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Day 51: Mark 13-16 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

May 30, 2025 · 19 min7K

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The crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t just an execution—it was a coronation. In Mark 15, every detail mirrors the Roman ceremony for crowning an emperor. But instead of power and glory, Jesus’ coronation comes through suffering and sacrifice. This upside-down kingdom is the heart of the Gospel, and Mark frames it brilliantly for his Roman audience. Today, we break down how Jesus was crowned as King on the cross.

✈️ Overview:

• Mark 15 parallels a Roman emperor’s coronation step by step, revealing Jesus as a different kind of King.

• Jesus’ crucifixion follows the nine stages of Roman coronation, from the Praetorian guard gathering to the final “sign” in the sky.

• Instead of praise and power, Jesus’ coronation is marked by mockery, rejection, and suffering—a radical message for Roman readers.

• The upside-down kingdom challenges everything: life comes through death, greatness through service, and glory through sacrifice.

🔎 Context Clues:

• Mark writes to a Roman audience steeped in Hellenistic culture—familiar with coronations, power displays, and emperor worship.

• Golgotha (the “Place of the Skull”) parallels Capitoline Hill (“Head Hill”) in Rome, the traditional site for imperial coronations.

• The phrase “wine mixed with myrrh” (Mark 15:23) reflects the luxurious drink offered to Roman emperors, which Jesus refuses, symbolizing his self-sufficiency and sacrifice.

• The eclipse during Jesus’ death mirrors the solar eclipse that marked Nero’s coronation, serving as the ultimate “sign” from heaven.

🤓 Nerdy Nuggets:

Mark highlights nine specific steps of a Roman emperor’s coronation, showing how Jesus’ crucifixion was actually his enthronement as King:

1. Praetorian Guard Gathers: Roman soldiers surround Jesus (Mark 15:16).

2. Royal Robes & Crown: They place a purple robe and crown of thorns on him (Mark 15:17).

3. Procession: Jesus is led through the streets like an emperor (Mark 15:20).

4. Instrument of Death: Simon of Cyrene carries Jesus’ cross, like a bull led to sacrifice (Mark 15:21).

5. Head Hill: Jesus is taken to Golgotha, the “Place of the Skull” (Mark 15:22).

6. Wine Mixed with Myrrh: Jesus is offered this royal drink but refuses it (Mark 15:23).

7. Right & Left Placement: Two criminals are crucified beside him (Mark 15:27).

8. Mocking & Praise: Instead of praise, Jesus is mocked as “King of the Jews” (Mark 15:29-32).

9. The Sign: Darkness covers the land for three hours, just like the eclipse during Nero’s coronation (Mark 15:33).

✅ Timeless Truths:

• Jesus redefines leadership: True power is found in service, sacrifice, and humility, not dominance or control (Mark 10:45).

• The cross is not a defeat but a throne. Jesus rules not through force but through self-giving love.

• God’s kingdom turns the world’s values upside down—if you want to be first, you must be last; if you want to live, you must die to yourself (Mark 9:35).

• Evangelism means translating the unchanging Gospel into formats that resonate with culture, just as Mark did for Roman readers.

Mark’s Gospel ends not with defeat but with the victory of an unexpected King. Jesus’ coronation on the cross challenges us to live differently, embracing the paradox of God’s kingdom.

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Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by ARMA. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. We are gonna tackle the crucifixion of Jesus. There's gonna be context clues, nerdy nuggets, and timeless truths all kind of mixed in. I'm probably not going to delineate between those three. I'm really just gonna talk about the order of the coronation that would have happened for any Emperor in the Roman world. And actually just as a relic from history, like as an artifact from history, we actually have Nero's coronation from the day that Emperor became Caesar of the Roman world. And I think that Mark is doing something really unique with the crucifixion of Jesus. I think Mark is framing the crucifixion of Jesus like a coronation, but I'll leave that up to you to decide and that's what we're gonna tackle today. I find this content remarkable and beautiful and compelling. There's a scholar who works on this. His name is Thomas Schmitt and yeah, we we're just gonna kind of like work through this together. I don't know. Maybe you'll be convinced of this. Maybe not. We shall see. So let's dive in. Hey, if you haven't done the reading today, go ahead and pause this. Stop the recording. Stop the video. Stop the audio. Go read Mark chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16. And for those of us that have done the reading, let's jump in. Alright, two big things that I kind of want to do. A, I want to give you the four pillars of Hellenism. Now, on our introduction to the New Testament course, introduction to the Gospels course, I talk about these a lot. That's a really, really strong course, by the way. A lot of context, a lot of history, culture, that helps us to actually appreciate what's happening in the Gospels. So there are four pillars of Hellenism. Okay, Hellenism really is a synonym for like Greek philosophy, Greek ideas. Okay, Aristotle is the person who mentors and

