Psalms 22:12-13

22:12 Many bulls ¹  surround me;

powerful bulls of Bashan ²  hem me in.

22:13 They ³  open their mouths to devour me ⁴ 

like a roaring lion that rips its prey. ⁵ 

Psalms 22:17

22:17 I can count ⁶  all my bones;

my enemies ⁷  are gloating over me in triumph. ⁸ 

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ⁹  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ¹⁰  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ¹¹ 

Matthew 27:38-43

27:38 Then two outlaws were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 27:39 Those ¹²  who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads 27:40 and saying, “You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! ¹³  If you are God’s Son, come down ¹⁴  from the cross!” 27:41 In ¹⁵  the same way even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law ¹⁶  and elders ¹⁷  – were mocking him: ¹⁸  27:42 “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the king of Israel! If he comes down ¹⁹  now from the cross, we will believe in him! 27:43 He trusts in God – let God, if he wants to, deliver him now ²⁰  because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’!”

Mark 15:29-32

15:29 Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 15:30 save yourself and come down from the cross!” ²¹  15:31 In the same way even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law ²²  – were mocking him among themselves: ²³  “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! 15:32 Let the Christ, ²⁴  the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him. ²⁵ 

¹ sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.

² sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.

³ tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”

⁴ tn Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8; Lam 2:16).

⁵ tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”

⁶ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 17-18 draw attention to the progressive nature of the action.

⁷ tn Heb “they.” The masculine form indicates the enemies are in view. The referent (the psalmist’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “they gaze, they look upon me.”

⁹ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

¹⁰ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

¹¹ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

¹² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹³ sn There is rich irony in the statements of those who were passing by, “save yourself!” and “come down from the cross!” In summary, they wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save his physical life, but it was indeed his staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life.

¹⁴ tc ‡ Many important witnesses (א* A D pc it sy^[s],p) read καί (kai, here with the force of “then”) before κατάβηθι (katabhqi, “come down”). The shorter reading may well be due to homoioarcton, but judging by the diverse external evidence (א² B L W Θ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) it is equally possible that the shorter reading is original (and is so considered for this translation). NA²⁷ puts the καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹⁶ tn Or “with the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹⁷ tn Only “chief priests” is in the nominative case; this sentence structure attempts to capture this emphasis.

¹⁸ tn Grk “Mocking him, the chief priests…said.”

¹⁹ tn Here the aorist imperative καταβάτω (katabatw) has been translated as a conditional imperative. This fits the pattern of other conditional imperatives (imperative + καί + future indicative) outlined by ExSyn 489.

²⁰ sn An allusion to Ps 22:8.

²¹ sn There is rich irony in the statement of those who were passing by, “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” In summary, they wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save his physical life, but it was indeed his staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life. There is a similar kind of irony in the statement made by the chief priests and experts in the law in 15:31.

²² tn Or “with the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22. Only “chief priests” is in the nominative case; this sentence structure attempts to capture this emphasis.

²³ tn Grk “Mocking him, the chief priests…said among themselves.”

²⁴ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

²⁵ sn Mark’s wording suggests that both of the criminals spoke abusively to him. If so, one of them quickly changed his attitude toward Jesus (see Luke 23:40-43).