The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark15:33–41

The Death of Jesus

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Mark 15:33–41 — The Death of Jesus. 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.

33

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hektēs hōras genomenēs heōs enatēs hōras skotos egeneto eph’ holēn tēn gēn

Word by word13 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἕκτηςhektēsFrom [the] sixthG1623
√ ἕκτος — sixthAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
hektos: sixth Midday, the hour of maximum light. G1623 is not a common word (14 verses), and its pairing here with ennatos (G1766, 10 verses) makes this a deliberately clocked notice rather than a vague "about noon."
ὥραςhōrashourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
γενομένηςgenomenēsG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle MiddleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
ἐνάτηςenatēs[the] ninthG1766
√ ἔννατος — ninthAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
ennatos: ninth Three in the afternoon. Cambridge identifies this as "the hour of the offering of the evening sacrifice," which means Mark times the death of Jesus to the moment the daily lamb was being killed in the temple whose veil is about to tear (v. 38).
ὥραςhōrashourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
σκότοςskotosdarknessG4655
√ σκότος — shadiness, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
skotos: darkness, shadiness The word carries both the physical and the moral sense across the New Testament. Cambridge concedes the limit of explanation honestly: the Passover moon was full, so an eclipse is astronomically impossible, and he can only guess at "some supernatural derangement of the terrestrial atmosphere." Henry reads it as the sign of "the cloud which the human soul of Christ was under." ⚙ The text itself states the fact and offers no cause; the commentators supply the causes, and they disagree.
ἐγένετοegenetocameG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be Aorist middle. Mark's plainest verb for an event simply occurring. No agent is named, no heavens are said to open. The restraint is the point: the reader is told what happened and left with three silent hours.
ἐφ’eph’overG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ὅληνholēnallG3650
√ ὅλος — "whole" or "all", iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēnlandG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
gē: land, soil, earth The extent of the darkness is textually undecidable here, and the commentators split along that seam (Geneva: Palestine; Pulpit: "land" over "earth"; Gill notes the Ethiopic "whole world"). ⚙ We record the ambiguity rather than resolving it.
34

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai tē enatē hōra ho Iēsous eboēsen megalē phōnē Elōi Elōi lema sabachthani ho estin methermēneuomenon mou Ho Theos mou ho Theos eis ti enkatelipes me

Word by word26 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῇtēAt theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἐνάτῃenatēninthG1766
√ ἔννατος — ninthAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
ὥρᾳhōrahourG5610
√ ὥρα — an "hour" (literally or figuratively)NounDative Feminine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐβόησενeboēsencried outG994
√ βοάω — to halloo, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
boaō: to shout, halloo A cry pitched to carry, the verb of open-air hailing rather than of ordinary speech, and Mark reinforces it with a dative of manner, "with a great voice." It sets the acoustics of the whole unit: this is the first of two loud utterances (compare phōnēn megalēn in v. 37), and each is overheard and acted on, once in mockery (v. 35) and once in confession (v. 39). ⚙ Mark's crucifixion is not a silent scene. It is a scene in which a voice carries and everyone within earshot is made to interpret it, wrongly or rightly.
μεγάλῃmegalēvvvG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
φωνῇphōnēin a loud voiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounDative Feminine Singular
ἘλωῒElōiEloiG1682
√ ἐλοΐ — EloiNounVocative Masculine Singular
ἘλωῒElōiEloiG1682
√ ἐλοΐ — EloiNounVocative Masculine Singular
λεμὰlemalemaG2982
√ λαμά — lama (iAdverb
σαβαχθάνιsabachthanisabachthaniG4518
√ σαβαχθάνι — thou hast left meVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
sabachthani: thou hast left me Aramaic, transliterated, parsed as a 2nd person singular aorist. Cambridge identifies the source exactly: Jesus "gives utterance to the words of the first verse of the xxiind Psalm." This is the single explicit Old Testament quotation in the unit, and the only one of the seven sayings from the cross that Mark records.
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
methermēneuō: to translate over A present participle, middle or passive: "being translated." Mark's editorial hand is visible here. He assumes readers who do not know Aramaic, which is why he keeps the sound and then glosses it, exactly as he does at 5:41 and 7:34 in his Gospel.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Singular
ΘεόςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
theos: God Nominative noun under a vocative article, repeated. ⚙ The doubling is not rhetorical padding: Psalm 22 opens with the same doubling, and Mark preserves it through the Aramaic. Note what the cry does not say. Elsewhere in Mark Jesus addresses God as Abba, Father (14:36); here, and only here, he says "my God."
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Singular
ΘεόςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeiswhyG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐγκατέλιπέςenkatelipeshave You forsakenG1459
√ ἐγκαταλείπω — to leave behind in some place, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
enkataleipō: to leave behind in some place Strong's root sense is spatial abandonment, leaving someone behind where they stand. Henry draws the contrast that governs the whole scene: "He did not complain that his disciples forsook him, but that his Father forsook him." ⚙ The tense is aorist, a completed act, not a state; what Greek says is "did You abandon me," and translations that render it as an English perfect quietly smooth that.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
35

When some of those standing nearby heard this, they said, “Behold, He is calling Elijah.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai tines tōn parestēkotōn akousantes elegon Ide phōnei Ēlian

