Passage

Mark 15.39

Book: Mark · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

37. And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.

39. And when the centurion, who stood by over against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41. who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him; and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem. (Mark 15:37-41, ASV)

WEB

37. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit. 38. The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.

39. When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41. who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and served him; and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. (Mark 15:37-41, WEB)

KJV

37. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

39. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41. (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. (Mark 15:37-41, KJV)

YLT

37. And Jesus having uttered a loud cry, yielded the spirit, 38. and the veil of the sanctuary was rent in two, from top to bottom,

39. and the centurion who was standing over-against him, having seen that, having so cried out, he yielded the spirit, said, 'Truly this man was Son of God.'

And there were also women afar off beholding, among whom was also Mary the Magdalene, and Mary of James the less, and of Joses, and Salome, 41. (who also, when he was in Galilee, were following him, and were ministering to him,) and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. (Mark 15:37-41, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Mark, narrating; a Roman centurion speaks
Audience: Those standing at the cross, including women watching "afar off" (15:40)
Location: Golgotha, "the place of a skull" (15:22), outside Jerusalem
Time period: The day of the crucifixion, c. AD 30 or 33

Theological reading

"And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39, KJV).

The climax of Mark's Gospel. Mark opens with "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1). At the baptism and the transfiguration the Father calls Jesus his Son (1:11; 9:7). Demons know it (3:11; 5:7). But the first human being in Mark to confess it, with no rebuke and no command to silence, is a Roman soldier at the cross. Mark places the torn temple veil immediately before (15:38).

What he saw. The centurion "stood over against him," facing Jesus, and saw how he died: "that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost." It was the manner of the death, not a miracle, that drew the confession.

"The Son of God" or "a son of God"? The Greek has no article: huios theou. Some translations render it "a son of God," suggesting a pagan soldier's vaguer meaning. E. C. Colwell (1933) observed that a definite predicate noun placed before the verb usually lacks the article, and Philip Harner (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973) argued that such nouns are often qualitative, stressing what someone is. Harner's article studied this verse alongside John 1:1, which is why the Jehovah's Witnesses vs the Christian God comparison cites it. In Mark's story, whatever the centurion intended, his words echo the title in 1:1.

The Gentile confession. A Gospel probably written for Gentile readers ends its account of the cross with a Gentile confessing the truth Jewish leaders had mocked (15:31-32). See Christs Deity and John 1.1.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G5207 - huios, huios, Strong's G5207
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

The Passion of Christ

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.