48. "o£ou£, with vinegar) The soldiers were accustomed to drink vinegar1 themselves, as Gataker remarks, Posthumous Miscel lanies, ch. vi.
49. Oi ds Xo/cro/, but the rest) i.e. of those present, opposed to those whose speech and conduct is related in ver. 47, 48.2 — iteyov, JC.T-.X., said, etc.) After the fearful darkness, they return to their scoffs. — apt:, let be) They mean, that the aid of their com panion [who offered the vinegar] is unnecessary, as Elias has been summoned.
50. Kpa^ag, x.r.X., having cried, etc.) A free laying down of life. He was not deprived of life by the power of the cross em ployed by men ; see Mark xv. 44 ; but yet they are rightly said to have killed Him, because they did so, as far as lay in their power. — d<pr,7.s TO wfZ,ua, He gave up the ghost) The Divine history records the death of Jesus Christ in few words; the homilies and epistles of the Apostles preach the fruit of that death in many : thus the Gospel furnishes the wool, the Apostle makes the dress ; which similitude is used by Macarius in his Treatise, de Elevatione mentis, cap. 19. The word xoi/uaaQai, to sleep, is never employed concerning the death of the Saviour (cf. ver. 52), but avodvqffxsiv, to die, which verb expresses the truth, the gravity, the brevity, and the virtue of Christ's death.3
51. 'Eff^/<r^, x.r.X., was rent, etc.) Therefore the approach to the Holy Places was now free.4 — r, y5j, the earth) i.e. the globe
1 Vinegar, mixed with water, and drunk by the soldiers, was called posca, (pusca, Veg. Vet. ii. 48). PL Mil. iii. 2. 23 : Plin. xxvii. 4, 12, Th. PO- of potus ; comp. esca. — ED.
2 Not, however, excluding the man who presented to Jesus, on a hyssop stick, the spunge filled with vinegar. We may readily suppose that this man was a Jew enlisted among the Roman soldiery. Comp. with this view Mark xv. 36. — Harm., p. 574.
3 By it God was reconciled. Truly, a most precious moment ! — V. g.
4 Matthew and Mark place this rending of the veil after the death of Christ. Luke places it before the words, Father, into thy hands 1 commend my spirit. Both events occurred at this same incomparable moment. Luke, inasmuch as combining the darkness of the three hours with the rending of the veil, indicates, (1) that after the darkness was ended, all the remaining events, up to the death of the Saviour, mutually succeeded one another in most rapid succession ; and (2) that the rending of the veil, which occurred at the very moment of His death, has no less close connection with the supernatural darkness than with the subsequent miracles. To be left by