Word by word9 · parsed
ΚαίKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τινεςtinessomeG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnof thoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
παρεστηκότωνparestēkotōnstanding nearbyG3936
√ παρίστημι — to stand beside, iVerbPerfect Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Plural
paristēmi: to stand beside Perfect participle, genitive plural. A settled stance, not a passing glance. Pulpit observes that these bystanders lingered through the darkness itself, which "would add greatly to the awfulness of the place."
ἀκούσαντεςakousantesheard [this]G191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἔλεγονelegonthey saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἼδεIdeBeholdG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
φωνεῖphōneiHe is callingG5455
√ φωνέω — to emit a sound (animal, human or instrumental)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phōneō: to emit a sound, to call Present indicative. The cognate noun phōnē (G5456) is the "voice" of vv. 34 and 37: the crowd's verb for what Jesus is doing is built from the same root as the noun Mark uses for the cry itself.
ἨλίανĒlianElijahG2243
√ Ἡλίας — Helias (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Ēlias: Elijah The mishearing works because Elōi and Ēlian share their opening sound, and because, as Pulpit notes, Elijah "was believed to hold some relation to the Messiah" and his appearance was expected. ⚙ The irony Mark leaves unstated: earlier in this Gospel Jesus has already said that Elijah has come (Mark 9:13). The crowd waits for a rescuer who, on Jesus' own account, has already been and gone.
36

And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de tis Dramōn kai gemisas spongon oxous peritheis kalamō epotizen auton legōn Aphete idōmen ei Ēlias erchetai kathelein auton

Word by word19 · parsed
δέdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
τιςtissomeoneG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ΔραμὼνDramōnranG5143
√ τρέχω — compare G2359 (θρίξ))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γεμίσαςgemisasfilledG1072
√ γεμίζω — to fill entirelyVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
σπόγγονspongona spongeG4699
√ σπόγγος — a "sponge"NounAccusative Masculine Singular
spongos: a sponge A rare noun, occurring in only three verses of the New Testament (here, Matthew 27:48, John 19:29), all of them this one moment. That rarity is the strongest verbal link the Verifier finds in this unit.
ὄξουςoxouswith sour wineG3690
√ ὄξος — vinegar, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
oxos: sour wine, vinegar Gill states the connection plainly: the drink was given "and so fulfilled a prophecy in Psalm 69:21." ⚙ Mark himself makes no citation here; the link is a reading of the event, not a quotation in the text, and we tier it accordingly below.
περιθεὶςperitheisHe put [it] onG4060
√ περιτίθημι — to place aroundVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
καλάμῳkalamōa reedG2563
√ κάλαμος — a reed (the plant or its stem, or that of a similar plant)NounDative Masculine Singular
ἐπότιζενepotizenand held it up for [Jesus] to drinkG4222
√ ποτίζω — to furnish drink, irrigateVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
potizō: to furnish drink, to irrigate Imperfect, the one unfinished verb in a chain of completed ones. Whether the act is mercy or mockery Mark does not say; the sentence puts the drink and the jeer about Elijah in the same breath.
αὐτόνauton. . .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
λέγωνlegōnsayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἌφετεApheteLeave [Him] aloneG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
aphiēmi: to send away, let go Plural imperative. ⚙ Mark's placement is striking: the last command spoken to Jesus by a human being in this unit is the verb he is about to use of himself, releasing his voice and his life.
ἴδωμενidōmenLet us seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
εἰeiifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ἨλίαςĒliasElijahG2243
√ Ἡλίας — Helias (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔρχεταιerchetaicomesG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
καθελεῖνkatheleinto take Him downG2507
√ καθαιρέω — to lower (or with violence) demolish (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
kathaireō: to lower, to demolish Aorist infinitive of purpose. The crowd's imagined rescue (taken down alive) and the actual outcome (taken down dead, Mark 15:46) use the same verb, which is Mark's quiet way of answering the taunt.
αὐτόνauton. . .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
37

But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous apheis megalēn phōnēn exepneusen

Word by word7 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀφεὶςapheislet outG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, release Aorist participle. ⚙ The verbal chain across vv. 36 to 37 is exact and, so far as we can see, deliberate: the crowd says aphete, let be; Mark then says Jesus apheis, let go. The mockers' word for withholding becomes the narrator's word for self-surrender.
μεγάληνmegalēnvvvG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
φωνὴνphōnēna loud cryG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
phōnē: a tone, a voice The third loud utterance of the unit and the shortest report. Pulpit argues from ordinary experience that the voice usually fails the dying, and concludes that this cry was itself the evidence of a death that was not simply suffered but given.
ἐξέπνευσενexepneusen[and] breathed His lastG1606
√ ἐκπνέω — to expireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ekpneō: to breathe out, to expire Aorist indicative active, and the active voice matters. Mark does not write that Jesus was killed or that he died; he writes that Jesus breathed out. Cambridge cites Farrar and Augustine to the same effect, that he gave up his life "quia voluit, quando voluit, quomodo voluit," and points to John 10:18. This same verb returns, unchanged, in the centurion's line of sight in v. 39.
38

And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai to katapetasma tou naou eschisthē eis dyo ap’ anōthen heōs katō

Word by word12 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
καταπέτασμαkatapetasmaveilG2665
√ καταπέτασμα — something spread thoroughly, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
katapetasma: the veil, the spread-across A rare noun, in six verses of the New Testament. Cambridge sends the reader to Hebrews 9:3 and Hebrews 10:19 "for the full symbolism of this," and observes that such an event "must have made a profound impression," perhaps a first step toward the later obedience of many priests (Acts 6:7).
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ναοῦnaoutempleG3485
√ ναός — a fane, shrine, templeNounGenitive Masculine Singular
naos: shrine, sanctuary The inner house, where only priests went and where, past this curtain, only the high priest went once a year. Mark's choice of naos over hieron fixes the location precisely.
ἐσχίσθηeschisthēwas tornG4977
√ σχίζω — to split or sever (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
schizō: to split, to sever Aorist passive. ⚙ Mark has used a cognate of this verb once before at a hinge of his Gospel: at the baptism the heavens were split (Mark 1:10). Heaven torn open at the beginning, the veil torn open at the end, and both times the voice about the Son follows immediately (1:11; 15:39). We offer that pairing as a reading, not as a claim Mark makes in words.
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἄνωθενanōthentopG509
√ ἄνωθεν — from aboveAdverb
anōthen: from above Adverb. The tearing does not begin where human hands could reach. Henry draws the double consequence: terror to the unbelieving, and comfort to believers, "for it signified the laying open a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Pulpit adds the temple clock: at the evening hour of prayer a priest would have been standing between the two veils when this one gave way.
ἕωςheōstoG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
κάτωkatōbottomG2736
√ κάτω — downwardsAdverb
39

When the centurion standing there in front of Jesus saw how He had breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho kentyriōn ho parestēkōs ex enantias autou Idōn hoti houtōs exepneusen eipen Alēthōs houtos ho anthrōpos ēn Huios Theou

Word by word20 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κεντυρίωνkentyriōncenturionG2760
√ κεντυρίων — a centurion, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
kentyriōn: a centurion A rare word, in only three verses of the New Testament, all of them in Mark 15 (39, 44, 45). Ellicott catches why: "St. Mark, after his manner, uses the actual Latin word," a Latin loan where Matthew uses the Greek equivalent. It is one of the small signs of a Gospel written with Roman readers in view.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
παρεστηκὼςparestēkōsstanding thereG3936
√ παρίστημι — to stand beside, iVerbPerfect Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
paristēmi: to stand beside Perfect participle, matching v. 35 exactly. The same settled stance produced mockery there and confession here; the difference is not the position but what the watcher saw from it.
ἐξexvvvG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
ἐναντίαςenantiasin front ofG1727
√ ἐναντίος — oppositeAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautou[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
ἸδὼνIdōnsawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
οὕτωςhoutōs[how]G3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
ἐξέπνευσενexepneusenHe had breathed His lastG1606
√ ἐκπνέω — to expireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ekpneō: to breathe out The verb repeated from v. 37 without alteration. Benson locates the trigger of the confession precisely: he "cried out with such strength of voice, and such firm confidence in God, even at the moment when he expired."
εἶπενeipenhe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἈληθῶςAlēthōsTrulyG230
√ ἀληθῶς — trulyAdverb
alēthōs: truly The adverb of truth (G230), fronted for weight. It is the word of a man giving a verdict, and it is being spoken by the officer whose job, as Gill notes, was to watch the condemned and prevent any rescue.
οὗτοςhoutosthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΥἱὸςHuios[the] SonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son Anarthrous. ⚙ Mark opened his Gospel with "the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1), and in the body of the Gospel the title is spoken aloud by the voice from heaven and by demons, never by a human being who understands. The first human to say it in Mark stands at the foot of the cross and is a Gentile executioner. That literary observation is ours; Cambridge reaches the theological point by a different route, grouping him with the centurion of Matthew 8 and Cornelius of Acts 10.
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
40

And there were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ēsan kai gynaikes theōrousai apo makrothen en hais kai Maria hē Magdalēnē kai Maria hē mētēr Iakōbou tou mikrou kai Iōsētos kai Salōmē

Word by word24 · parsed
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἮσανĒsanthere wereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaialsoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γυναῖκεςgynaikeswomenG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounNominative Feminine Plural
gynē: a woman Geneva draws the contrast the narrative sets up: "Christ, to the great shame of the men who forsook the Lord, chose women for his witnesses." In Mark's own account the named male disciples fled at 14:50; the named witnesses of the death are women.
θεωροῦσαιtheōrousaiwatchingG2334
√ θεωρέω — to be a spectator of, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Plural
theōreō: to be a spectator of Present participle. ⚙ This is the legal spine of Mark's ending. The same verb governs the women at the burial (15:47) and the same names reappear at the tomb (16:1). Mark is building a chain of continuous eyewitness from death to burial to empty tomb, and he builds it out of these women.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
μακρόθενmakrothena distanceG3113
√ μακρόθεν — from a distance or afarAdverb
makrothen: from afar Doubled with apo. The distance is stated twice and the Evangelists differ on it: Pulpit's reconciliation, that they moved nearer and further as the soldiers allowed, is a harmonization, and we mark it as such.
ἐνenAmongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αἷςhaisthemG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Feminine Plural
καὶkai[were]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΜαρίαMariaMaryG3137
√ Μαρία — Maria or Mariam (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ΜαγδαληνὴMagdalēnēMagdaleneG3094
√ Μαγδαληνή — a female Magdalene, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΜαρίαMariaMaryG3137
√ Μαρία — Maria or Mariam (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
μήτηρmētērmotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounNominative Feminine Singular
ἸακώβουIakōbouof JamesG2385
√ Ἰάκωβος — Jacobus, the name of three IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
μικροῦmikrouyoungerG3398
√ μικρός — small (in size, quantity, number or (figuratively) dignity)AdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
mikros: small, little Genitive, attached to James. A disputed epithet. Gill notes that "the little" was a common Jewish way of distinguishing men of the same name and cites rabbinic parallels; Cambridge and Pulpit go further and identify this Mary with Mary of Clopas of John 19:25. That identification is contested and we flag it below.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸωσῆτοςIōsētosof JosesG2500
√ Ἰωσῆς — Joses, the name of two IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΣαλώμηSalōmēSalomeG4539
√ Σαλώμη — Salome (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
Salōmē: Salome A rare name in the New Testament text, occurring in two verses only: here and Mark 16:1. Ellicott notes that where Mark writes Salome, Matthew 27:56 writes "the mother of Zebedee's children," which is why the two lists look different while naming the same group.
41

