Nathan Eubank, «Dying with Power. Mark 15,39 from Ancient to Modern Interpretation», Vol. 95 (2014) 247-268
This article examines the reception-history of Mark 15,39 to shed new light on this pivotal and disputed verse. Mark's earliest known readers emended the text to clarify the centurion's feelings about Jesus and to explain how the centurion came to faith. Copyists inserted references to Jesus' final yell around the same time that patristic commentators were claiming that this yell was a miracle that proved Jesus' divinity, an interpretation which was enshrined in the Byzantine text and the Vulgate. The article concludes that a 'sarcastic' reading is a more adequate description of 15,39 as found in B, NA28 etc.
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DYING WITH POWER 265
It is not surprising, however, that the Gospel pushes the readers
to a rather different conclusion from the centurion’s. The readers
adopt the centurion’s words, but invest them with different mean-
ing; the fact that Jesus died in agonizing godforsakenness becomes
the very ground of belief in Jesus as the Son of God — thus the
ambiguity of ui`o.j qeou/ is precisely the point. Mark quite boldly
attempts to make the most disreputable and lowly aspect of Jesus’
career — the final moment of his crucifixion — the basis of a con-
fession that he is the Son of God.
Mark’s description of the centurion standing against Jesus (evx
evnanti,aj auvtou/) may be another play on words. Harry L. Chronis
notes that in the LXX evnanti,oj is frequently used to describe
standing in the presence or in the face of God, oftentimes in a cultic
setting 50. Mark abruptly inserts the reference to the rending of the
temple curtain in-between Jesus’ dying breath in v. 37 and the cen-
turion’s remark in v. 39. Many commentators have suggested that
the centurion saw the curtain rip, but Mark gives no such indication.
The readers of Mark, however — those who actually confess Jesus
to be the Son of God — do “see” the curtain being torn open by
God (evsci,sqh) just as the heavens were torn open at Jesus’ baptism
(1,10). Thus, while the centurion stands “against” Jesus, he also
stands “before” Jesus, whose true identity is revealed when the tem-
ple veil is torn. Chronis writes:
The God whose ~ynp, whose “face” or “presence” was veiled within
the sanctum sanctorum (Exod 33:11, 14) himself rips away the veil
and shows his “face”, manifests his “presence.” By inserting 15:38
so as to bring it into immediate juxtaposition with 15:37, Mark in-
tends … to draw out metaphorically the self-revelatory force of Jesus’
death. In other words, 15:38 functions at least in large measure as a
potent cipher for the “material disclosure” of the messianic secret in
50
H.L. CHRONIS, “The Torn Veil: Cultus and Christology in Mark 15:37-
39”, JBL 101 (1982) 97-114. E.g., Exod. 27,21: “In the tent of witness outside
of the veil (tou/ katapeta,smatoj) that is over the covenant (cf., Mark 15:38),
Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening until morning before the Lord
(evnanti,on kuri,ou). This is a perpetual precept for your descendants from
the sons of Israel” (NETS). Cf., also Exod 28,12; 34,24; Lev 1,3; 4,7; Deut
12,18; Pss 87,2; 94,6; 108,14.15. In Deut 18,5.7 the Levites are described as
those who stand before the Lord (oi` paresthko,tej evkei/ e;nanti kuri,ou),
just as the centurion stood before Jesus (o` paresthkw.j evx evnanti,aj auvtou).