turlon's enforced conviction, as he witnessed the cir- cumstances of Jesus' death, that this man certainly was ' a Son of God,' appears to be recorded for no other reason (15^^) than to make plain that the super- naturalness of Jesus' person was such as necessarily to Impress any observer. No doubt a heathen centurion Is but a poor witness to Jesus' essential nature; and no doubt his designation of Him as " a son of God " must needs be taken In a sense consonant with his stand- point as a heathen." But it manifests how from his own standpoint Jesus' death Impressed him — as the death, to wit, of one of superhuman dignity. And its record seems to round out the total Impression which Mark appears to wish to make In his use of the phrase, viz., that the superhuman dignity of Jesus was per- force recognized and testified to by all classes and by every variety of witness. The spiritual denizens of another world (i^^ i^^ 3" 5'^), the appointed guardians of the spiritual life of Israel (14"), Jesus Himself (12*' 13^- 14^'), God in Heaven (i" 9'^), and even the heathen man who gazed upon Him as He hung on the cross, alike certify to His elevation, as the Son
(on Mt, pp. 694-5) is better: "The high priest demands an answer not to the simple question whether Jesus gave Himself out for the Messiah, but whether He was the Messiah, the Son of God. . . . The mere affirmative of the question whether He were the Messiah, could not be understood by the whole Sanhedrin as an unambiguous blasphemy. It was only a liar or a fanatic that Jesus could have been called on that ground by those who did not believe in Him. Jesus affirmed, however, also the other question, whether He was the Son of God; and indeed on oath, since he was sworn by the Living God (I Kings 2-*) • . ." ^^ Wellhausen's remark need not be disputed: "The centurion uses the expression 'Son of God' not, like the high priest (14"^), as an epithet of the Jewish Messiah, but in the heathen sense; he says also not 'the Son' but 'a son' of God" (on is^s).
Mark's Conception of Our Lord 45
of God, in the supernatural dignity of His person, above all that is earthly, all " servants " and " min- isters " of God whatever, including the very angels. Certainly this designation, ' Son of God,' is colored so deeply with supernatural implications that even apart from such a passage as 13^" where the superangelic nature of the Son is openly expressed, we cannot avoid concluding (cf. especially 12^ 14®^ 15^^) that a super- natural personality as well as a supernatural office is intended to be understood by it. And if so, In view of the nature of the term Itself, It Is difficult to doubt that this supernaturalness of personality is intended to be taken at the height of the Divine. What can the Son, the unique and " beloved " Son of God, who also Is God's heir, in contradistinction from all His servants, even the angels, be — but God Himself?
It has already been suggested that something of this imphcation is embedded In the employment of the Jesus designation 'Bridegroom' (2^^'^°) of
Assimilated to our Lord. For there Is certainly In- Jehovah yolved in It not merely the representa- tion, afterwards copiously developed in the New Tes- tament, of our Lord as the Bridegroom of the people of God, by virtue of which His Church is His bride (Mt 22^ 25s Jno 329, Rom 7^ 2 Cor 1 1", Eph 5-^ Rev 19" 21-'^), but also a reminiscence of those Old Tes- tament passages, of which Hos 2^^ may be taken as the type (cf. Ex 20^ Jer 2-*^, Ezek i638,6o,63^^ jj^ which Jehovah's relation to His people is set forth under the figure of that of a loving husband to his wife. In other words, the use of ' the Bridegroom ' as a designa- tion of our Lord assimilates His relation to the people of God to that which in the Old Testament is exclu-
46 The Designations of Our Lord