Conservative Friends Bible Study of Mark #28 Mark 15:33-16:20

Ohio Yearly Meeting's Podcast

The sour wine given to Jesus on the cross (15:36) may have been meant as a sedative to ease pain. As in our not too distant past, people could be given liquor to ease their pain.
In 15:38, the curtain to the Holy of Holies in the temple being torn in two
could symbolize there now was full access to God through the sacrifice of Jesus
of Himself.
15:39 is mistranslated. Both since there is no definite article (“the”) in the original
Greek, and also since the centurion was almost certainly a Roman pagan who
believed in many gods, the Greek should instead be translated, “Truly, this man
is a son of a god.”
Regarding Mark 15:40-41, women in patriarchal Judaism held a very low
position. It was very unusual that Jesus, as a rabbi, included women as a
significant part of his group of apostles and disciples.
The color white worn by the young man (16:5) was a symbol of victory.
There has been much discussion over the centuries concerning the ending of
Mark 16:9-20. Those last 11 verses are not found in the oldest and most reliable
manuscripts, making it appear that perhaps the last page of Mark’s Gospel was
lost before it could be copied by others. The reason to think the last page may
have been lost is because the last Greek word in 16:8 is the conjunction “for”
(γάρ/”gar”). The problem is that in Greek, γάρ is a conjunction and appears never
to be found as the last word in a sentence. Some of the more reliable earliest
manuscripts just end at verse 8. So, some copyists felt a need to complete this
Gospel’s missing ending.
In addition, in the first century it was increasingly becoming the practice among
Greeks to no longer write in scrolls, but to write on individual pages bound into
“codices”, the forerunners of our books today. Thus, the grammatical abruptness
of this ending in the Greek manuscripts seems to indicate that perhaps the last
page of Mark’s Gospel was lost before it had a chance to be copied by other
people. There are several other variations of endings to Mark, and they are
discussed in the podcast.
Greek Words

• Kanōn - a straight reed, used as a standard of measurement (English: the canon,
• canonical)
• 15:39 centurion: “Truly this man was a son of a god.”
• Leukos adj. – white (symbolizing “victory”). Here, victory over death.
• Scroll – a roll of paper or parchment with writing on it.
• Codex (plural: codices) – the earliest form of books, first used in the first century,
• A.D.
• In 16:7 Peter is mentioned separately from the other disciples. (Recall that he
• had renounced Jesus).
• In 16:8 Ephobounto gar. – “For they were afraid.”
• Phobeō (v.)– be afraid; have awesome respect
• Gar (conjunction) – for (only occurs after the first word of a clause/sentence in
• Greek)
• In English the conjunction “for” is always the first word in a clause/sentence.
• [Note that this is different from the usage of the English preposition “for” in a
• prepositional phrase which can occur anywhere in

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