who takes nothing, not even the anaesthetic, is the one through whom something is given. We hold this loosely: Mark does not say it, he shows it, and a reading built on grammar can always be over-read.

They demanded a Messiah in the active voice, and the only active verb He spent was a refusal. (⚙ synthesis, not Scripture)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Golgotha: the one place-name all three witnesses stop to translate verbal / quotation: confirmed

The name Γολγοθᾶ occurs in only three verses of the whole Greek canon, and in every one of them the writer breaks off to render it for a reader who does not have Aramaic. Mark and Matthew both add Κρανίου τόπος; John gives the same. Luke 23:33 keeps the Greek κρανίον without the Aramaic at all, which Cambridge notes ("St Luke omits it altogether") and which is how the Latin Calvaria, and then English "Calvary," got in, "obscuring the meaning of the Evangelist." The Verifier confirms the shared rare lexemes. All refs are within the Greek New Testament, so the verbal tier is available here.

John 19:17 · Matthew 27:33 · Luke 23:33

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1115 Γολγοθᾶ (in 3 vv, rare) and G2898 κρανίον (in 4 vv, rare), with G5117 τόπος (in 89 vv); all refs are Greek New Testament, so no cross-Testament restriction applies

ἀγγαρεύω: the command He gave, executed on a stranger verbal / quotation: confirmed

The verb by which Simon is seized occurs in only three verses of the New Testament. Two of them are this scene in Mark and Matthew. The third is Matthew 5:41, the Lord's own command in the Sermon on the Mount: "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" (quoted so by Cambridge, which also identifies the word as a Persian loan from the royal courier system). ⚙ The lexical link is certain and the irony is ours, not the evangelists': the one who legislated for the conscripted man is now the reason another man is conscripted. All refs are Greek New Testament.

Matthew 27:32 · Matthew 5:41

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G29 ἀγγαρεύω (in 3 vv, rare, a Persian loanword), plus G4613 Σίμων and G2956 Κυρηναῖος (in 6 vv) linking Matthew 27:32; Greek to Greek throughout

Rufus: a name that appears twice in the canon structural / thematic: confirmed

Ῥοῦφος stands in exactly two verses: here, and Romans 16:13, "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." The lexical link is real and rare; the identification of the persons is not established. Ellicott builds a careful case from Mark's Roman destination but says himself that "The two names were so common that we cannot arrive at more than a probable identification." Maclaren calls it "a very reasonable" conjecture; Poole and Pulpit repeat it; Gill is blunt that "whether they are or not, is not certain." ⚙ We record the verbal link and refuse the historical claim.

Romans 16:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4504 Ῥοῦφος (in 2 vv, maximally rare). Deliberately downgraded from verbal: the shared item is a proper name, not a quotation or an allusion, and the interpretive weight of the thread rests on identifying the two men, which Ellicott says we cannot do beyond probability and Gill says is "not certain."

"They divided my garments": the Psalm supplies Mark's wording structural / thematic: confirmed

Mark does not say a prophecy is fulfilled. He simply narrates, and the narration is Psalm 22:18: they divided His garments, casting a lot upon them. Cambridge states the relation exactly, that the soldiers were "unconsciously fulfilling the words spoken long ago by the Psalmist, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots ( Psalm 22:18 )," and Gill says the seamless coat is where "they cast lots who should have it, and so fulfilled a prophecy in Psalm 22:18." ⚙ This is a genuine verbal borrowing in Mark's Greek from the Psalm, one of the clearest in the Gospel. We nevertheless tier it structural, because the badge rule forbids a verbal tier on refs that cross the Testaments, and because no shared Strong's number can be computed between Hebrew and Greek.

Psalm 22:18 · Matthew 27:35 · John 19:24

basis: The wording of Mark's narration is the Psalm's (Psalm 22:18), and the Verifier confirms the Greek side of the link at Matthew 27:35 and John 19:24 by shared lexemes G1266 διαμερίζω (in 11 vv), G2440 ἱμάτιον (in 58 vv), G906 βάλλω (in 107 vv); tiered structural, not verbal, because the refs cross Testaments and Greek to Hebrew lexeme identity cannot be computed

Wagging heads and the taunt: Psalm 22:7-8 in the mouths of the crowd structural / thematic: confirmed

The gesture and the sneer both come from the same Psalm. Pulpit quotes it against the verse: "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him" (Psalm 22:7-8), and adds Psalm 69:26 as a second resonance. Within the Greek, the Verifier ties Mark 15:29 to Matthew 27:39 by the same rare verb of head-wagging. ⚙ Mark makes no citation formula anywhere in this unit; the echo is in the reporting, which is why the tier stays structural.

