The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark15:42–47

The Burial of Jesus

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Mark 15:42–47 — The Burial 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.

42

Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath),

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai genomenēs ēdē opsias epei ēn Paraskeuē ho estin prosabbaton

Word by word10 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiNowG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γενομένηςgenomenēsit wasG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle MiddleGenitive Feminine Singular
ginomai: to come to be, to be generated An aorist participle in a genitive absolute, the standard Greek way of setting a scene under time pressure without making a claim about it. The grammar refuses to give the reader a finished sentence, and so v. 42 functions as a countdown rather than a statement: everything in the burial has to happen inside the shrinking space this clause opens.
ἤδηēdēalreadyG2235
√ ἤδη — even nowAdverb
Adverb, "already." Small, but Mark uses ἤδη twice in this unit, here of the hour and in v. 44 of the death, and both times it means the same thing: sooner than expected.
ὀψίαςopsiaseveningG3798
√ ὄψιος — lateAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐπεὶepeiSinceG1893
√ ἐπεί — thereupon, iConjunction
ἦνēnit wasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΠαρασκευήParaskeuēPreparation DayG3904
√ παρασκευή — readinessNounNominative Feminine Singular
paraskeuē: readiness, preparation The technical name for Friday, the day on which everything for the Sabbath had to be made ready. Barnes notes the coming Sabbath was a day of special solemnity, and Gill reads the term of both the passover and the Sabbath. It is the hinge of the whole unit: the legal reason a body cannot be left hanging, and the reason the women in v. 47 mark the tomb rather than open it.
ὅho(thatG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
προσάββατονprosabbaton[the day] before the Sabbath )G4315
√ προσάββατον — a fore-sabbath, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
prosabbaton: fore-Sabbath, the day before the Sabbath Mark's own explanatory gloss, in the same habit Ellicott traces to Mark 7:2-3: he stops and translates a Jewish custom for outsiders. The gloss quietly tells us the burial is governed not by grief but by law and by sundown.
43

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent Council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Iōsēph ho apo Harimathaias euschēmōn bouleutēs hos autos kai ēn prosdechomenos tēn basileian tou Theou tolmēsas elthōn eisēlthen pros ton Pilaton kai ētēsato to sōma tou Iēsou

Word by word27 · parsed
ἸωσὴφIōsēphJosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀπὸapoofG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἉριμαθαίαςHarimathaiasArimatheaG707
√ Ἀριμαθαία — Arimathæa (or Ramah), a place in PalestineNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Harimathaia: Arimathea, a place in Palestine A rare name, four verses in all. Cambridge weighs Rama in Benjamin against Ramathaim in Ephraim and prefers the latter; the Pulpit Commentary follows Jerome to Ramathaim-Zophim, the town of Elkanah, Hannah and the birth of Samuel. Neither identification is certain, and Mark tells us only that Joseph came from there and had a tomb here.
εὐσχήμωνeuschēmōn[a] prominentG2158
√ εὐσχήμων — well-formed, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
euschēmōn: well-formed, of honourable bearing The adjective is about how a man appears and stands in public. That is the pressure point of the verse: a man whose whole standing is public is about to spend it. Cambridge cites Geikie that burial duty alone would defile him seven days (Numbers 19:11; Haggai 2:13) and shut him out of the entire Passover week.
βουλευτήςbouleutēsCouncil memberG1010
√ βουλευτής — an adviser, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
bouleutēs: an adviser, a councillor Rare (two verses; the other is Luke 23:50, where the same man is named). Cambridge gathers the Gospel data: wealthy (Matthew 27:57), of the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:50), a secret disciple (John 19:38) who had not consented to the council's resolution (Luke 23:51). Mark gives none of that; he gives the office, and lets the office do the work.
ὃςhoswhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
αὐτὸςautoshimselfG846
√ 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 PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
προσδεχόμενοςprosdechomenoswaiting forG4327
√ προσδέχομαι — to admit (to intercourse, hospitality, credence, or (figuratively) endurance)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
prosdechomai: to admit, to receive, to look for A present participle with the imperfect ἦν: he was, and kept on being, one who welcomed the kingdom. The verb is not neutral waiting but glad reception, the same posture Cambridge finds in Simeon and Anna. Benson draws the edge: those who wait for the kingdom must show it by owning Christ's cause when it seems run down and crushed, which is precisely what the next participle costs.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
τολμήσαςtolmēsasboldlyG5111
√ τολμάω — probably itself from the base of G5056 (τέλος) through the idea of extreme conduct)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
tolmaō: to dare, to venture boldly Aorist participle, a completed act of nerve standing before the two verbs of motion. Mark stacks three participial or finite acts in a row (dared, came, went in), so the reader watches courage convert into footsteps. Barnes reads the whole sequence as the moment a secret disciple is forced into public profession.
ἐλθὼνelthōnwentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἰσῆλθενeisēlthen. . .G1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΠιλᾶτονPilatonPilateG4091
√ Πιλᾶτος — close-pressed, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ᾐτήσατοētēsatoto ask forG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
aiteō: to ask, to request Aorist middle: he asked it for himself. Cambridge records what the request was up against: Roman practice left the crucified to rot on the cross or be taken by beasts, and only an express exception in favour of Jewish law made the asking possible at all.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
σῶμαsōmabodyG4983
√ σῶμα — the body (as a sound whole), used in a very wide application, literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Neuter Singular
sōma: the body, as a sound whole Joseph's word for what he asks. Hold it against Pilate's word in v. 45, πτῶμα, the fallen thing. Faith asks for a body; the governor's office releases a corpse. Mark does not comment; he simply lets the two nouns stand twenty words apart.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouof JesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
44

Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, so he summoned the centurion to ask if this was so.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Pilatos ethaumasen ei ēdē tethnēken kai proskalesamenos ton kentyriōna epērōtēsen auton ei apethanen palai

Word by word16 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠιλᾶτοςPilatosPilateG4091
√ Πιλᾶτος — close-pressed, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐθαύμασενethaumasenwas surprised [to hear]G2296
√ θαυμάζω — to wonderVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
thaumazō: to wonder, to marvel Pilate's wonder is the unintended witness of the state. Barnes and Cambridge both note that death by crucifixion normally took days, Cambridge putting thirty-six hours as the earliest reported. The governor's disbelief, recorded only by Mark, is therefore worth more to the church than any friendly testimony would have been.
εἰeithatG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ἤδηēdēvvvG2235
√ ἤδη — even nowAdverb
τέθνηκενtethnēken[Jesus] was already deadG2348
√ θνήσκω — to die (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
thnēskō: to die Perfect indicative: the state of being dead, already entered and still holding. Greek has a plain aorist available (it appears eleven words later), so the perfect is chosen. Mark builds his case out of grammar: a settled condition, not an event that might yet be reversed.
καὶkaisoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσκαλεσάμενοςproskalesamenoshe summonedG4341
√ προσκαλέομαι — to call toward oneself, iVerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
proskaleomai: to call toward oneself Aorist middle participle. Pilate summons rather than sends word, which is what a magistrate does when he intends to take a deposition. This is the procedural core of the verse.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
κεντυρίωναkentyriōnacenturionG2760
√ κεντυρίων — a centurion, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
kentyriōn: a centurion Ellicott notes the article: the centurion, the same officer who at Mark 15:39 said that this man was the Son of God. The one man in the narrative who has confessed him is the one man Rome trusts to certify that he is dead. Mark lets the two functions sit in a single soldier and says nothing.
ἐπηρώτησενepērōtēsento askG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτὸνautonG846
√ 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
εἰeiifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ἀπέθανενapethanen[this was so]G599
√ ἀποθνήσκω — to die off (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apothnēskō: to die off Aorist, paired with πάλαι. The question is not whether but when, and how long since. Benson and Henry both read the whole exchange as special providence, arranged so that no one could later claim Jesus went into the tomb alive; Benson adds that the objection was in fact never raised.
πάλαιpalai. . .G3819
√ πάλαι — (adverbially) formerly, or (by relatively) sometime sinceAdverb
Adverb, "long ago, some while since." Untranslated in BSB. It carries the evidentiary weight of the sentence.
45

When Pilate had confirmed it with the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai gnous apo tou kentyriōnos edōrēsato to ptōma tō Iōsēph