These women had followed Jesus and ministered to Him while He was in Galilee, and there were many other women who had come up to Jerusalem with Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hai ēkolouthoun autō kai diēkonoun autō hote ēn en tē Galilaia kai pollai allai hai synanabasai eis Hierosolyma autō

Word by word19 · parsed
αἳhai[These women]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Feminine Plural
ἠκολούθουνēkolouthounhad followedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with Imperfect. ⚙ Mark has spent his Gospel on men who were called to follow and who, at 14:50, all left him and fled. The verb reappears here, in the imperfect, attached to women who did not leave. Mark makes no comment; the placement is the comment.
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
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διηκόνουνdiēkonounministeredG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
diakoneō: to attend, to serve Imperfect. Gill specifies what the service was: they ministered to him "of their worldly substance," citing Luke 8:3. Pulpit adds that "they were able to minister to the various needs of his humanity."
αὐτῷautōto 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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὅτεhotewhileG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ἦνēnHe wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίᾳGalilaiaGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiand [there were]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλαὶpollaimanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Feminine Plural
ἄλλαιallaiotherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Plural
αἱhai[women] whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
συναναβᾶσαιsynanabasaihad come upG4872
√ συναναβαίνω — to ascend in company withVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Plural
synanabainō: to ascend in company with Aorist participle of a rare compound, found in only two verses. Its one other occurrence, Acts 13:31, describes those who came up with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem and who became his witnesses. ⚙ The same rare verb, the same journey, the same word "witnesses" hanging on it.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ἹεροσόλυμαHierosolymaJerusalemG2414
√ Ἱεροσόλυμα — Hierosolyma (iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
Hierosolyma: Jerusalem The destination of the whole second half of Mark's Gospel, from the first passion prediction onward. The journey began in Galilee and ends here, and the only people Mark names as having made the whole of it, Galilee to Jerusalem and cross to tomb, are these women. ⚙ The Twelve made the same journey; they are simply absent from the sentence that records it.
αὐτῷautōwith 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 PronounDative 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. Three hours in which nothing is said — 15:33

Mark gives the darkness one sentence and no explanation. The verb is ἐγένετο, the flattest possible word for an event simply occurring, and the extent is ὅλην τὴν γῆν, which may mean the whole land or the whole earth. The commentators divide exactly along that seam: Geneva's marginal note (c) restricts it to Palestine and finds the wonder sharper for being local, "at the feast of the passover, and in the full moon"; Pulpit judges that "'Land' is a better rendering than 'earth'"; Gill reports that the Ethiopic version read it as the whole world. On cause they are equally divided and equally candid. Cambridge admits outright that "It is impossible to explain the origin of this darkness," rules out an eclipse on astronomical grounds (the Passover moon was full), and can only offer a guess. Pulpit reaches for Phlegon of Tralles as reported by Eusebius, and for a saying attributed to Dionysius at Heliopolis; both are secondhand and both are disputed, which is why we quote them as testimony about the tradition rather than as evidence about the event. Henry alone reads the darkness theologically: it "signified the cloud which the human soul of Christ was under, when he was making it an offering for sin." Cambridge adds the detail that gives the three hours their shape: "A veil hides from us the incidents of these three hours." ⚙ Mark, who elsewhere crowds his narrative with immediacy, here gives the reader nothing but a clock and a darkness.

ii. The one sentence Mark keeps in Aramaic — 15:34 to 15:36

Of the seven sayings from the cross gathered from the four Gospels, Cambridge notes that this is the only one Mark records, "and he gives the original Aramaic and its explanation." That double move is the heart of the verse: Ἐλωῒ Ἐλωῒ λεμὰ σαβαχθάνι, then μεθερμηνευόμενον, "being translated." Ellicott is precise about why Mark's spelling differs from Matthew's: Mark "is a closer reproduction of the very sounds of the Aramaic form of the word" while Matthew gives the Hebrew of Psalm 22:1. Gill, working from the other end, says both forms are used "and are both used in Psalm 22:1 , from whence the whole is taken." So the source is not in doubt among these commentators; only the transliteration is. Then the readings part company. Henry fixes on the object of the complaint: "He did not complain that his disciples forsook him, but that his Father forsook him." Geneva hears a conqueror mid-battle, "striving mightily with Satan, sin and death," who "clears himself, crying with a mighty voice." Benson holds both ends of the paradox in a single clause: in these very words "Jesus claims God as his God," while lamenting the withdrawal of the tokens of his love. The Pulpit Commentary goes further than the text and says so, supposing that our Lord recited the whole of Psalm 22 from the cross; it presents that as general supposition, not as report, and we record it at that weight. The crowd, meanwhile, hears one syllable and mistakes it. Cambridge sets out the three possibilities without pretending to decide: they caught only the first sound, or misunderstood, or "spoke in wilful mockery." What follows is a sponge of soldiers' posca on a reed, which Cambridge identifies as "the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers" and Pulpit distinguishes from the narcotic given to the condemned. Gill connects it to Psalm 69:21. ⚙ Note the grammar of the jeer: the last imperative addressed to Jesus by any human being here is Ἄφετε, let be, and the next verb Mark writes of Jesus is ἀφεὶς, he let go.

