Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Mark 15:1-20, Before Pilate
The chief priests hand Jesus to Pilate as king of the Jews. Pilate releases Barabbas to the crowd, has Jesus flogged, and the soldiers mock him as a king.
Mark 15:1-20, in every translation this tool compares.
The council hands Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman governor, and the question becomes political: is he a king? Jesus barely answers. Offered a choice of prisoner to free, the crowd, urged on by the chief priests, picks Barabbas, and Pilate gives in, has Jesus flogged and sends him off to be crucified. The soldiers then stage a mock coronation.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/crucifixion\/","n":"Crucifixion","s":"Rome's public, shaming death for rebels, after flogging, with the charge posted for passers-by to read.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hailing-a-king\/","n":"Hailing a king","s":"A colt nobody had ridden, cloaks on the road, waving branches, kneeling, the cry Hail, and the delegation that went out to meet a visiting ruler: the public gestures that greeted a king.","r":""}
Keener notes that most of Jesus' followers were Galileans, and a Judean crowd would be more easily swayed by the chief priests. Customs of releasing a prisoner existed in various places, and governors often kept their predecessors' customs though no law required it. The soldiers then repeat a king's greeting as a joke, purple, a crown, the cry Hail and kneeling (Keener's notes; Wright). An inscription found at Caesarea calls Pilate prefect, not procurator, and he owed his post to Sejanus, whose fall in AD 31 left him exposed to Jewish complaints in Rome (Garland; the Zondervan archaeology handbook). A papyrus of AD 85 has the prefect of Egypt tell a prisoner, I will give you to the people, and the Mishnah allows a Passover lamb to be slaughtered for one promised release from prison (Garland). The praetorium was probably Herod's palace, not the Antonia (Garland; the Zondervan Bible Dictionary).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 15:2, 15:5, 15:6, 15:11, 15:15, 15:18 and 15:19, and note on Matthew 27:26
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comments on Mark 15:1-15 and Mark 15:16-32
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.1, trans. William Whiston
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 15:15
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 15:1, 15:6 and 15:16, and sidebar Pilate
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Luke 23:1 The Pontius Pilate Inscription
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry praetorium