Word by word10 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γνοὺςgnousWhen [Pilate] had confirmed [it]G1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ginōskō: to know, to ascertain Aorist participle of coming to knowledge, placed before the verb of release: the grant follows the finding of fact, in that order. Gill lists what the officer could report (the loud cry, the spear thrust, the blood and water) and concludes there was no room to doubt. Whatever Pilate intended, Roman procedure here produced the church's first death certificate.
ἀπὸapowithG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
κεντυρίωνοςkentyriōnoscenturionG2760
√ κεντυρίων — a centurion, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐδωρήσατοedōrēsatohe grantedG1433
√ δωρέομαι — to bestow gratuitouslyVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
dōreomai: to bestow gratuitously, to give freely Rare, three verses. Its only other New Testament home, per the Verifier, is 2 Peter 1:3-4, where the subject is divine power giving all things that pertain to life and godliness. The same verb that Peter uses of God's free gift is used here of a procurator handing over a corpse. Cambridge presses the point that no bribe passed; the deeper irony, that the one thing Rome ever gave away for nothing was the body of Christ, Mark leaves for the reader.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πτῶμαptōmabodyG4430
√ πτῶμα — a ruin, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ptōma: a ruin, a fallen thing, a corpse The blunt word. Joseph asked for τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ (v. 43); the release order reads τὸ πτῶμα. It is the state's whole estimate of the case in one noun, and it is the same noun Mark used of John the Baptist's remains at Mark 6:29, the only other Markan burial in the Gospel.
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸωσήφIōsēphto JosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounDative Masculine Singular
Dative: to Joseph. The transfer is to a named private person, not to the Sanhedrin that condemned him and not to the family. Mark's legal chain of custody is complete and it runs through one man.
46

So Joseph bought a linen cloth, took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in the cloth, and placed it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai agorasas sindona kathelōn auton eneilēsen tē sindoni kai ethēken auton en mnēmeiō ho ēn lelatomēmenon ek petras kai prosekylisen lithon epi tēn thyran tou mnēmeiou

Word by word26 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀγοράσαςagorasas[Joseph] boughtG59
√ ἀγοράζω — properly, to go to market, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
agorazō: to go to market, to buy Aorist participle. Ellicott notes that only Mark records the purchase. It dates the scene and it costs money: this is a man spending, on a Friday afternoon with the shops about to close, on a body the state has just written off as πτῶμα.
σινδόναsindonaa linen clothG4616
√ σινδών — byssos, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
sindōn: fine linen, byssos Five verses in the New Testament. Cambridge adds from John 19:39 that Nicodemus met Joseph at Golgotha with a hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes, so that the linen was sprinkled and wound; Mark himself says only linen, and the extra detail is John's, not his.
καθελὼνkathelōntook downG2507
√ καθαιρέω — to lower (or with violence) demolish (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
kathaireō: to lower, to take down The Pulpit Commentary reads the participle as meaning Joseph himself took the body down; Gill insists it was done with help and not by him alone. The verb decides neither. It is the same word the Verifier finds shared with Luke 23:53.
αὐτὸνauton[the body of 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
ἐνείλησενeneilēsenwrapped [it] inG1750
√ ἐνειλέω — to enwrapVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eneileō: to enwrap Aorist indicative, the first finite verb in the chain of participles: bought, took down, wrapped. Grammatically the wrapping is where Mark lets the sentence land, and the honour of the act rests there. Benson reads it as wrapping a treasure of great worth.
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
σινδόνιsindoniclothG4616
√ σινδών — byssos, iNounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔθηκενethēkenplacedG5087
√ τίθημι — to place (in the widest application, literally and figurativelyVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
tithēmi: to place, to lay Aorist: he laid him. In v. 47 the same root returns as a perfect passive, τέθειται, and the shift from what Joseph did to where the body now lies is the seam between the two verses.
αὐτὸνauton[it]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
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
μνημείῳmnēmeiōa tombG3419
√ μνημεῖον — a remembrance, iNounDative Neuter Singular
ὃhothatG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἦνēnhad beenG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λελατομημένονlelatomēmenoncutG2998
√ λατομέω — to quarryVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
latomeō: to quarry stone Perfect passive participle, rare (two verses). The tomb is not a hole but cut work, finished before it was needed. Cambridge says Joseph had hewn it in his own garden hard by Golgotha and probably meant to be buried there himself, which would make the grave the one possession he gives away on the day he gives away his standing.
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
πέτραςpetras[the] rockG4073
√ πέτρα — a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσεκύλισενprosekylisenhe rolledG4351
√ προσκυλίω — to roll towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
proskyliō: to roll toward Rare (two verses; the other is Matthew 27:60). Mark ends the burial with a man alone rolling a large stone uphill against a door. The verb is a closing, and it is the last human act in the Gospel before the women come and find the same stone rolled back.
λίθονlithona stoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
lithos: a stone Undefined here in size; Cambridge supplies "of large size" from Matthew 27:60. Mark simply says a stone, and lets it be the full weight of the ending.
ἐπὶepiagainstG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θύρανthyranentranceG2374
√ θύρα — a portal or entrance (the opening or the closure, literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
μνημείουmnēmeioutombG3419
√ μνημεῖον — a remembrance, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
47

