Ver. 19.—And they smote his head with a reed—the same reed, according to St. Mat- thew (xxvii. 29, 30), which they had first put into his right hand as a sceptre, to com- plete the mocking symbolism—and did spit upon him (évémrvoy ai7vd). The verb is in the imperfect; they did it again end again.
Ver. 20.—And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the purple, and put on him his garments. The silence of our blessed Lord during these wanton and aggravated insults is very remarkable, and also the total absence of any legal grounds for his condemnation. And they lead him out to crucify him. Assuming the palace of Pilate to have been near the gate of Jaffa, north-west of Mount Zion, and the place of crucifixion that now assigned to it, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,—the dis- tance would be about one-third of a mile.
Ver, 21_—And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his oress. It seems from St. Matthew (xxvii. 32) that our Saviour bore his own cross from the pulace to the gate of the city. The tablet, with the inscription afterwards attached to the cross, would be carried before him; and a certain number of soldiers would be appointed to go with him to the pluce of execution, and to see the sentence esrried out. Having passed out through the gate
x
306 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (cu. xv. 1—47.
of the city, they met one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and they compel him (ayyapevove:); literally, they impress him. The Cyrenians had a synagogue in Jerusalem (Acts vi. 9), and this Simon may probably have been one of those who had come up to keep the Passover. He must have been a Hellenistic Jew, a native of Cyrene, on the north coast of Africa. Alex- ander and Rufus, his sons, were no doubt, at the time when St. Mark wrote his Gospel, well-known disciples of our Lord. St. Paul, writing to the Romans (xvi. 13), sends a special salutation to Rufus, “chosen in the Lord, and his mother, and mine;” a delicate recognition by St. Paul of some- thing like maternal care bestowed upon him by the mother of Rufus. It is probable that his father Simon, and perhaps his brother Alexander, may have been dead by this time. Rufus is also honourably men- tioned by Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians. There is a tradition, men- tioned by Cornelius & Lapide, that Rufus became a bishop in Spain, and that Alex- ander suffered martyrdom. To go with them, that he might bear his cross. St. Luke (xxiii. 26) adds the touching words, “ to bear it after Jesus (pépew dmoder Tod "Inood).” Ver. 22.And they bring him (¢é¢povow avrdy); literally, they bear him. At ver. 20 another word has been used (efdyovo.w), ‘they lead him out.” It seems as though, when they had reached the gate of the city, they saw symptoms that our Lord was fainting under his burden; and so they pressed Simon into the service, that he might be ready to assist. At first our Lord carried his own cross. ‘Tradition says (Cornelius & Lapide) that the cross was fifteen feet long, the transverse limb being eight feet; and that he so carried it that the upper portion rested on his shoulder, while the foot of the cross trailed on the ground. When they saw that he was break- ing down under the weight of the cross, they laid it on Simon, that they might the more quickly reach the place of crucifixion. The place Golgotha, which is, being in- terpreted, The place of a skull. “Golgotha” is a Hebrew, or rather Chaldaic, word, ap- plied to the skull on account of its round- ness, that being the idea which lies in the root of the word. The Greek equivalent to the word is Kpavfov; and this is rendered in the Vulgate, Calvuria, a skull, from calva, bald. St. Luke is the only evangelist in whose Gospel (xxiii. 33) this word (Kpavloy) is rendered “Calvary.” In the Revised Version it is rendered “the skull.” The lace was so called, either from its having een the spot where executions ordinarilv took place (though in this case we might have expected to find it called réras koavlwy
| answer to lis exclamation, “ | thirst.”
rather than kpavtov); or, more probably, it was derived from the configuration of the place itself, perhaps a round-like mound, or knoll, sufficiently elevated to be seen at a little distance and by a large number As to the actual site of Golgotha, recent researches seem to have done mucl to con- firm the ancient tradition. The Bordeaux pilgrim, a.p. 333, says, “On the left side of the original Church of the Holy Se- pulehre is the hillock (monticulus) Golgotha, where the Lord was crucified. Hence, about a stone’s throw distant, is the crypt where his body was deposited.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem alludes to the spot frequently, and there was no doubt about it in the time of Eusebius, a.p. 315. Professor Willis says that the rock of Calvary still stands up, some iifteen feet above the pavement. “Tt appears likely,” be says, ‘that in its original state this rock was part of a little swell of the ground that jutted out from the slope of Sepulchre Strect, and probably always formed a somewhat abrupt view on the west and south sides” (see 'Speaker’s Commentary’ on St. Matthew). Captain Conder (Palestine Exploration Fund, Quar terly Statement July, 1882) thinks that he shall be able to show that the traditional Golgotha is the site of the original temple of Ashtoreth, and that this temple was the Jebusite sanctuary before David took Jeru- salem, and round which the sepulchres of the kings were hewn after the worship ut Jehovah had consecrated the temple
ill.
Ver. 23.—And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not. There were two occasions on which drink was offered to our Lord during the agonies of his crucifixion. The first occasion is that mentioned by St. Matthew (xxvii. 34), when they offered him wine mingled with gall, This was a kind of stupetying liquor, a strong narcotic, made of the sour wine of the country, mingled with bitter herbs, and mercifully administered to dull the sense of pain. This was offered before the actual crucifixion took place. It is to this first occasion that St. Mark here refers. ‘The words in the original are (kad éd{Souy aire eouupyicuevoy oivov), “they were giving, they offered him.” But he received tt not. He would not seek alleviation of the ugonies of the crucifixion by any drugged potion which might render him insensible. He would bear the full burden consciously. The second occasion on which drink wag offered to him was after he had been some hours on his cross, and when the end was drawing near; and it was then given in This drink does not appear to have been mingled with any stupetying drug; and we do not
oH. xv. 1—47.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK.