Mark 15

Mark 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It continues Jesus' Passion with his trial before Pontius Pilate and then his crucifixion and death and entombment.

Trial before Pilate

It is early in the morning. The Sanhedrin reaches a decision and hands Jesus over to Pilate. Pilate was the Roman Prefect (governor) of Iudaea Province from 26 to 36, which was the Roman combination of Idumea, Judea and Samaria and did not include Galilee, which was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. According to Matthew the Sanhedrin had decided to execute him. Only the Romans were allowed to execute someone, not the local officials, according to John 18:31 yet Acts 6:12 records the sanhedrin ordering the stoning of Saint Stephen and also James the Just according to Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1. "Pilate asked him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' He answered him, 'You say so.'" (Mark 15:2) An interpretation is that Pilate is asking Jesus if he is the messiah, just as the high priest before in Mark 14:61, only with an explicit emphasis on the Messiah's political role, that of Jewish King. According to John in response to Pilate's question Jesus has a short conversation with Pilate and then answers, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Historically it is likely that perceived insurrection against Rome was for what Pilate executed Jesus. According to Mark 12:17 however Jesus said one should pay the Roman tax and was thus not a revolutionary. The Jesus Seminar reached the conclusion that the temple incident was the cause of the crucifixion.