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where His body was placed.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hē Maria hē Magdalēnē kai Maria hē Iōsētos etheōroun pou tetheitai

Word by word12 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
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
Magdalēnē: of Magdala Mark names her first here as he did at Mark 15:40. The Verifier records Mark 15:40 as a candidate sharing Μαρία, θεωρέω and Ἰωσῆς: the same women, the same verb of watching, at the cross and now at the tomb. Mark's witness list does not change between the death and the burial, and it will not change at the empty tomb.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΜαρίαMariaMaryG3137
√ Μαρία — Maria or Mariam (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhēthe [mother]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἸωσῆτοςIōsētosof JosephG2500
√ Ἰωσῆς — Joses, the name of two IsraelitesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iōsēs: Joses Rare (three verses). At Mark 6:3 the name belongs to a brother of Jesus in the Nazareth list; here it identifies a woman by her son. Mark expects his readers to know which Mary he means from the men in her family, which is itself a mark of how early and how local this tradition is.
ἐθεώρουνetheōrounsawG2334
√ θεωρέω — to be a spectator of, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
theōreō: to be a spectator of, to observe Imperfect, durative: they kept watching. Barnes sets it against the flight of the disciples, and Benson explains the purpose, that they meant to return and embalm once the Sabbath ended. Whatever their intention, the effect is evidential: two named women hold the location in view until the stone is shut.
ποῦpouwhereG4225
√ πού — as adverb of place, somewhere, iAdverb
τέθειταιtetheitai[His body] was placedG5087
√ τίθημι — to place (in the widest application, literally and figurativelyVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
tithēmi: to place, to lay Perfect middle or passive, and the last word of the unit. The Gospel's account of the burial ends not with a verb of action but with a state: he has been laid, and there he lies. Henry sees the reason for the whole paragraph in it, that special notice was taken of the sepulchre because he was to rise again.

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. A sentence that will not finish until someone moves — 15:42

⚙ Mark opens the burial with a genitive absolute, γενομένης ἤδη ὀψίας, and then refuses to give the reader a main verb. Grammatically nothing has happened yet; the clause simply hangs, and it keeps hanging through the naming of the day until εἰσῆλθεν lands in v. 43. The effect is a clock. The Pulpit Commentary supplies the dial: the evening began at three, the Sabbath at six, and "Our Lord must be buried before six o'clock." Benson, reasoning from Jewish usage, argues for the earlier of the two evenings and draws the legal consequence, that the bodies must not be left hanging into the Sabbath, so they were in haste. Barnes adds why the day had a name at all: food and everything else had to be readied in advance. Ellicott and Cambridge both notice that Mark stops to translate προσάββατον for readers who do not keep the calendar, the same habit Ellicott traces to Mark 7:2-3. So the first thing the text tells us about the burial of Jesus is that it is running out of time, and the second is that the man writing it does not assume his reader is a Jew.

ii. The councillor who spent his standing — 15:43

⚙ Every word Mark chooses for Joseph is a word about public position. εὐσχήμων is literally well-formed, a man of good bearing; βουλευτής is a man of the council, a title the Verifier finds in only two verses in the New Testament, here and Luke 23:50. Then comes τολμήσας, an aorist participle, not an adverb: he dared, and then he came, and then he went in. Ellicott hears in it an implied contrast between his boldness now and his previous timidity; the Pulpit Commentary renders it "he took courage and went in." Cambridge is the sharpest: "He is no longer a secret disciple. He casts away all fear. The Cross transfigures cowards into heroes." The commentators do not agree on everything. Gill reads euschēmōn almost socially, of a man of good aspect and well dressed in his office; Barnes denies it is a title at all and makes it a verdict on his character. Geneva measures the act by its exposure, that if we consider the danger Joseph put himself into we shall perceive how bold he was, and the Pulpit Commentary quotes Chrysostom to the same end. Cambridge, citing Geikie, adds the cost nobody mentions: touching a corpse would defile him seven days (Numbers 19:11; Haggai 2:13) and shut him out of the whole Passover week. And the thing he asks for, in the middle voice, for himself, is τὸ σῶμα, the body.