iii. The voice released and the curtain torn from above — 15:37 to 15:38

Mark's report of the death is six Greek words, and two of them are unusual. Jesus does not simply cry out; he releases a great voice (ἀφεὶς, the verb of sending away), and he does not simply die; he breathes out (ἐξέπνευσεν), in the active voice. Cambridge collects the point through Farrar: the Evangelists avoid the neuter "He died" and choose phrases of yielding up, "as though they would imply with St Augustine that He gave up His life, 'quia voluit, quando voluit, quomodo voluit.'" Pulpit reasons from the physiology of dying men, who ordinarily lose their voices, to the same conclusion, that "he did not die of necessity, but voluntarily," and quotes John 10:18 and Victor Antiochanus in support. Cambridge hears in the loudness itself "the triumphant note of a conqueror"; Gill, following the Syriac, reads the death as a finishing of "his life, his days, his race, his ministry, and the work which was given him to do." Then, without a connecting word of explanation, the veil. Pulpit is careful about which one: two curtains hung in the sanctuary, the outer kalumma and the inner καταπέτασμα, and the one torn is the inner, the barrier of the holy of holies, so that the priest performing the evening office would have been standing between the two when it gave way. Cambridge supplies the dimensions from Josephus and refers the symbolism to Hebrews 9:3 and Hebrews 10:19. Henry states the double effect: terror to the unbelieving, comfort to believers, because it signified "the laying open a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Poole writes no Markan exposition at all here and says so, sending the reader to his notes on Matthew 27:51 and following. ⚙ The grammar carries the theology: ἐσχίσθη is passive with no agent named, and ἀπ’ ἄνωθεν is "from above." Nothing at the height of a man could have started that tear.

iv. Two witnesses Mark chose, and neither is an apostle — 15:39 to 15:41

The first human being in Mark's Gospel to call Jesus the Son of God is a Roman officer doing his job. Ellicott notes that Mark, "after his manner, uses the actual Latin word" κεντυρίων where Matthew uses Greek, one of the small marks of a Gospel written toward Rome; Gill reminds us what the job was, to watch the condemned so that nobody released him. Benson locates the trigger in the manner of the dying: he cried out "with such strength of voice, and such firm confidence in God, even at the moment when he expired." Cambridge sets that against the soldier's own experience, death seen "on the battle-field, in the amphitheatre at Cæsarea, in tumultuous insurrections in Palestine," and concludes he had never before met "the majesty of a Voluntary Death." Pulpit adds a textual caution worth keeping: the words "so cried out" are absent from the strongest manuscripts he knows, so the evidence the centurion weighed may have been the manner of the death alone. The second witness is a group of women, and Mark's verbs make them permanent rather than incidental: the imperfects ἠκολούθουν and διηκόνουν, kept following and kept serving, and the rare compound συναναβᾶσαι, having come up with him. Geneva reads the contrast bluntly: "Christ, to the great shame of the men who forsook the Lord, chose women for his witnesses." Cambridge calls them "forerunners of the noble army of Holy Women." Gill specifies the service as material support out of their own substance (Luke 8:3), and Pulpit says they "were able to minister to the various needs of his humanity." Ellicott and Cambridge both note the difficulty in the list itself, Salome standing where Matthew has the mother of Zebedee's sons, and James called mikros, little, for reasons nobody can settle. ⚙ Mark names three women here, two of them again at the burial (15:47), and three again at the tomb (16:1). He is laying a chain of continuous eyewitnesses across the only three events his ending requires: that Jesus died, that he was buried, and that the tomb was empty.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own reading, fallible and offered to be tested against the text. Mark builds this unit out of two tearings and one mishearing. At the baptism the heavens were split (the cognate of ἐσχίσθη at Mark 1:10) and a voice said "You are My beloved Son"; here the veil is split and a man says "Truly this man was the Son of God." Between those two tearings, nobody in Mark's Gospel says that sentence and means it. Demons say it and are silenced, the heavenly voice says it twice, Peter gets near it and is rebuked within six verses. Then the curtain tears, from above, downward, and the confession comes out of the mouth of the executioner. We take that as the architecture of the passage: the barrier is removed from the far side, and the first result is a Gentile who can see. The darkness supports the same reading. Mark declines to explain it, and the commentators who try (Pulpit's Phlegon, Cambridge's atmospheric guess) are honest that they are guessing. What the text gives is a clock: darkness from the sixth hour, the cry at the ninth, which Cambridge identifies as the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb in the sanctuary and the man on the cross die at the same hour, and it is the sanctuary curtain that tears. We do not think Mark is arguing this; we think he is arranging it. And we notice what he does not resolve. The cry of Psalm 22:1 is left standing without a comforting gloss, and the loud voice of v. 37 is left without words. Geneva hears a conqueror there, Henry hears the sufferer at his lowest, and Mark supplies no adverb that would settle it. A reading that resolves that tension too quickly has probably stopped reading Mark. The line offered in the pull quote below is this tool's own sentence about the passage; it is not a verse of Scripture and should never be quoted as one.