Psalm 22:7 · Matthew 27:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2795 κινέω (in 8 vv, rare), G987 βλασφημέω (in 34 vv), G2776 κεφαλή (in 67 vv) for the Matthew 27:39 leg; the Psalm 22:7 leg crosses Testaments and carries no shared Strong's number, so the whole thread is tiered structural and no quotation is claimed

Numbered with the transgressors: the verse that may not be Mark's flagged: verify source

Mark 15:28 reads "And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And he was numbered with the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12), and is the only explicit fulfilment formula in the crucifixion narrative. It is also textually doubtful. Ellicott: it "is omitted by nearly all the better MSS., and probably originated in a marginal note, calling attention to the fulfilment of the prophecy which we find quoted by our Lord as about to be fulfilled in Luke 22:37." Pulpit agrees it is "omitted in the oldest manuscripts." Cambridge concedes it more mildly. Gill and Barnes expound the Isaiah text without raising the question. ⚙ The theology stands on v. 27 alone, where two robbers are crucified with Him; the citation is what we flag.

Isaiah 53:12 · Luke 22:37 · Matthew 27:38

basis: The Markan side of this link is Mark 15:28, a verse absent from the earliest manuscripts (Ellicott, Pulpit, Cambridge all say so); the Isaiah 53:12 citation is secure at Luke 22:37 but its presence in Mark is disputed, so provenance is flagged rather than confirmed; the Matthew 27:38 leg rests on Verifier-shared G4717 σταυρόω (in 42 vv)

Isaac carrying the wood, and the victim burned outside the camp typological

Two figural readings that the sources themselves supply. Cambridge, on the compelling of Simon: "This had a reference to our Lord being typified by Isaac bearing the wood of the burnt offering, Genesis 22:6," the son who carries the fuel of his own sacrifice. Cambridge again, on Golgotha, notes it was "outside the gate (comp. Hebrews 13:12)," where Hebrews itself makes the argument from the Day of Atonement bull and goat whose bodies were burned outside the camp (Leviticus 16:27). Geneva reads the same geography without citing Leviticus: Christ is led "out of the walls of the earthly Jerusalem into a foul place of dead men's carcasses, as a man most unclean." ⚙ These are figural and ancient, not verbal; Mark states neither. Greek to Hebrew refs cannot carry a verbal tier in any case.

Genesis 22:6 · Hebrews 13:12 · Leviticus 16:27

basis: Figural readings recorded in the sources themselves (Cambridge cites Genesis 22:6 and Hebrews 13:12; Hebrews 13:11-12 makes the Leviticus 16:27 argument explicitly). Widely held and ancient. No shared Strong's number is possible between Mark's Greek and the Hebrew of Genesis and Leviticus, and no quotation is claimed

The drink offered to the sufferer: Psalm 69:21 structural / thematic: confirmed

Psalm 69 is the other Psalm that runs under this narrative: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Ellicott links Mark's ἐσμυρνισμένον to Matthew's wording directly: "Note this description as in part explaining St. Matthew’s “wine mingled with gall,”" and Matthew's "gall" is the Psalm's word. Pulpit distinguishes two separate offers of drink, the drugged wine before the nailing (which Mark reports and Jesus refuses) and the later sour wine answering "I thirst" (which Mark does not report here). Pulpit also quotes Psalm 69:26 against v. 29. ⚙ The link is real at the level of the scene's vocabulary and not a citation in Mark.

Psalm 69:21 · Matthew 27:34

basis: Shared motif and, on the Matthew side, shared wording noted by Ellicott (Mark's myrrhed wine explaining Matthew's "wine mingled with gall", the Psalm's term); refs cross the Testaments, so no verbal tier and no shared Strong's number is claimed

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The charge that was a coronation ancient/widely-held

The αἰτία, the legal cause of death, and the confession of the Church are one sentence: Ο ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝ. Pilate posted it in three languages so that nobody could miss it (Cambridge, from John 19:20), and the priests could not get it changed. Henry makes the reader's duty of it: "Whenever we look unto Christ crucified, we must remember what was written over his head; he is a King, and we must give up ourselves to be his subjects." Pulpit records the same reading from antiquity, that the title "was fitly placed over his head, because, although he was crucified in weakness for us, yet he shone with the majesty of a King above his cross," and that "from henceforth he began to reign from his cross." Cambridge closes the unit with it: "Thus even from “the Tree” the Lord began to reign." ⚙ Mark himself adds no comment at all; he simply prints the board. The restraint is stronger than the gloss.