iii. Rome certifies the death — 15:44-45

⚙ These two verses are Mark's alone. Ellicott states it: Pilate's wonder and his calling the centurion are peculiar to St. Mark, and the article in the centurion points back to the officer of Mark 15:39, the man who said this was the Son of God. Watch the tenses. Pilate marvels εἰ ἤδη τέθνηκεν, a perfect: is he already dead and dead now? Then he asks the soldier an aorist with πάλαι: did he die some while ago? The Pulpit Commentary translates it literally, "if he died some time ago." Barnes and Cambridge both explain the surprise: crucifixion normally killed over days, and Cambridge reports thirty-six hours as the earliest period alleged. Gill lists the evidence the officer could give, the loud cry, the unbroken legs, the spear and the blood and water, and concludes there was no room to doubt. Benson and Henry read the strictness as providence, arranged so that there might be no pretence for saying Jesus was taken down alive, and Benson notes that the objection was in fact never raised. Then the release: ἐδωρήσατο, not a bare granting but, as the lexicon has it, to bestow gratuitously. Cambridge observes that the word occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only at 2 Peter 1:3-4, of God's free giving, and argues Mark chose it because the procurator took no money. And what he bestows, in the governor's own vocabulary, is not σῶμα but πτῶμα, the fallen thing, which the Pulpit Commentary keeps in its rendering: he granted the corpse to Joseph.

iv. Linen, quarried rock, a rolled stone, and two women who did not leave — 15:46-47

⚙ The sentence in v. 46 runs on participles and finite verbs like a man working against sundown: bought, took down, wrapped, placed, rolled. Ellicott notes that the purchase of the σινδών just before the Sabbath is peculiar to Mark. Gill will not let Joseph do it alone, "though, no doubt, with the assistance of others"; Cambridge brings in Nicodemus and the hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes from John 19:39, and the new tomb and garden from John 19:41 and Matthew 27:60, which is harmonisation and should be read as such. Mark's own two words for the tomb are the ones that matter: λελατομημένον, a perfect passive from the stoneworker's verb to quarry, so that the grave stands finished and prepared before it is needed, and προσεκύλισεν, he rolled toward, a verb the Verifier finds in only two verses. The last human act in the burial is a man closing a door with a stone. Then the camera does not cut. ἐθεώρουν is imperfect, they kept watching; Benson glosses it as careful observation, since they meant to return and embalm once the Sabbath was past, and the Pulpit Commentary leaves them there in sad and silent contemplation after the body had been deposited. Barnes contrasts them with the men: the strong, the mighty and the youthful had fled, but female love never forsook him. Gill draws the evidential line, that these same women were witnesses of his death, his burial, and afterwards of his resurrection. And the unit's last word is a perfect, τέθειται: not what was done to him, but where he now lies. Henry finds the reason for the whole paragraph in it, that special notice was taken of Christ's sepulchre because he was to rise again.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Mark tells the burial as a chain of custody. A named man of a named council asks, in the middle voice, for τὸ σῶμα; a Roman governor, astonished, refuses to release anything until he has taken a deposition from the officer on duty; the officer answers; the release is entered in the state's own vocabulary as τὸ πτῶμα, a corpse; a private citizen buys cloth, takes the body down, wraps it, lays it in a quarried chamber, and seals the door; and two women, named and named again from the cross in Mark 15:40, keep watching until they know the address. Every link is documented, and every link is documented by someone who had no reason to help the church: a member of the condemning council, an occupying magistrate, a centurion of the execution detail. Mark, who tells everything at a run, slows here and spends six verses on paperwork. The reason is not sentiment. Under the law of Deuteronomy 21:22-23 the body could not stay on the tree past sundown, and under the Sabbath law nothing more could be done after six; the haste was forced. What the haste produced was a death that Rome had to certify and a grave that two witnesses could find again. ⚙ So the honest reading of this paragraph is that it is not an epilogue to the crucifixion but the foundation of the resurrection account, laid in advance and laid by unbelievers. Mark is not asking us to grieve at the tomb. He is establishing, in the driest terms available to him, that the man was really dead, that someone with a name took the body, and that somebody knew exactly where it was. The stone in v. 46 is rolled by a man who had no expectation it would ever move. That is precisely why his testimony is worth having.

The state's own paperwork became the church's first evidence. (This line is 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.

