The Gospel According to Mark

picture3.docMark 15:1-5 Early in the morning, after forming a plan, the chief priests with the elders and the experts in the law and the whole Sanhedrin tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He replied, “You say so.” 3 Then the chief priests began accusing him repeatedly. 4 And Pilate asked him again, “Have you nothing to say? See how many charges they are briging against you!” 5 But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

I can’t seem to get my picture to show???? Maybe it does??? Please give me feedback if you can see it when you click on it.

Some things I noted while doing this exercise:
– noted that Mark used “early” which denotes a special reference to time. The first of 5 temporal indicators. The rest are 15:25,33, and 42.
– wondered why the elders, chief priests and the scribes (those who knew the law) needed a “council” in all the other translations. The NET is the only one which translates “forming a plan”. This clears up what these people might have been doing – to bring a charge against Jesus.
- Interesting that they were allowed to bind him but not sentence him to death. Pilate had to do that. Binding is reminiscent of the binding of Isaac and being handed over for sacrifice.
- They “handed him over” – significant verbage for Jesus predicted that the Son of Man would be betrayed into the hands of men (9:31) and to the chief priests and experts of the law (10:33). Again, Pilate realizes that the chief priests handed Jesus over because of envy (15:10), but despite this Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified (15:15)
- The title “king of the Jews” is the first of 5 acclamations of this title. (15:9,12,18,26, and 32)
- “But Jesus made no further reply” is reminiscent of Isa 53:7 – “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its sheareres is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
- for the picture, I couldn’t decide whether Jesus was standing pridefully, or kneeling before Pilate. I also wondered how many scribes, priests and elders were present. I also wondered who else might have been observing this – Mark doesn’t mention anyone else, but as the author, he knows the events and the question/answers. I also wondered what it meant that Pilate was “amazed”. Was it “wondering”, “pondering”, or truely “amazement”. Did he even have an inkling of who Jesus was? Why did Mark say that he was “amazed”? Did he know the passage from Isa? Probably not, but later we learn that Pilate has concluded that the priest had handed Jesus over because of envy – was that why he was amazed? Perhaps he couldn’t understand why Jesus wouldn’t stick up for himself or defend himself. Perhaps he knew what traps were set and that it was better for him to remain silent? Any ideas would be appreciative!!!
- Hope you understand that the sun in my picture is coming up – early in the morning.