The curtain tore downward, because nothing standing at the height of a man could have reached where that tear began.

⚙

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.

"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani": the Psalm quoted from the cross structural / thematic: confirmed

The cry of v. 34 is the first verse of Psalm 22, spoken in Aramaic, with Mark's own Greek translation attached (μεθερμηνευόμενον). Gill states it without hedging: both forms of the divine address "are both used in Psalm 22:1 , from whence the whole is taken." Cambridge says Jesus "gives utterance to the words of the first verse of the xxiind Psalm." Ellicott explains the difference between Mark's and Matthew's spelling as a difference between the Aramaic sound and the Hebrew text. This is the one explicit Old Testament citation in the unit. ⚙ The Pulpit Commentary goes further and supposes that the whole psalm was recited from the cross; that is stated there as general supposition, and we do not adopt it.

Psalm 22:1

basis: Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 verbatim in Aramaic and Mark translates it, so the quotation itself is not in doubt (Gill, Cambridge and Ellicott all name the source). The tier is nevertheless structural, not verbal, because the refs cross the Testaments: a Greek Gospel and a Hebrew Psalm share no Strong's lexemes, so the Verifier can compute no shared-lexeme basis for this pair and the house rule forbids a verbal tier on a mixed NT and OT thread.

The same Aramaic sentence in Matthew verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 27:46 records the identical cry at the identical hour. The Verifier's computed basis is unusually strong: σαβαχθάνι (G4518) occurs in only two verses of the whole Greek New Testament, and those two verses are this one and Matthew's. The hour word hōra and the rare ordinal ennatos (10 verses) are shared as well. Ellicott's whole comment is built on comparing the two forms.

Matthew 27:46

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4518 σαβαχθάνι (in 2 vv, effectively unique to this pair), G1766 ἔννατος (in 10 vv), G5610 ὥρα (in 99 vv). Both refs are New Testament, so a verbal tier is permitted; the rarity of σαβαχθάνι carries it.

The synoptic darkness: Matthew and Luke at the same hours structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 27:45 and Luke 23:44 report the same darkness over the same span. The Verifier records genuine shared vocabulary (skotos, hōra, gē, holos), but none of it is rare: σκότος stands in 29 verses, hōra in 99, holos in 97. ⚙ We therefore refuse the verbal tier here even though this is obviously a parallel account. Shared common nouns in a shared scene are evidence of a shared tradition, not of quotation.

Matthew 27:45 · Luke 23:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4655 σκότος (in 29 vv), G5610 ὥρα (in 99 vv), G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv), G3650 ὅλος (in 97 vv). All are common words; deliberately downgraded from verbal to structural because no rare lexeme and no citation formula supports a quotation claim.

Darkness at noon: the prophets' day of the LORD typological

Amos 8:9 announces a day when God will cause the sun to go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight; Joel 2:2 calls the day of the LORD a day of darkness and gloom; Exodus 10:21 to 23 sets a three-day darkness over Egypt that could be felt while the Israelites had light. ⚙ Mark makes no citation and uses no fulfilment formula. We read the correspondence as figural and widely recognized rather than as a quotation, and the three prophetic texts stand behind the scene at different distances: Amos matches the detail of the hour most closely, Exodus supplies the pattern of judgment darkness, Joel the eschatological register.

Amos 8:9 · Joel 2:2 · Exodus 10:22

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek Gospel to Hebrew prophets), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal tier is available. The link is figural: darkness at midday as the sign of the day of judgment. Ancient and widely held as a reading; Mark himself supplies no citation, which is why this is tiered typological rather than confirmed quotation.

The sponge, the sour wine and the reed across the Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 27:48 and John 19:29 describe the same act with the same rare equipment. σπόγγος (G4699), a sponge, occurs in three verses of the New Testament and all three are this moment. ὄξος (G3690), the soldiers' sour wine, occurs in five. Cambridge identifies the liquid as posca and Pulpit insists it is not the stupefying drink offered to the condemned. John adds the detail of hyssop, which Gill and Pulpit both take to be the stalk Mark calls a reed.

Matthew 27:48 · John 19:29

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4699 σπόγγος (in 3 vv), G3690 ὄξος (in 5 vv), G4060 περιτίθημι (in 8 vv), G2563 κάλαμος (in 12 vv), G5143 τρέχω (in 17 vv). All refs are New Testament. σπόγγος at three verses is effectively unique to this scene, which carries the verbal tier.

"For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" structural / thematic: confirmed

Gill states the connection directly at this verse: they gave him to drink, "and so fulfilled a prophecy in Psalm 69:21 ." Psalm 69 is among the psalms most often read messianically in the New Testament. ⚙ Mark himself writes no fulfilment formula here; John does at the parallel moment. We record Gill's identification as a reading of the event, and tier it accordingly.

Psalm 69:21

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and a verbal tier is excluded. The shared element is the concrete motif of sour drink offered to a sufferer, named as a fulfilment by Gill at this verse. Mark supplies no citation formula, so the basis is the motif plus the commentator's identification, not a quotation in the text.

The torn veil in Luke verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke 23:45 reports the same event with the same two uncommon words: σχίζω (G4977, to split) and καταπέτασμα (G2665, the inner veil), together with naos for the sanctuary proper rather than the temple precinct. Luke places the tearing before the death, Mark after it; the vocabulary is nonetheless shared and distinctive.