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educates Alexander the Great. So Alexander the Great is gonna conquer a fourth of the known world. He's gonna spread Greek philosophy and language all over the Western world, and Greek becomes the lingua franca of the day because of Alexander the Great. It's the reason why the New Testament is written in Greek, is because of Alexander the Great's military conquests. There's four things that Alexander's gonna incorporate as a part of his gospel. Okay, four pillars of Hellenism. Number one, every time that Alexander the Great would found or find or incorporate or build a city, it would always have a gymnasium. The gymnasium didn't mean like where you do sports. A gymnasium was education. It's where people got educated. Two, there was always gonna be an Asclepian, which is like for healing, so medicine. Three, there's always gonna be a theater in like your classic Greek town or city because the entertainment. Entertainment was crucial. And then last, there was always gonna be a coliseum or sports. There's gonna be an arena where competition happened. Okay, and I would contend that as Mark is portraying Jesus, Jesus is a great teacher. Okay, so Jesus would have excelled in the gymnasium. Two, Jesus can heal. Okay, so Jesus is one-upping the Asclepian. Number three, the crowds are consistently in Mark's Gospels and Mark's gospel amazed by Jesus. They're astonished by Jesus, which means that Mark is portraying Jesus as someone who's very, very entertaining. And then if you were to compete against Jesus in anything, you lose. Okay, Jesus is a winner in Mark's gospel. So Mark is portraying Jesus a particular way. Then we get to the crucifixion of Jesus. This really comes to a head. So there are nine steps that would make up an emperor's coronation. Okay, nine steps. And we're gonna kind of go through those nine steps, and then we'll read Mark chapter 15, and we'll see if you're convinced that Mark is doing something here. There's a temptation sometimes in biblical studies to harmonize the Gospels. So if Matthew says one thing and Mark says one thing, you try to find a way to harmonize the Gospels.

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So like in in Matthew and Luke, Jesus isn't given wine mixed with myrrh. He's actually given Uh vinegar, okay, and he's offered vinegar on like a hyssop branch which in the ancient world would have been toilet paper So I mean he's given Like cheap wine on a stick with toilet, you know old old toilet paper And it's it's the most disgusting grossest thing ever However, wine mixed with myrrh was like super super expensive and in mark's gospel. He's given wine before he goes to the cross And a harmonization of the gospels to try to say well Both are true. Really. That's the western inclination in us to want things to be factual For the westerner we equate facts with truth, but in the eastern world factual doesn't mean true True means that it points to the truth universal truth truth that can save Truth that can deliver set free. We're not going to try to harmonize What we are going to say is that mark has an agenda And I think that it's going to be evident what mark's agenda is as we continue through the content So let's let's go through the nine steps of a roman Coronation for an emperor. Okay, this all caesars would have gone through this and we have nero's essentially like Program like his schedule from his coronation In good detail. And so let's let's do this. Number one the first thing that would have happened at a Coronation for an emperor is that the praetorian guard gathers? Okay, the praetorian guard Gathers, uh to hail caesar as lord and god number two three things happen royal robes Will be placed on the new caesar that's being coronated a wreath crown Uh in a sept a wreath crown is placed on the caesar's head and a scepter is placed in caesar's hand Okay, number three. There's a procession They lead caesar through a procession lined with incense altars. So there's a there's a procession number five Caesar is followed by a bull uh, that's going to be sacrificed and

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And caesar carries the instrument of death that's number four, okay number five Rome was founded on seven hills. You may be aware of this And there's one hill called capital line hill now, we may read that and think oh, it's like capital hill No capital line hill because the the root word there's capita capite which actually means head They believe that romulus's skull Uh was actually uh the foundation of one of these hills but that it wasn't a skull It was actually like a severed head. It's a full head and It's like distinctively not skull. It is head. It's like hair And like full face. It's not just the bone, but it's like the head severed head So capital line hill which kind of which would get translated in english as head hill Okay head hill So number five is the caesar goes to head hill capital line hill is offered wine mixed with myrrh But refuses it pouring it out essentially kind of a boss move saying like Like i'm self-sufficient. Okay Number six is the bull is killed and caesar pronounces death or life on a host of prisoners Okay, so for one person you get life you get life you get life you get death you get death you get death And this is to signify That caesar has the power of life and death in his tongue. Okay, whatever he says goes Number seven the emperor ascends the steps Of the temple with the high priest on his right and his commander his army on his left number eight Caesar is acclaimed lord in god as people sing His praises and then number nine everyone waits for a sign now during nero's coronation uh, there was a full eclipse like a solar eclipse and if you read accounts from nero's Coronation, you know, the sign was almost like a confirmation That this is our god. Okay, the gods are behind Uh this earthly leader so with that Uh, we are now gonna go to mark's gospel Okay