The quarried tomb and the rolled stone: Matthew and Luke on the same two rare verbs verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Mark's burial shares with Matthew 27:60 two words that occur almost nowhere else: λατομέω, the stoneworker's verb to quarry, and προσκυλίω, to roll toward. The Verifier finds each in two verses only in the whole New Testament, and both of those verses are this burial told twice. Luke 23:53 joins at a second point with σινδών and καθαιρέω. Cambridge and Gill both cross-reference Matthew 27:59-60 for the same acts. The overlap is not a theme but shared vocabulary at the rarest end of the lexicon, which is what a common tradition, oral or written, looks like from inside the Greek.

Matthew 27:60 · Luke 23:53

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2998 λατομέω (in 2 vv) and G4351 προσκυλίω (in 2 vv) with Matthew 27:60, both at the rarest end of the New Testament lexicon; G4616 σινδών (in 5 vv) and G2507 καθαιρέω (in 9 vv) with Luke 23:53. Greek to Greek, all within the New Testament, so a verbal tier is available; this is shared tradition, not one text quoting another.

The only two councillors in the New Testament are the same man verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ βουλευτής occurs in two verses, Mark 15:43 and Luke 23:50, and in both it is Joseph of Arimathea. Ἀριμαθαία occurs in four, all of them this burial. Luke 23:51 supplies the same participle Mark uses, προσδεχόμενος, of waiting for the kingdom of God, and adds that he had not consented to the council's decision; John 19:38 adds that he was a disciple secretly, for fear of the Jews; Matthew 27:57 adds that he was rich. Cambridge assembles exactly this dossier, and Barnes argues from John 19:38 that Joseph's waiting was not the general Jewish expectation but a settled belief that this man was the Messiah. Mark himself says none of it. He gives the office, the hope, and the nerve.

Luke 23:50 · Luke 23:51 · John 19:38 · Matthew 27:57

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1010 βουλευτής (in 2 vv, the other being Luke 23:50), G707 Ἀριμαθαία (in 4 vv, all of this burial), G4327 προσδέχομαι (in 14 vv, shared with Luke 23:51), G2501 Ἰωσήφ (in 35 vv). All New Testament to New Testament; a verbal link within one tradition, not a citation.

The centurion who confessed him is the centurion who certified him verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ κεντυρίων, the Latin loanword, appears in three verses and all three are Mark: 15:39, 15:44 and 15:45. At 15:39 the officer says that this man was the Son of God; at 15:44 Pilate summons him, and at 15:45 the release follows his answer. Ellicott notes that the article in Mark 15:44 points to the same man as Mark 15:39. ⚙ Mark does not comment, and neither will we beyond this: the only confession of divine sonship by a human being in this Gospel's passion comes from the mouth of the witness whose deposition made the burial legal.

Mark 15:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2760 κεντυρίων (in 3 vv, all in Mark 15) linking this unit to Mark 15:39; the definite article is Ellicott's separate, textual ground for identifying the same officer. Greek to Greek within a single chapter.

The verb Peter uses of God's free giving verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ δωρέομαι, to bestow gratuitously, occurs in three verses in the New Testament: here, and 2 Peter 1:3-4, where the subject is divine power granting all things that pertain to life and godliness and the exceeding great and precious promises. Cambridge makes exactly this observation and argues the choice is deliberate, of a governor who might have been expected to extort money from a wealthy councillor and instead handed the body over freely. ⚙ We would add only the irony, which no commentator in this brief draws: the one transaction Rome ever conducted as pure gift was the surrender of the corpse of Christ.

2 Peter 1:3 · 2 Peter 1:4

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1433 δωρέομαι (in 3 vv), a rare verb whose only other New Testament occurrences are 2 Peter 1:3-4. New Testament to New Testament, so a verbal tier is available. The lexical link is certain; the theological irony drawn in the last sentence is this tool's, not the Verifier's and not Cambridge's.

The other body Mark buries structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Mark has told one other burial in this Gospel. At Mark 6:29 the disciples of John came, took up his πτῶμα, and laid it (ἔθηκαν) in a tomb (μνημεῖον). Here the same three words return: the release order names a πτῶμα, Joseph laid him (ἔθηκεν) in a μνημεῖον. In both cases a ruler released what he had killed, and the men who carried it away buried it expecting nothing further. ⚙ No commentator in this brief draws the parallel; it is a pattern in Mark's own vocabulary, and we offer it as such.

Mark 6:29

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4430 πτῶμα (in 6 vv), G3419 μνημεῖον (in 36 vv), G5087 τίθημι (in 96 vv). The lexical overlap is real and Markan, but the connection between the two burials is a pattern, not a quotation, so the tier is structural rather than verbal. No commentator in this brief draws it.

Assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death typological

✦ The Pulpit Commentary closes its note on Mark 15:46 by naming it: "Thus, while our Lord died with the wicked, he was with the rich in his death," citing Isaiah 53:9. ⚙ Mark supplies the two halves separately and never joins them: the crucifixion between two others, and now a councillor whom Matthew 27:57 calls rich, laying the body in a chamber quarried out of rock. The meeting of the two is a figural reading, and in this brief exactly one commentator makes it, which is worth saying plainly. Note also what it does not rest on: Mark's Greek and Isaiah's Hebrew share no Strong's number and cannot, so there is no verbal basis here of any kind.

Isaiah 53:9

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. The basis is figural: the Pulpit Commentary states the identification verbatim at Mark 15:46, and Matthew 27:57 supplies the wealth of Joseph. Ancient and widely-held in Christian reading, but within this brief only one commentator draws it, and Mark himself makes no quotation.

Why the burial had to be finished by six: the hanged body and the Sabbath structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Nothing in Mark 15:42 explains itself; the haste rests on law the Gentile reader is not told. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 forbids a hanged body to remain on the tree overnight, since he that is hanged is accursed of God, and the Sabbath commandment of Exodus 20:8-11, enforced at the gates of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 13:19 from the moment the gates darkened before the Sabbath, ends all such labour at sundown. Benson states the first ground exactly, that the bodies might not be hanging on the sabbath day, and Barnes states the legal principle that the body of an executed man should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. Cambridge adds that the Roman authorities had made an express exception in favour of the Jewish law. ⚙ One correction of the sources: the Pulpit Commentary's citation at Mark 15:44 is printed as Deuteronomy 21:13, which is evidently a misprint for 21:22-23, the only passage that fits its argument.

Deuteronomy 21:22 · Deuteronomy 21:23 · Exodus 20:8 · Nehemiah 13:19

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and the tier can never be verbal. The basis is the legal background the commentators themselves supply: Benson and Barnes on the body not remaining past sundown on the Sabbath, Cambridge on the Roman exception. The Pulpit Commentary cites the Deuteronomy law with a misprinted verse number (21:13 for 21:22-23), noted here rather than repeated.

Linen, spices, and a burial that honours the dead structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The acts of Mark 15:46-47 belong to an old pattern. Joseph embalmed his father Israel with a physician's care over days (Genesis 50:2-3); Asa was laid in the tomb he had quarried for himself, in a bed of spices prepared by the apothecary's art (2 Chronicles 16:14). Here a man buys linen, wraps the body and lays it in a tomb hewn from rock, and two women watch so they may return with spices once the Sabbath ends (Benson gives that as their purpose). ⚙ The parallel is this tool's own observation; none of the commentators in this brief draws either Old Testament passage, and we record it as a motif comparison rather than a claim about Mark's intent.

Genesis 50:2 · Genesis 50:3 · 2 Chronicles 16:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared burial-honour pattern (purchased cloth, spices, a quarried tomb prepared by its owner). Stated honestly: no commentator in this brief makes the link, and the Verifier offers no candidate for it; it is a motif comparison only.

The comely member: a shared word that may be no link at all flagged: verify source

⚙ The Verifier lists 1 Corinthians 12:24 as a candidate because it shares two lexemes with this unit, εὐσχήμων and σῶμα. In Paul the adjective describes the presentable parts of the body which have no need of covering; in Mark it describes Joseph's public standing. The nouns likewise: Paul's σῶμα is the church, Mark's is a corpse. ⚙ We record the candidate because the Verifier produced it, and we decline to build on it. The overlap looks like vocabulary, not connection.

1 Corinthians 12:24

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2158 εὐσχήμων (in 5 vv) and G4983 σῶμα (in 120 vv). The lexical overlap is real, but the senses diverge (public standing versus a presentable bodily member; a corpse versus the church), no commentator in this brief draws the link, and we judge it unproven. Flagged rather than tiered.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

With the rich in his death: the grave that was not his own crime ancient/widely-held

✦ The Pulpit Commentary states it directly at Mark 15:46, that while our Lord died with the wicked, he was with the rich in his death, citing Isaiah 53:9. ⚙ The text supports the halves Mark actually gives. The man's rank is stressed in Mark's own vocabulary (εὐσχήμων βουλευτής, and βουλευτής occurs in only two verses in the New Testament); the tomb is λελατομημένον, quarried, finished work, and Cambridge says Joseph had cut it for himself in his own garden. The execution assigned him a criminal's end; the burial did not follow. The figural reading is ancient and widely-held, and within this brief the Pulpit Commentary draws it and the others do not. Mark makes no quotation and claims no fulfilment here; the connection is read back, and should be held as a reading.

