Mark 15:44-45

15:44 Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He ¹  called the centurion and asked him if he had been dead for some time. 15:45 When Pilate ²  was informed by the centurion, ³  he gave the body to Joseph.

John 11:39

11:39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” ⁴  Martha, the sister of the deceased, ⁵  replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell, ⁶  because he has been buried ⁷  four days.” ⁸ 

John 19:33-35

19:33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced ⁹  his side with a spear, and blood and water ¹⁰  flowed out immediately. 19:35 And the person who saw it ¹¹  has testified (and his testimony is true, and he ¹²  knows that he is telling the truth), ¹³  so that you also may believe.

[15:44]  ¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[15:45]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Pilate) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:45]  ³ sn See the note on the word centurion in 15:39.

[11:39]  ⁴ tn Or “Remove the stone.”

[11:39]  ⁵ tn Grk “the sister of the one who had died.”

[11:39]  ⁶ tn Grk “already he stinks.”

[11:39]  ⁷ tn Or “been there” (in the tomb – see John 11:17).

[11:39]  ⁸ sn He has been buried four days. Although all the details of the miracle itself are not given, those details which are mentioned are important. The statement made by Martha is extremely significant for understanding what actually took place. There is no doubt that Lazarus had really died, because the decomposition of his body had already begun to take place, since he had been dead for four days.

[19:34]  ⁹ sn If it was obvious to the soldiers that the victim was already dead it is difficult to see why one of them would try to inflict a wound. The Greek verb pierced (νύσσω, nussw) can indicate anything from a slight prod to a mortal wound. Probably one of the soldiers gave an exploratory stab to see if the body would jerk. If not, he was really dead. This thrust was hard enough to penetrate the side, since the author states that blood and water flowed out immediately.

[19:34]  ¹⁰ sn How is the reference to the blood and water that flowed out from Jesus’ side to be understood? This is probably to be connected with the statements in 1 John 5:6-8. In both passages water, blood, and testimony are mentioned. The Spirit is also mentioned in 1 John 5:7 as the source of the testimony, while here the testimony comes from one of the disciples (19:35). The connection between the Spirit and the living water with Jesus’ statement of thirst just before he died in the preceding context has already been noted (see 19:28). For the author, the water which flowed out of Jesus’ side was a symbolic reference to the Holy Spirit who could now be given because Jesus was now glorified (cf. 7:39); Jesus had now departed and returned to that glory which he had with the Father before the creation of the world (cf. 17:5). The mention of blood recalls the motif of the Passover lamb as a sacrificial victim. Later references to sacrificial procedures in the Mishnah appear to support this: m. Pesahim 5:3 and 5:5 state that the blood of the sacrificial animal should not be allowed to congeal but should flow forth freely at the instant of death so that it could be used for sprinkling; m. Tamid 4:2 actually specifies that the priest is to pierce the heart of the sacrificial victim and cause the blood to come forth.

[19:35]  ¹¹ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[19:35]  ¹² tn Grk “and that one.”

[19:35]  ¹³ sn A parenthetical note by the author.