Mark 15:26 · John 19:19-22 · Mark 15:32

"He saved others, Himself He cannot save" ancient/widely-held

The truest theology in the unit is spoken as a joke by the chief priests. Pulpit reconstructs what they meant, that the failure to be delivered proved the earlier miracles came from Beelzebub, and also gives the answer: Christ "might have come down from the cross; but he would not, because it was his Father's will that he should die upon the cross to redeem us from death," his "omnipotence restrain[ing] the natural longings of his suffering humanity." Henry states the exchange that makes the inability meaningful: "He wore the crown of thorns which we deserved, that we might wear the crown of glory which he merited." Geneva says the same of the stripping, that we are "clothed with his righteousness and blessed with his curses and sanctified by his only sacrifice." ⚙ Our own reading adds only the grammar: οὐ δύναται is a real inability, not a pretended one. Having taken the place of the many, He cannot simultaneously vacate it. The mockers state the atonement and think they are refuting it.

Mark 15:31 · Isaiah 53:12 · Mark 10:45

Outside the gate, at the place of the skull ancient/widely-held

Geneva, Cambridge and Maclaren all read the location as theology. Geneva: he is led "out of the walls of the earthly Jerusalem into a foul place of dead men's carcasses, as a man most unclean, not because of himself, but because of our sins, which were laid upon him, with the result that we, being made clean by his blood, might be brought into the heavenly sanctuary," which is the argument of Hebrews 13:11-13 in a sentence. Cambridge notes the same fact of geography with its Hebrews reference attached. Maclaren turns the name itself: "The place of death becomes a place of life, and from the mournful soil where the bones of evildoers lay bleaching in the sun springs the fountain of water of life." ⚙ We note that Maclaren's picture depends on Gill's reading of the name, which Cambridge rejects on the ground that the Jews buried their executed. The theology of the location does not depend on the etymology: it depends on the gate, and on the fact that He is carried through it.

Hebrews 13:11-13 · Leviticus 16:27 · Mark 15:22

The sanctuary they thought they were destroying novel

The passers-by taunt Him as ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναόν, the one pulling down the sanctuary and building it in three days. Cambridge notes that the saying from the first cleansing of the Temple "was never forgotten. Perhaps some of the false witnesses of the previous night were now present." Mark's word is ναός, the inner dwelling, not ἱερόν, the whole precinct, and within a few verses Mark reports that the veil of this ναός was torn from top to bottom. ⚙ Our reading is that Mark has set the mockery and the tearing in deliberate sequence, and that the enemies at the cross are the only ones in the chapter who state the resurrection timetable out loud. Henry says of them that "they did not believe, though he gave them a more convincing sign when he came up from the grave." We mark this as our own arrangement of Mark's material rather than a claim any of the cited commentators makes in these terms.

Mark 15:29 · Mark 14:58 · John 2:19-21

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers. Mark 15:28 has no text and no interlinear in this edition, because the verse is absent from the earliest manuscripts; Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all say so in the sources quoted here, and its content (Isaiah 53:12, "he was numbered with the transgressors") is secure at Luke 22:37 regardless. We give the verse voices but no literal reconstruction, since there is no settled original to build one from.

Two textual and chronological uncertainties are recorded rather than resolved. (1) The third hour. Mark's τρίτη ὥρα against John's "about the sixth hour" (John 19:14) is an old crux; Barnes canvasses a scribal confusion of the letters gamma and sigma and admits "no great reliance is to be placed on this account," Pulpit solves it by reading the hour as a three-hour watch, Cambridge says only that John uses "a different mode of reckoning," and Gill notes the Ethiopic version simply reads "sixth" to harmonize. We take no side. (2) The reading at v. 24. Cambridge and Pulpit both prefer the present tense σταυροῦσιν against the older aorist rendering, which is the reading reflected in our interlinear.

Sources: JFB's entry for this whole span is a cross-reference header only ("See on John 19:17-30") and carries no comment we could quote, so JFB is named in the brief but is not cited among the voices; Poole likewise refers the reader to his notes on Matthew 27 for vv. 22-37, so his single substantive comment (at v. 21) is the only Poole excerpt here. Benson's entry is headed Mark 15:22-28 and his remark on the order of nailing and stripping is quoted under v. 22 because that is where the source entry sits.

What the ⚙ layer asserts and what it does not: the identification of Rufus with Romans 16:13 is a lexical link between two verses that share a rare name, and nothing more; Ellicott and Gill both hedge it and so do we. The Psalm 22:18 link at v. 24 is a real verbal borrowing in Mark's Greek narration, but it is tiered structural because the refs cross the Testaments and no shared Strong's number can be computed between Hebrew and Greek; the basis line says so. The typological threads (Isaac's wood, the victim outside the camp) are figural readings taken from Cambridge and from Hebrews itself, not from Mark, who in this unit quotes nothing and cites nothing. Pulpit's "Bode" at v. 26 is the printed spelling of the public-domain text and almost certainly means Bede; we quote as printed. The fourth Christ reading, on the sanctuary, is marked novel because the sequence it draws is our arrangement of Mark's material, not a claim in the sources.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)