Sarcasm in Mk 15.39?

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Sat Apr 20 14:56:34 EDT 2002


on 4/20/02 1:45 PM, Steven Lo Vullo at slovullo at mac.com wrote:

> on 4/16/02 5:06 AM, Ty Daniel Frost at tysbgreek at hotmail.com wrote:
> 
>> In his 1997 article _The strange silence of the Bible_ in Interpretation:
>> Essays on Bible and Theology (51/1 | 5-19) D. Juel claims that even the
>> confession of the centurion in 15.39 can be understood as sarcasm. Can
>> anyone shed some light on sarcasm in greek of this era? When is sarcasm a
>> possability? Is it purely contextual or are there gramatical clues?
> 
> I think it is more or less contextual. In the case of Mark 15.39, I think it
> is *possible* to understand the centurion's words as sarcasm. But what makes
> me think otherwise is hOUTWS (thus, in this way). It was the WAY in which
> Jesus breathed his last (EXEPNEUSEN) that elicited the confession: "When the
> centurion, who was standing right in front of him, saw *the way* he breathed
> his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'" I think this points
> us back to v. 37: hO DE IHSOUS AFEIS FWNHN MEGALHN EXEPNEUSEN ("And Jesus
> uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last."). Since there was something in
> the WAY Jesus cried out before he breathed his last that affected the
> centurion, and since v. 37 tells us he "uttered a loud cry" before he
> breathed his last, perhaps it was the sheer volume of the cry, a
> supernatural loudness, that prompted the centurion's response.

This last sentence should read: "Since there was something in the WAY Jesus
breathed his last that affected the centurion, and since v. 37 tells us he
"uttered a loud cry" before he breathed his last, perhaps it was the sheer
volume of the cry, a supernatural loudness, that prompted the centurion's
response."
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
slovullo at mac.com




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