31. Kcu or«, x.r.X., and when, etc.) When the mockery was concluded, they removed also the crown of thorns.1
32. Kvp rtm?ov} a Cyreniati) There was neither Jew nor Roman who was willing to bear the burden of the cross. Men were present at that time from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even in the remotest regions Christ has since found those who would bear His cross. — '/m apy, to bear) Simon is not said to have borne it unwillingly. Well has Athanasius (Book i. fol. 10, 11^ said, in his sermon on the Passion, " Simon, a mere man, bore the cross, that all might know that the Lord underwent, not His own death, but that of men."
33. Kpwiov, of a skull} The hill was called so from its shape.2
34. "Ofoj, vinegar) St Mark (xv. 23) calls it, ea^upvie^ov ohov, myrrhed wine : the liquor was of a taste between sweet wine and vinegar (cf. the Gnomon on ver. 48), seasoned with myrrh from custom, adulterated with gall from malice. — oux rrftXt vtify He would not drink) for that behoved to be deferred to the end of His sufferings ; see John xix. 30. And Jesus wished to retain His senses fully undisturbed, even up to His death.3
36. 'Errrfovv, they watched) cf. ver. 65.*
1 Which ought to be therefore omitted in pictures representing Him crucified. — V. g.
2 Not, as I am inclined to think, from the skulls of malefactors punished with death, which lay about there; for Golgotha, in the singular, means a skull, sc. the place of a skull. — B. H. E.
From all quarters in the circuit of the cross the whole world might be hold the Son of God suspended thereon. — Harm., p. 562.
3 Ver. 35. ara.vpuaa.vrft, having crucified) Christ, in order to be a blessing to us, was made a curse. Who is there would have dared to assert this, had not the Apostle declared it? Gal. iii. 13. Let the passages also, Gen. iii. 6, John iii. 14, 1 Pet. ii. 24, be well weighed. — Harm., p. 563. — Itiftipiaxvro rx ipdria. uvrw, they parted His garments) When the very poorest man dies, he has at least some covering on his body : Jesus had none. Not even are His garments given up to His friends and relatives, but to the soldiers. — Harm., p. 564.
4 The crucifixion and the parting of the garments took place about the third hour ; the tumult, therefore, having for the most part passed away, they who acted as guards to our Saviour had sufficient time to consider what was the real nature of the matter. Prodigies, however, at length occurred, by which those men were brought to other [and better] thoughts. See verse 54.— B. H. E., p. 565.