The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 584

authcntioity of many of the trn,litiorm,l sites varnished details are more than 1millcient In the holy city oncl its neighbourhood, to place the reader by the Saviour's side Further clieooveries will set this and other and rna.ke him feel every pang, sympathiz~ matters at rest. Meantime, judgment must with the grief, the shame, the horror, that bo susponcled (see on ver, 51). rent the heart of Jesus. The sacred authors Vera, 84--44.-'I'he Crucifixion and the have said little about the mode of cruci- mooT,ery. (Mark J:V. 23-32; Luke xxiii. fixion, and have left untold many particulars which we should be.ve liked to bear. This 82-43; John xix, 18-24.) horrid pnnisbment was too well known at Ver. 34.-Vinegar . .. mingled with gall that time to need description, and they saw (xoMji), Instead of "vinegar" (6toi) very no necessity for dwelling on its revolting many manuscripts, followed by Tiscben- details. (For some of these, see on ver. 32.) dorf, Westcott and Hort, and others, read Whether in the present case the upright here, as in Mnrk, "wine" (olvov). Dede- beam of the cross wBB fixed in i ta position runt ei tiinwm bibere (Vulge.te). Doubt- before the Prisoner we.a fastened to it, or less the two words represent the same fluid, whether it was laid flat on the ground, set a wine of a sharp and acrid taste. The in order, and the Sufferer was nailed thereto received reading in our text is supposed to before it was raised and Bttlled in its 1,lnce, be derived from Ps. lxix. 21, "'l'bey gave we a.re not informed. The former was the me gall for my meats, nnd in my thirst they method commonly employed. To carry out gave me vinegar to drink." " Gall" here the execution a quatrrnion of soldiers (Acts signifies some bitter ingredient (St. Mark xii 4) we.a appointed under the co=and calls it "myITh "), which was infused in the of e. centurion ( ver. 54) Parted his garmenis, wine to impart a ne.rcotio quality. It we.a caeting lots. The clothes of criminals were the custom to offer this draught to criminals the perquisite of the solrliers charged with about to undergo cruoi.fi.xion, either as an the execution. They divided these amongst anodyne or to give them adventitious the four, casting lots to dttermine wbe.t strength to bear their sufferings, The each should take. Further details are beverage is said to have been prepared by supplied by St, John (x:ix. 2.3, 24). Tha.t it some benevolent le.dies in J eruse.lem, and to might be fnlfilled . . . they co.at lots. These have been owed to e. gloss on Prov. xui. words e.re retained in the Clementine Vnl- 6, 7, "Give strong drink unto !Jim that is gate e.nd e. few cursives, but omitted by the ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in best uncials and most other manuscripts. soul; let him driuk, and forget his poverty, Modern editors almost universally have e.nd remember bill misery no more." This rejected them as an interpolation from the was not e.n additional insult offered to Jesus, rare.lie! passage in St. John. There can a.a some have opined, but e. usual a.et of be no doubt, however, that, whether gen nine kindliness. When he had tasted thereof, he or not in this place, they represent the would not (ov1< fi0•;\•) drillk. He accepted truth. The soldiers' act did fulfil in the kindly offer so far as to put his lips to marvellous fasliion the psalmist's enuncia- the oup, but, recognizing its stupefying tion (Pa. x:x.ii. 18), where the stripping of qualities, be refused to drink it.· He willed the Lord's Anointed and the disposal of his to endure e.ll the coming pa.ins without raiment are prophetically stated. mitigation; he would meet all with the Ver. 86.-They we.tubed him there. The powers of mind and body unde.rkened; be soldiers, in relays, had to guard the criminal would have bis seuses and his self-conscious- from any attempt of his friends to remove ness unimpaired to the end. him from the cross-a long and tedious Ver. 85.-They orucifted him. We should duty, during the performance of which they try to realize the utter degradation as well were allowed to sit. Crucifixion was not 68 the anguish ofsuoh a denth. No modern acoompa.nied by immediate death. It was form of punishment carries with it the one of its greatest horrors that the tortured abhorred ignominy with which oruoillxion sufferer sometimes lived for days before wn~ regarded, e.nd we must put ourselves dee.Lb relieved him from !,is agony. Till back eighteen centuries, and enter into the this sup0rveued., the guard had to keep feelings of J ewe and Romans, if we would watch. That this caution was not super- view it in its genuine aspect. The narrative fluous, we have intimations in ancieu~ of this harrowing scene could not be simpler. history, which tells of cruoitierl persons The writer leaves it reverently to speak for being sometimes removed by their friend~ Itself, without a.ny attempt at sensational and restored to the use of their limbs and ,djuncts or rhetorical e.mpliflca.tion. There fe.oulties. Josephus (' Vita,' 75) rtJlo.tes Is no indignation e.t the outrage, no com- that he thus took dowu three criminals passion for the Bufferer, no commendation after" lengthened suspension, one of whom of the Divinepntience. Thesn a.re suppressed, oomplotely recovered, though the others because they needod no •words; the uu- succumbed to their injuries. This vigilance  690 THE GOSPEL ACOOT!nTNG TO ST. MATTIIE\V. [ou. xxvu.1-66,