26---34.
30. ὅτε οὖν ἔλαβε τὸ Sos ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, εἶπε, “ Τετέλεσται :
859
” καὶ
κλίνας τὴν κεφαλὴν, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα.
31. Οἱ οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι, ἵνα μὴ μείνῃ ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὰ σώματα ἐν τῷ σαββάτῳ, ἐπεὶ παρασκευὴ ἦν: ἦν yap) µεγάλη ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνου j = 37. Is
τοῦ σαββάτου : σκέλη. καὶ ἀρθῶσιν.
ἠρώτησαν τὸν Πιλάτον, ἵνα 32. ἦλθον οὖν of στρατιῶται, καὶ τοῦ μὲν
- 13. κ κατεαγῶσιν αὐτῶν τὰ Bex Xxxi,
25.
πρώτου κατέαξαν τὰ σκέλη καὶ τοῦ ἄλλου τοῦ συσταυρωθέντος αὐτῷ '
. ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν ἐλθόντες, ὡς εἶδον αὐτὸν ἤδη τεθνηκότα, οὐ η >
κατέαξαν αὐτοῦ τὰ σκέλη °
observe, there were a sponge and a hyssop-reed also at hand. ot δὲ, 7.e., the soldiers, but cf. Mk. xv. 36; πλήσαντες . They filled a sponge, because a cup was impracticable, and put it round a stalk of hyssop, and thus applied the restorative to His mouth. The plant called ‘‘ hyssop”’ has not been identified. All that was requisite was a reed (cf. περιθεὶς καλάμῳ, Mt. xxvii. 48, Mk. xv, 36) of two or three feet long, as the crucified was only slightly elevated. — Ver. 30. ὅτε οὖν . . . πνεῦμα. The cry, τετέ- λεσται, “it is finished,” was not the gasp of a worn-out life, but the deliberate utterance of a clear consciousness that His work was finished, and ali God’s purpose accomplished (xvii. 4), that all had now been done that could be done to make God known to men, and to identify Him with men. παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα, ‘* gave up His spirit,’’ according to Luke xxiii. 46, with an audible com- mendation of His spirit to the Father. ὀφῆκε πνεῦμα in Eurip., Hecuba, 569; ἀφῆκε τὴν ψυχήν Plut., Dem., χι 5: Vv. 31-37. The piercing of Fesus’ side, —Ver. 31. ‘‘ The Jews, therefore, since it was the preparation,” 1.6., Friday, the day before the Sabbath, “and as the day of that Sabbath was great,” being not only an ordinary Sabbath but the Passover, ‘that the bodies might not hang on the cross on the Sabbath”’ and so defile it, ‘they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be re- moved”. The law of Deut. xxi. 23 was that the body of a criminal should “ not remain all night upon the tree’”’. This law seems not to have been in view; but rather the fear of polluting their great feast. The Roman custom was to leave the body to birds and beasts of prey. To secure speedy death the crurifragium, breaking of the legs with a heavy mallet or bar, was sometimes resorted to: as without such means the crucified might in some cases linger for thirty-six hours. Neander
34. ἀλλ εἷς τῶν στρατιωτῶν λόγχη
(Life of Christ, p. 473) has an interesting note on fie ee and ¢f. the Gospel according to Peter on σκελοκοπία, with the note by the Author of Supernat. Religion.—Ver. 32. The two robbers were thus despatched. ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν ἸησοῦνΏὸ ἐλθόντες, but when the soldiers who were carrying out Pilate’s orders came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they refrained from breaking His legs. “Ver. 34. But one of the soldiers λόγχῃ αὐτοῦ τὴν πλευρὰν ο. “« pierced His side with a spear’. But Field prefers ‘‘ pricked His side” to keep up the distinction between évuge (the milder word) and ἐξεκέντησε (ver. 37). He favours the idea οἱ Loesner that the soldier’s intention was to ascertain whether Jesus was really dead, and he cites a very apt parallel from Plutarch’s Cleomencs, 37. But €yxet νύξε occurs in Homer (11.,ν. 579), where death followed, and as the wound inflicted by this spear thrust seems to have been a Παπά- breadth wide (xx. 25) it may be presumed the soldier meant to make sure that Jesus was dead by giving Him a thrust which itself would have been fatal. The weapon with which the blow was in- flicted was a λόγχη, the ordinary Roman hasta, which had an iron head, egg- shaped, and about a hand-breadth at the broadest part. Following upon the blow εὐθὺς ἐξῆλθεν αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ. Dr. Stroud (Physical Cause of the Death of Christ) advocates the view that our Lord died from rupture of the heart, and thus accounts both for the speedy cessation of life and for the effusion of blood and water. Previous literature on the sub- ject will be found in the Critici Sacri and select passages in Burton’s Bampton Lec., 468-9. Without physiological knowledge John records simply what he saw, and if he had an eye to the Docetae, as Waterland (v. 190) supposes, yet his main purpose was to certify the real death of Jesus. The symbolic signifi-