Mark 15

15:26  And the superscription of his accusation was written over¹, THE KING OF THE JEWS².

15:27  And with him they crucify two robbers¹; one on his right hand, and one on his left².

15:28  [And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was reckoned with transgressors.]

15:29  And they that passed by¹ railed on him, wagging their heads², and saying³, Ha! Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days⁴,

15:31  In like manner also the chief priests mocking [him] among themselves with the scribes said, He saved others; himself he cannot save¹.

15:32  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross¹, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reproached him².

15:33  And when the sixth hour was come¹, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour².

15:34  And at the ninth hour¹ Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani²? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me³?

15:35  And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elijah¹.

15:36  And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed¹, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be²; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down.

15:37  And Jesus uttered a loud voice¹, and gave up the ghost².

15:38  And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom¹.

15:39  And when the centurion, who stood by over against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

15:40  And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom [were] both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

NOTE.--To aid the reader, we submit the following table of the womenwho watched the crucifixion of Jesus, for it is from their names anddescriptions that we get our Scriptural light by which we distinguishthe kindred of our Lord.

-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+------------ | | Mary | and Mary the | and mother Mt 27:56 | | Magdalene | mother of | of sons of | | | James & John | Zebedee-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+------------ | | Mary | and Mary the | and Salome Mr 15:40 | | Magdalene | mother of | | | | James the Less| | | | and of Joses |-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+------------ | his mother | and Mary | Mary, the wife| the sister Joh 19:23 | his mother | Magdalene | of Clopas | of Jesus' | | | | mother-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+------------

Matthew and Mark each name three women, whence it is thought thatSalome was the name of the mother of James and John. But the solutionof the problem depends on our rendering of John 19:25 . Now, wasMary, the wife of Clopas, named and also additionally described assister to our Lord's mother, or was it the unnamed Salome who was hersister? Does John mention three or four women? The best modernscholarship says that there were four women, and that therefore Jamesand John, the sons of Zebedee, were cousins of our Lord. In support ofthis it is argued: (1) That it is unlikely that two sisters would bearthe same name, a fact which, as Meyer says, is "established by noinstance". (2) John gives two pairs of women, each pair coupled by an"and". The first pair is kindred to Jesus, and is unnamed and isparalleled by the other pair, which is not kindred and of which thenames are given. Hebrew writers often used such parallelism. (3) Itaccords with John's custom to withhold the names of himself and allkindred, so that in his Gospel he nowhere gives his own, his mother's,or his brother's name, nor does he even give the name of our Lord'smother, who was his aunt. (4) The relationship explains in part whyJesus, when dying, left the care of his mother to John. It was not anunnatural thing to impose such a burden upon a kinsman.

15:41  who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him; and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem.

15:42  And when even was now come, because it was the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath¹,

15:43  there came Joseph of Arimathaea¹, a councillor of honorable estate, who also himself was looking for the kingdom of God; and he boldly went in unto Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus².

15:44  And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.

15:46  And he bought a linen cloth¹, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth², and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

15:47  And Mary Magdalene and Mary the [mother] of Joses beheld where he was laid¹.