When they had mocked him, they took the robe off him, and put his clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.
As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to go with them, that he might carry his cross. When they came to a place called “Golgotha”, that is to say, “The place of a skull,” they gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink. When they had crucified him, they divided his clothing among them, casting lots, and they sat and watched him there. They set up over his head the accusation against him written, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv32, 33, 34, 35, 37 They compelled Simon to bear his burdensome cross, whereby…
They compelled Simon to bear his burdensome cross, whereby it appeareth that Jesus was so sore handled before, that he fainted by the way, and was not able to bear his cross throughout: for John writeth that he did bear the cross, to wit, at the beginning.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv31–37 31 And after that they had mocked him, they…
31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Ver. 31. Put his own raiment on him] God’s hand was in this, that all men seeing him to suffer in his own habit, might acknowledge that it was very he, and not another that suffered in his stead. Mahomet in his Koran speaks very honourably of Christ, except only in two things: 1. He took up the Arian heresy, to deny his Deity. 2. He denied that he was crucified, but that some one was crucified for him. But what saith St Peter? "He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," &c., 1Pe 2:24.
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They led him away] Quite out of the city, Ut vera piacularis victima et καθαρμα pro nobis fieret, Heb 13:12-13. This was a mystery hardly understood by any of the faithful before Christ; neither could we well have told what to make of it, but that the apostle hath there opened it to us, by the instinct of the Holy Ghost. "Let us therefore" (as he adviseth) "go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach," accounting it our crown, as those apostles did that rejoiced in their new dignity of suffering shame for Christ’s name, Act 5:41; "It was their grace to be so disgraced." Est et confusionis gloria, et gloriosa confusio. (Ambr.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv32, 35 Mark saith, Mar 15:21-23, And they compel one Simon…
Mark saith, Mar 15:21-23, And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.
Luke is larger in his account of the passages between his condemnation and crucifixion, Luk 23:26-32. And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.
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Joh 19:17, saith no more than, And he bearing his cross went forth unto a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Matthew, and Mark, and Luke say, that a countryman, one Simon a Cyrenian, (compelled to it by the soldiers), carried the cross after Christ. John saith, that he himself bare it. Both were doubtless true. Some say that Christ himself did carry it through the city, and when he was out of the city this Simon carried it. Others think, that Christ being wearied, Simon took it. But reason will tell us, that the cross was too heavy a piece of timber for one to bear, and therefore Simon was compelled to bear the hinder part; therefore Luke saith, he bare it after Jesus. The dispute whether this Simon was a native Jew, though an inhabitant of Cyrene, or a proselyted Cyrenian, or as yet a pagan, and whether this Cyrene was one of the ten cities comprehended in the name Decapolis, is not worth spending any words about. All the evangelists agree, that he was crucified at
Golgotha; Luke calls it Calvary; they are both names of the same signification,
the place of a skull; the one is the Hebrew term, the other Latin.
They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. Mark saith, wine mingled with myrrh. There is so great a cognation between wine and vinegar, that it is no wonder if one evangelist calls it vinegar, another wine, which, if it be acid, is vinegar. The word translated gall signifies all bitterness, whether it be caused from gall or myrrh. Some think that some good people gave him wine, and the soldiers added myrrh to it. But this is a great uncertainty. Certain it is, that it was an ordinary favour they showed to dying persons, to give them some intoxicating potion, to make them less sensible of their pain. It is probable it was something of this nature; but our Saviour was not afraid to die, and so had no need of such an antidote against the pain of it; he refused it. We shall find they afterward gave him something to drink also.
Luke tells us that great multitudes followed him to the place of execution, (which is still very ordinary), lamenting him, to whom our Saviour saith, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children; and then prophesieth the miseries that should follow his death, to that degree, that the barren should bless themselves; and they all should say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us. He bids the women weep only for themselves and for their children; for how much better is it for persons of any tenderness to have no children, than to have children, and to see them dashed against the stones, as was threatened to Babylon, Psa 137:9; or to kill them for the parents’ sustenance, as it happened in Ahab’s time; or to see them slain before the parents’ faces, as it happened to Zedekiah, when the enemy took Jerusalem! Jer 52:10. The people also, he saith, should (as it was of old prophesied of those of Samaria, Hos 10:8) cry to the mountains to cover them, and to the hills to fall on them: a proverbial expression, to signify their wishing themselves dead and under ground; or expounded by Isa 2:19, And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. See the like expressions, Rev 6:16; 9:6. In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? It is another proverbial expression, which may be understood impersonally: If they do, that is, if it be thus done to. If God suffers them thus to do to me, who am his Son, what shall be done to you, who are but as dry sticks, and so fitter for the fire? If judgment begin at the house of God, where shall the wicked and ungodly appear? 1Pe 4:17,18.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv32, 37 The sentence of death being passed by Pilate, who…
The sentence of death being passed by Pilate, who can with dry eyes behold the sad pomp of our Saviour’s bloody execution? Forth comes the blessed Jesus out of Pilate’s gates, bearing that cross which was soon after to bear him. With his cross on his shoulder, he marches towards Golgotha; and when they see he can go no faster, they force Simon, the Cyrenian, no out of compassion, but from indignation, to be the porter of his cross. This Cyrenian being a Gentile, no a Jew, who bare our Saviour’s cross, might signify and show, that the Gentiles should have a part in Christ, and be sharers with the Jews in the benefits of his cross.