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Let me just kind of recap those really quick number one is the praetorian guard gathers number two is royal robes In a wreath crown. Okay. Number three is a procession number four Uh caesar's followed by the bull and he's holding the instrument of death Number five they take him to head hill where he's offered wine mixed with myrrh but refuses number six a bull is killed and Caesar pronounces death and life on a host of prisoners. Number seven, he ascends the temple with the high priest on his right and the commander of his army on his left. Okay, eight, Caesar is acclaimed Lord and God as people sing his praises. And then number nine, everyone waits for a sign. That's the nine parts of a Roman emperor's coronation. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by ARMA. What is ARMA? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription-based platform that we designed to help people, everyday people, learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere, could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing, and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community, a community of people that I've gotten to know,

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a community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions, and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you wanna dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire ARMA team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com. I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd. I believe that what Mark is communicating, what he's showing us, not telling us, is that the moment of crucifixion is Jesus' coronation, which would be counter-cultural, and would be a massive turnoff to any Roman. They would understand it, but they would understand this as so counter-cultural. This would be the radical introduction into the upside-down kingdom that is the kingdom of God. And so let's actually now get into the text. Mark chapter 15, okay? Mark chapter 15, verse 16, says this. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace. That is the praetorium, aka praetorian guard, okay? And called together the whole company of soldiers. Really, a whole company of soldiers for a Jewish peasant from the backside of Galilee. Interesting.

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Okay, next, verse 17. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. This is eerily similar to the steps of a coronation so far. We're two for two. Next, verse 18, would be a procession. And here's what we get in chapter 15, verse 20. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put on his clothes and led him out to crucify him. So sounds like a procession to me. Number four, Caesar's followed by a bull and he's carrying the instrument of death. We are gonna go to Mark chapter 15, verse 21. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way to the country and they forced him to carry the cross. What is the cross? It's the instrument of death. Then they go to Head Hill where, well, Caesar would have gone to Head Hill, Capitoline Hill, and would have been offered wine mixed with myrrh, but refuses. So let's see if that one lines up. Chapter 15, verse 22 and 23, it says this. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

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Guys, this is wild. Number six, a bull is killed and Caesar pronounces death and life on a host of different prisoners. Let's go to Mark chapter 15, verse 24, says this. And they crucified him, dividing up his clothes. They cast lots to see what each would get. Let's go to number seven. Caesar would ascend the temple with leaders on his right and his left, says this in Mark chapter 15, verse 27. They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. The eighth thing that would happen in Caesar's coronation, or at least in Nero's coronation, is Caesar is acclaimed Lord and God, okay, as people sing his praises. This is what happens in Mark chapter 15, verse 29 to 32. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, so you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days come down from the cross and save yourself in the same way the chief priests and the chiefs of the law mocked him among themselves he saved others they said but he can't save himself let this Messiah this King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe those crucified with him also heaped insults at him so this moment where Caesar is supposed to be praised and hailed as Lord and God Jesus is insulted so that's a massive curveball and then lastly everybody's supposed to wait for a sign what do we have in Mark chapter 15 verse 33 says this at noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon

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ladies and gentlemen Mark is portraying Jesus as a coronated King Mark is communicating to a Roman audience that the way Jesus is coronated as King is to suffer and die this is the most antithetical countercultural swim upstream like just odd thing like this the power of this that for a Roman audience that values power and authority and immediacy and popularity and in so many things Mark says yeah there's a coronation like I'm gonna put it in the in a format and in a language that you understand but the structures there but the spirit that infuses this structure is totally like foolishness to the world the wisest human would think this is foolishness but it is the wisdom of God and it is totally counterintuitive that if you want to be first you become last if you want to be great you become the servant if you want to live you die if you want to be coronated you go to the cross for a Roman audience this is difficult this is very difficult this is difficult to read this is difficult to accept I am convinced that this is what Mark is doing so I'll leave it to you to see if you are convinced that this is what Mark is doing but that and that is the entire gospel according to Mark we covered it in four days and because Mark gets his gospel from our man Peter tomorrow we'll be diving into the gospel of Peter we'll be in first Peter for two days second Peter for one day next three days we've got the epistles of Peter I can't wait to see you right here man beautiful gospel beautiful gospel I think what Mark is doing is absolutely brilliant and I think that his ability to translate truth to a culture that he really wants to reach is my timeless truth that that's what we should be doing we should be taking the story of Jesus not compromising on the message of Jesus but translating that message into a format that the cultures that we love and the people that we want to see evangelized can actually begin to comprehend what's going on in the story based on the format that we put it in so with no further ado I love you so much I'll see you right here tomorrow proud of you I love you see you tomorrow peace thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast if this episode was helpful how about you leave a comment share with a friend and

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