Luke 23:45

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2665 καταπέτασμα (in 6 vv), G4977 σχίζω (in 9 vv), G3485 ναός (in 39 vv). Both refs are New Testament. Two uncommon, technically specific lexemes in one clause support the verbal tier; note honestly that the two accounts differ on the sequence relative to the death.

The curtain that was always meant to be a barrier typological

The καταπέτασμα is not a decoration. Exodus 26:31 to 33 commissions the veil of blue, purple and scarlet, worked with cherubim, and says exactly what it is for: it shall divide for you between the holy place and the most holy. Exodus 36:35 records its making; Leviticus 16:2 warns Aaron not to come at any time behind it, on pain of death. Cambridge sends the reader to Hebrews 9:3 and Hebrews 10:19 "for the full symbolism of this," and Pulpit identifies the torn veil as the inner one specifically. Henry names the consequence: a new and living way into the holiest.

Exodus 26:33 · Leviticus 16:2 · Hebrews 10:19

basis: Refs mix Old and New Testament, so no verbal tier is available and no shared Strong's lexeme is computable between the Hebrew and Greek members. The link is figural and institutional: the object Mark names is the object Exodus commissions and Leviticus guards, and Hebrews 10:19 to 20 reads the curtain as the flesh of Christ. Widely held from the patristic period onward; Cambridge names Hebrews as the key, so the reading is not ours alone.

The same women, the same names, three scenes running verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark names Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome at the cross (15:40); Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joses at the burial (15:47); and Mary Magdalene, Mary of James and Salome at the tomb (16:1). The Verifier finds the link in the names themselves, and two of them are among the rarest words in the New Testament: Σαλώμη stands in two verses and Ἰωσῆς in three. ⚙ This is not a thematic echo but a deliberate roster, repeated with small variations across the three scenes Mark's ending depends on.

Mark 15:47 · Mark 16:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4539 Σαλώμη (in 2 vv), G2500 Ἰωσῆς (in 3 vv), G3094 Μαγδαληνή (in 12 vv), G2385 Ἰάκωβος (in 38 vv), G2334 θεωρέω (in 56 vv). All refs are within Mark. Two lexemes of extreme rarity plus the repeated watching verb make this a verbal link in the strict sense.

"Those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem" verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 15:41 describes the women as συναναβᾶσαι, having gone up together with him to Jerusalem. The verb synanabainō occurs in exactly two verses of the New Testament. The other is Acts 13:31, where Paul tells the synagogue at Antioch that Jesus appeared for many days to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and that these are now his witnesses to the people. Both verses also carry Γαλιλαία. ⚙ The verbal coincidence is exact and, as far as we can see, unremarked by the commentators in this brief; we offer it as a real lexical observation, not as proof that Luke had Mark's sentence in view.

Acts 13:31

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4872 συναναβαίνω (in 2 vv, so this pair exhausts its New Testament occurrences) and G1056 Γαλιλαία (in 60 vv). Both refs are New Testament. The verbal tier rests on the near-unique compound verb and the shared Galilee-to-Jerusalem itinerary; it is a lexical link, and we make no claim about literary dependence.

Which Mary? James and Joses in Mark 6:3 flagged: verify source

Mark 6:3 names the brothers of Jesus as James, Joses, Judas and Simon, and Mark 15:40 names a Mary who is the mother of James the little and of Joses. The shared names are real and the rarity of Ἰωσῆς (three verses) is real. The identification is not. Cambridge states flatly that this Mary is "Mary of Clopas" of John 19:25, sister of the Blessed Virgin; Pulpit follows him; Gill treats "the little" simply as a common Jewish way of distinguishing two men named James and offers rabbinic parallels; Cambridge himself lists three incompatible explanations of the epithet. ⚙ We record the lexical overlap and refuse the identification.

Mark 6:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2500 Ἰωσῆς (in 3 vv), G2385 Ἰάκωβος (in 38 vv), G5207 υἱός (in 344 vv). The lexical basis is genuine, but the inference commonly drawn from it, that the Mary of 15:40 is to be identified with a particular named woman elsewhere, is contested among the very commentators in this brief and is not stated by Mark. Flagged so the reader checks the identification rather than inheriting it.

"My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague" structural / thematic: confirmed

Psalm 38:11 describes those who love the sufferer standing off at a distance while his kinsmen stand far away. Mark's phrase is ἀπὸ μακρόθεν, a doubled "from afar," applied to the women. ⚙ The correspondence is a matter of posture, not of wording, and the pressure runs both ways: for the psalmist the distance is abandonment, while Pulpit argues that these women "came as near as they could" and were kept back by the soldiers. We offer the echo at low confidence and let the tension stand.

Psalm 38:11

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal tier is possible. The shared element is the pattern of the sufferer's own people watching from a distance. No commentator in this brief draws the link, and the sense of the distance differs between the two texts, so the claim is limited to the pattern.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The forsaken Son: the cry that is not abandoned faith ancient/widely-held

The grammar of v. 34 holds two things at once and neither commentator in this brief lets go of either. ἐγκατέλιπές is a real aorist: something was actually done. And Ὁ Θεός μου is a real possessive, said twice. Benson takes exactly that double grip: in these words "Jesus claims God as his God," while lamenting his Father's withdrawing the tokens of his love, "while he bare our sins." Henry makes the object of the complaint precise: not that the disciples fled, but that the Father forsook him, and "In this especially he was made sin for us." Geneva describes the same moment as a battle with Satan, sin and death "all three armed with the horrible curse of God." Barnes, commenting on the character of the death, insists on the distinction that keeps the doctrine honest: it does not mean "that God regarded him as a sinner," but that he died "the 'just' for the 'unjust'." ⚙ Mark does not explain the cry and does not soften it. What he does is keep the Aramaic and translate it, as if to say that the reader must hear the sound before receiving the meaning.