At length Christ comes to the place of execution, Golgotha, or mount Calvary. Here, in a public place, with infamous company, betwixt two thieves, he is crucified: that is, fastened to a great cross of wood, his hands stretched forth abroad, and his feet close together! and both hands and feet fastened with nails; his naked body was lifted up in the open air, hanging betwixt heaven and earth; thereby intimating, that the crucified person was unfit to live in either.
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This shameful, painful, and accursed death, did the holy and innocent Jesus undergo for sinners. Some observe all the dimensions of length, breadth, depth, and height, in our Saviour’s sufferings. For length, his passion was several hours long, from twelve to three, exposed all that time both to hunger and cold: the thieves crucified with him were not dead so soon: they endured but personal pain, he undergoing the miseries of all mankind.
But what his passion wanted in length, it had in breadth, extending over all the parts and powers of his soul and body; no part free but his tongue, which was at liberty to pray for his enemies. His sight was tormented with the scornful gestures of such, as passed by, wagging their heads: his bearing grieved with the taunts and jeers of the priests and people: his smelling offended with noisome savours in the place of skulls: his taste with the gall and vinegar given him to drink. His feeling was wonderfully affected by the nails which pierced his hands and feet, and the crown of thorns which pierced his tender temples with a multiplicity of wounds. And for the depth of his passion, it was as deep as hell itself; enduring tortures in his soul, as well as torments in his body; groaning under the burden of desertion, and crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Lastly, for the height of his sufferings, they were as high as heaven; his person being innocent and infinite, no less than the Son of God, which adds and infinite worth and value to his sufferings. Lord, let us be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length, depth and heighth, and let us know the love of Christ, which in suffering for us passeth knowledge. So infinite every way were the dimensions of it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv31–37 And as they came out,.... Of the city; for…
And as they came out,.... Of the city; for no execution was made, neither in the court of judicature, nor in the city, but at some distance; as it was at stoning, so at crucifixion (h):
"when judgment was finished, they brought him out to be stoned; the place of stoning was without the sanhedrim, as it is said, Lev 24:14, "bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp".
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Upon which the gloss and Gemara say (i), without the three camps; which were these, the court which was the camp of the Shekinah; or the divine presence; and the mountain of the house, the camp of the Levites; and the city, the camp of Israel; so that he that was executed, was had without the city. Maimonides (k) says,
"the place in which the sanhedrim executed, was without it, and at a distance from it, as it is said, Lev 24:14, and it appears to me, that it was about six miles distant; for so far it was between the sanhedrim of Moses our master, which was before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the camp of Israel.
