142 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XXVI.
55. A thief (Ayor)v). Better Rev., a robber. See John x. 1, 8; and Luke xxiii. 39-43. It is more than a petty stealer; rather one with associates, who would require an armed band to apprehend him. Hence the propriety of the reference to swords and staves.
I sat (exaSefounv). The imperfect tense, denoting something habitual. I was accustomed to sit.
63. |adjure thee. I call upon thee to swear. The high- priest put Christ upon oath.
That (iva). Inorder that ; signifying the design with which he adjured the Lord.
64. Thou hast said. An affirmation. You have spoken the truth. What thou hast asked me is the fact. Compare ver. 25.
Nevertheless (7\jv). However. Apart from my affirma- tion, you shall see for yourself.
66. Guilty of death (évoyos Javdtov). Rev., worthy of death. See on Matt. xxiii. 18. év, in, éyo, to hold. The idea is, literally, holden of death ; in bonds to death.
67. Buffet (exoAddicav). With the fist.
Smote with the palms of their hands. All expressed by one word, épdmcav, from paris, a rod, and meaning to smite with vods, not with the palms. The same word is employed
Matt. v. 39. It came to mean generally to strike.
69. Adamsel (ia madlonn). Lit., one damsel, because the writer has in mind a second one (ver. 71).
71. Gone out. Through fear of being further questioned.
Cu. XXVIL.]J MATTHEW. 143
72. The man. Asif he did not know Jesus’ name.
74. To curse (xataSeuarigew). A new development of pro- fanity. Hitherto he had merely sworn. Now he adds impre- cation; invoking curses on himself if the case be not as he says.
CHAPTER £X VII. _ 8. Repented himself (weraperndets). See on Matt. xxi. 29.
What is that to us? They ignore the question of Christ’s innocence. As to Judas’ sin or. conscience, that is Acs matter. Thou wilt see to that.
5. Inthe temple. But the best reading is ets rv vadv, into the sanctuary. He cast the pieces over the barrier of the en- closure which surrounded the sanctuary, or temple proper, and within which only the priests were allowed, and therefore into the sanctuary.
6. It is not lawful. In such cases the Jewish law provided that the money was to be restored to the donor; and if he in- sisted on giving it, that he should be induced to spend it for something for the public weal. This explains the apparent dis- crepancy between Matthew’s account and that in the book of Acts (i. 18). By a fiction of the law the money was still con- sidered to be Judas’, and to have been applied by him to the purchase of the potter’s field.
Scarlet (xoxxivnv). From xoxkos, cochineal, which grew in several parts of Greece. (Garments of this color would seem to have been rare among the orientals. Herodotus relates that the admiration of Darius, then an officer in the army, was ex- cited by the scarlet cloak of a Samian exile, who, on his offering to purchase it, presented it to him, and was afterward richly rewarded when Darius came to the throne (iii. 189).
144 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XXVII.
98. Robe (yAauvda). The short military cloak which kings and emperors as well as soldiers wore.
32. Compelled to go (ijryyapevoav). See on Matt. v. 41. Rev. has impressed in margin.
33. Golgotha. An Aramaic word, Gulgoltha, = the Hebrew, Gulgoleth, and translated skull in Judg. ix. 53; 2 Kings ix. 35. The word Calvary comes through the Latin calvaria, meaning skull, and used in the Vulgate. The New Testament narrative does not mention a mount or hill. The place was probably a rounded elevation. The meaning is not, as Tynd., a place of dead men’s skulls, but simply skeld.
34. Wine (ofvov). The older texts read é£0s, vinegar. The compound of wine and gall was intended as a stupefying draught.