36. Watched (érjpouv). Or, to give the force of the imper- fect tense, kept watch. This was to prevent the infliction of wanton cruelties, and also to prevent what sometimes happened, the taking down and restoring of the victim.
37. Accusation (airiav). Lit., cawse, and so rendered by Wye. Tynd., cause of his death. The word accusation is com- pounded with the Latin causa, a cause. It is the cause of his condemnation and suffering.
38. Thieves (Anota:). Rev., robbers. See on Matt. xxvi. 55.
49, He saved others, etc. The Greek order is, Others he saved ; himself he cannot save.
43. If he will have him (e2 3érec adrov). Rev., correctly, Tf he desireth him: i.e., If he likes him. Compare Ps. xviii. (Sept. xvii.) 19; because he delighted in me (ndédAnoeE pe), Ps. xli. (Sept. xl.) 11 (redérnkas pe).
Ca. XXVIL] MATTHEW. 145
36. Ninth hour. “Early on Friday afternoon the new course of priests, of Levites, and of the ‘ stationary men’ who were to be the representatives of all Israel, arrived in Jerusa- Jem, and having prepared themselves for the festive season went up to the temple. The approach of the Sabbath, and then its actual commencement, were announced by threefold blasts from the priests’ trumpets. The first three blasts were blown when one-third of the evening-sacrifice service was over, or -about the ninth hour; that is, about 3 p.m. on Friday ” (Eders- heim, “The Temple ”).
48. Vinegar (é£0us). Sour wine; the posca or ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers.
Gave him to drink (éorifev). The imperfect tense implies was in the act of giving, or about to give. At this point the Jews standing near interposed, saying, Let be (aes)! “Stop! Do not give him the drink. Let us see if Elijah will come to his aid.”
50. Vielded up the ghost (adjxe 76 wvedua). Lit., dis- missed his spirit. Rev., yielded up his spirit. The fact that the evangelists, in describing our Lord’s death, do not use the neuter verb, é9avev, he died, but he breathed out his life (é- émveuce, Mark xv. 37), he gave up his spirit (rapéSwxe TO mved- pa, John xix. 80), seems to imply a voluntary yielding up of his life. Compare John x. 18. Augustine says, “ He gave up his life because he willed it, when he willed it, and as he willed it.”
51. The veil of the temple. According to the Rabbis this was a handbreadth in thickness, and woven of seventy-two twisted plaits, each plait consisting of twenty-four threads. It was sixty feet long and thirty wide. Two of them were made every year, and according to the exaggerated language of the time it needed three hundred priests to manipulate it. This veil was the one which covered the entrance to the holy of holies, and not, as has been asserted, the veil which hung before the main entrance to the sanctuary. The holy of holies con- tained only a large stone, on which the high-priest sprinkled
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146 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XXVIL.
the blood on the day of atonement, occupying the place where the ark with the mercy-seat had stood.
54. The Son of God. But there is no article. The words must not be construed as a recognition of Christ’s divine son- ship. They were uttered by a pagan soldier in his own sense of a demigod or hero. Yet they may have taken color from the fact that the soldiers had heard from the chief priests and others that Christ had claimed to be God’s son,
85. Which had followed (afries). Denoting a class: who were of the body of women that had followed him.
56. Magdalene (7) Maydaanv)). Neither Mary of Bethany (Matt. xxvi. 6-13) nor the woman who had been a sinner (Luke vii. 37-48). The word denotes merely her town + She of Mag- dala.