Psalm 22:1 · Isaiah 53:12 · 2 Corinthians 5:21

The veil torn from above: the way into the holiest ancient/widely-held

Exodus commissioned the curtain precisely as a divider between the holy and the most holy (Exodus 26:33) and Leviticus made going behind it a capital matter except on one day a year (Leviticus 16:2). Mark reports it split, passively, agentless, ἀπ’ ἄνωθεν, from above. Cambridge refers the symbolism to Hebrews 9:3 and Hebrews 10:19. Pulpit spells out both consequences he sees in it, that the ceremonial dispensation is unfolded and the middle wall of partition broken down so that Gentiles also may draw near, and that "the way to heaven was laid open by our Lord's death." Henry says the same in the register of comfort: it signified "the laying open a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Hebrews 10:19 to 20 makes the identification the commentators are leaning on, that the new and living way is opened through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. ⚙ The direction of the tear is the whole argument: from above, downward, at the hour of the evening sacrifice, and no hand is named.

Hebrews 10:19 · Hebrews 9:3 · Exodus 26:33 · Leviticus 16:2

The centurion's verdict: the title Mark's first line claimed novel

Mark opens his book "the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1), and then withholds that confession from every human mouth for fifteen chapters. The voice from heaven says it at the baptism and the transfiguration; unclean spirits say it and are silenced; Peter reaches the edge of it and is rebuked. The first human being in this Gospel to say it, and to say it as a verdict, is a Roman officer who has just watched the man die, and Mark gives him the adverb Ἀληθῶς, truly. Cambridge draws out the significance without the literary frame, placing him with the centurion of Matthew 8 and Cornelius of Acts 10 as "a triumvirate of believing Gentile soldiers," and saying that in the manner of that death "All that he had dimly believed of heroes and demigods is transfigured." Benson traces the confession to the strength of the voice and the confidence in God at the moment of expiring. Gill notes that the same confession came from the soldiers with him. ⚙ The reading that the centurion's line answers Mark 1:1 as the closing bracket of the book is a literary observation, ours and many modern readers', not a claim any commentator in this brief makes. The confession's christological weight is ancient; the bracket is the part we mark as novel.

Mark 1:1 · Mark 1:11 · Mark 9:7 · Acts 10:1-2

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)
  • 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. Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible; the interlinear, parsing and Strong's numbers are the Berean data supplied in the brief. Two textual points inside this unit are worth the reader's attention. At v. 39 Pulpit records that the words "so cried out" are absent from the manuscripts he regards as most important; the Berean text used here retains them, so the reader is seeing a reading that is not universally attested. At v. 34 the Aramaic is transliterated, and Mark's spelling differs from Matthew's; Ellicott explains the difference as Aramaic sound against Hebrew text, while Gill calls both forms Hebrew. We have not adjudicated that.

Sources. Ten commentators are present in the brief and nine are quoted here: Benson, Henry, Barnes, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge, Pulpit and Ellicott. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown are present but supply only section headings for this passage, pointing the reader to their notes on John 19 and Matthew 27; there is no Markan comment of theirs to quote, and we have not manufactured one. Poole likewise writes no independent exposition here and says so, which is why we quote his deferral rather than a comment he did not make. Barnes' block as supplied is a note on "numbered with the transgressors" (Mark 15:28, Isaiah 53:12) repeated by the source under every verse of this unit; we quote it once, at v. 37, and label it.

Transmission defects in the source text. At v. 39 the Cambridge entry reads "a (or the ) Song of Solomon of God." This is almost certainly an automated Scripture-reference substitution in the digitized source, replacing the word "Son" with a book name; Cambridge's own sentence will have read "Son of God." We have not quoted the corrupted clause. At v. 36 Pulpit's text reads "posen" where Cambridge, describing the same drink, gives "posca"; we quote Pulpit as transmitted and flag the discrepancy. Pulpit's citation "John 21:28" in that same note appears to be an error for John 19:28.

What is uncertain. The cause and extent of the darkness are not stated by Mark and are not settled by the commentators: Cambridge concedes that explanation is impossible, Pulpit's supporting testimonies (Phlegon of Tralles by way of Eusebius, a saying attributed to Dionysius at Heliopolis, remarks of Cyprian and Chrysostom) are secondhand and disputed, and Geneva restricts the darkness to Palestine while Gill records an Ethiopic reading of the whole world. The identity of "Mary the mother of James the little and of Joses" is contested; we have flagged the thread accordingly. The sequence of the veil's tearing relative to the death differs between Mark and Luke. Pulpit's supposition that the whole of Psalm 22 was recited from the cross is presented in that source as supposition and is not adopted here.

What is machine synthesis. Every literal rendering, divergence, word note marked ⚙, the sola reading, the pull quote and all thread bases and tiers are this tool's own fallible work, built on the brief's sourced data. Where a claim is ours and not a commentator's, we have tried to say so in the sentence itself. The link between the split heavens of Mark 1:10 and the split veil of 15:38, the observation about aphete and apheis across vv. 36 and 37, the Acts 13:31 lexical thread, and the reading of the centurion's confession as the closing bracket of Mark 1:1 are all ours; none is asserted by a commentator in this brief.

✦ = 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)