Isaiah 53:9 · Matthew 27:57

A death the empire had to certify ancient/widely-held

⚙ The resurrection claim stands or falls on a real death, and Mark gets his verification from the least sympathetic sources available. Pilate marvels, ἐθαύμασεν, because the perfect τέθνηκεν was not credible so soon; Barnes and Cambridge both explain that crucifixion normally took days. He then summons the officer and asks the aorist question with πάλαι, whether the man died some while ago, and only on the answer does he release the body. Benson reads the strictness as the special providence of God, arranged so that there might be no pretence for saying Jesus was taken down alive, and adds that no such objection was ever started; Henry says the same in fewer words; Gill lists the officer's evidence and concludes there was no room to doubt. ⚙ The reading is widely-held among these commentators and we share it: the first witnesses to the death of Christ, in the record, are a Roman governor and a Roman soldier, and neither of them wanted the job.

Mark 15:39 · John 19:33

The last human act is a closing, and the last word is a state novel

⚙ Mark ends the burial with two grammatical facts. The last thing a man does is προσεκύλισεν, he rolled a stone against the door, a rare verb (two verses) whose only companion is the parallel in Matthew 27:60. The last word of the unit is τέθειται, a perfect: he has been laid, and lies there. Every actor in the paragraph is finished; nothing remains but a sealed door and two women who know its address. ⚙ This is the tool's own reading, offered to be tested: Mark shapes the close so that the only remaining possibility of movement lies outside the human agents entirely. Henry comes nearest of the commentators here, noting that special notice was taken of Christ's sepulchre because he was to rise again, and Gill notes that these same women were witnesses of the death, the burial, and afterwards of the resurrection. Neither of them puts the weight on the grammar, and we do; the theology of Holy Saturday, of Christ resting through the Sabbath in the tomb, is old in Christian tradition but no source in this brief states it, so we mark this reading novel as drawn here.

Mark 16:4 · Mark 15:40

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)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for Mark 15:42-47. Text and translation. Scripture is BSB; the parsing, Strong's numbers and lexeme frequencies are the Berean interlinear as supplied, and every frequency cited ("in N vv") is the Verifier's count, not ours. Two places where the English and the Greek part company are worth naming again: BSB prints "body" in both v. 43 and v. 45, where Mark's Greek has σῶμα in Joseph's request and πτῶμα, corpse, in the release; and BSB reads "Joseph" in v. 47 where the interlinear surface is Ἰωσῆτος, Joses, a textual difference we note but cannot adjudicate from the brief.

Sources. Of the ten authors present, eight are quoted: Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary. JFB and Poole are not quoted because in this unit neither supplies commentary: JFB prints only a section heading and refers the reader to Matthew 27:51-56 and John 19:31-42, and Poole refers to his notes on Matthew 27:57-66. Henry's note is a single block written over the whole paragraph, reprinted under each verse in the brief; it is cited once. Benson's entries likewise cover 15:42-44 and 15:45-47 as blocks. Where Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary supply the new tomb, the garden, Nicodemus, the spices, the unbroken bones and the spear, those details come from Matthew 27:57-60 and John 19:31-41, not from Mark, and the editorial notes say so.

What is uncertain. The hour of "evening" is disputed among the sources themselves: Benson argues for the earlier of two Jewish evenings, the Pulpit Commentary gives three o'clock to six. Cambridge's thirty-six hours as the minimum for death by crucifixion is a nineteenth-century estimate, not a datum. The identification of Arimathea (Rama in Benjamin, or Ramathaim in Ephraim) is unsettled between Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary. The Pulpit Commentary's citation of the hanged-body law at v. 44 is printed as Deuteronomy 21:13, evidently a misprint for 21:22-23. Our own additions, marked ⚙ throughout, are fallible. The Mark 6:29 burial parallel, the Genesis 50 and 2 Chronicles 16 burial-honour motif, the σῶμα/πτῶμα exchange, the irony in the verb δωρέομαι, and the reading of the closing perfect are this tool's, drawn from the sourced lexemes but stated by no commentator in this brief. The 1 Corinthians 12:24 candidate is flagged rather than used. No thread pairing a New Testament verse with an Old Testament one is tiered verbal, because Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers and such a link cannot be verified that way.

✦ = 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)