So Jesus went without the camp, and suffered without the gate, as the antitype of the red heifer; see Num 19:3, compared with Heb 13:11, and the notes there,
They found a man of Cyrene: a place in Libya, and one of the five cities called Pentapolis: which were these, Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene (l); Kir in Amo 1:5 is rendered by the Targum, "Cyrene", as it is also by the Vulgate Latin. There were many Jews dwelt here, as appears from Act 2:10, as this man was a Jew, as his name shows; and besides, there was a synagogue of the Cyrenian Jews at Jerusalem, Act 6:9, so that though he was a native of Cyrene, he might now dwell there, and some of these were converted to the faith of Christ; for of those that were scattered abroad at the death of Stephen, some were men of Cyrene, Act 11:19. And it is very likely, that this man was a favourer of Christ, which might be one reason why they laid hold on him, and obliged him to bear the cross of Christ; since he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, who were men of note among the first Christians:
Simon by name; of which name was one of the apostles, and a common name among the Jews, and signifies hearkening and obedient: and none are fit to bear, or will bear the cross of Christ, but such who hearken to his voice, and are obedient to him, being made willing in the day of his power:
him they compelled to bear his cross; which they did, not out of good will to Christ, but fearing lest through his faintness and weakness, he should, die before he got to the place of execution, and they be disappointed of their end, the crucifixion of him; or because they were in haste to have him executed, and he was not able to go so fast as they desired; for when they, first came out, the cross was laid upon Christ, and he bore it, as John relates; but he being weak and ready to faint under it, and not able to go the pace they would have him, and meeting with this man, they press him to bear it after him: which he might be unwilling to do, partly because it was scandalous and ignominious; and partly, because if a favourer of Jesus, he did not choose to be any ways accessary to his death: but he was obliged to it; and it may be observed from hence, that taking up the cross and following Christ, is disagreeable to flesh and blood: though the spirit may be willing, the flesh recoils; none care for it, or choose to bear it, unless constrained to it,
(h) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 1. (i) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 42. 2. (k) Hilch. Sanhedrin, c. 12. sect. 3. (l) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv32–35 Him they compelled to bear his cross - He…
Him they compelled to bear his cross - He bore it himself, till he sunk under it, John xix, 17.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv32–37 Verse 32. A man of Cyrene - him they…
Verse 32. A man of Cyrene - him they compelled to bear his cross.] In John, Joh 19:16-17, we are told Christ himself bore the cross, and this, it is likely, he did for a part of the way; but, being exhausted with the scourging and other cruel usage which he had received, he was found incapable of bearing it alone; therefore they obliged Simon, not, I think, to bear it entirely, but to assist Christ, by bearing a part of it. It was a constant practice among the Romans, to oblige criminal to bear their cross to the place of execution: insomuch that Plutarch makes use of it as an illustration of the misery of vice. "Every kind of wickedness produces its own particular torment, just as every malefactor, when he is brought forth to execution, carries his own cross." See Lardner's Credib. vol. i. p. 160.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv31, 33, 35, 37 Mat 27:31-32. After they had mocked him, they took…
Mat 27:31-32. After they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him — But it is not said they took the crown of thorns off his head, which served to gratify both their malice and contempt; probably he died wearing it, that the title, which was written over him, might be the better understood. And led him away to crucify him — It was a Jewish custom, in the time of Moses, to execute delinquents without the camp; but after Jerusalem was built, they were executed without the city walls. And Dr. Lardner has proved, by many quotations, that it was customary not only for the Jews, but also for the Sicilians, Ephesians, and Romans to execute their malefactors without the gates of their cities. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene — According to custom, Jesus walked to the place of execution, and bore his cross at his first setting out, (Joh 19:17,) not indeed the whole cross, but the transverse beam to which he was to be nailed; the other part being at the place already. But the fatigue of the preceding night, spent without sleep, the sufferings he had undergone in the garden, his having been hurried from place to place, and obliged to stand the whole time of his trials, the want of food and loss of blood, which he had sustained, and not his want of courage on this occasion, concurred to make him so faint, that he was not long able to bear his cross. The soldiers, therefore, laid it on one Simon, a native of Cyrene in Egypt, the father of Alexander and Rufus, two noted men among the first Christians at the time Mark wrote his gospel, (see Mar 15:21,) and forced him to bear it after Jesus. This they did, however, not out of compassion for Jesus; but lest he should die with fatigue, and by that means should elude his punishment. As Jesus went along he was followed by a great crowd, particularly of women, who sighed, shed tears, beat their breasts, and bitterly lamented the severity of his lot; which gave occasion to his predicting, once more, the calamities coming on his country: for, turning unto them, he said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children, &c.; see Luk 23:27-30; thus showing, that the thoughts of those calamities afflicted his soul far more than the feelings of his own sufferings.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 As they came out - That is, either out…
As they came out - That is, either out of the governor’s palace where he had been treated with such cruelty and contempt, or out of the gates of the city, to crucify him.
A man of Cyrene - Cyrene was a city of Libya, in Africa, lying west of Egypt. There were many Jews there, and they were in the habit, like others, of going frequently to Jerusalem.
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Him they compelled go bear his cross - John says Joh 19:17 that Jesus went forth “bearing his cross.” Luke says Luk 23:26 that they laid the cross on Simon, that he might bear it after Jesus. There is no contradiction in these accounts. It was a part of the usual punishment of those who were crucified that they should bear their own cross to the place of execution. Accordingly, it was laid at first on Jesus, and he went forth, as John says, bearing it. Weak, however, and exhausted by suffering and watchfulness, he probably sunk under the heavy burden, and they laid hold of Simon that he might bear “one end” of the cross, as Luke says, “after Jesus.” The cross was composed of two pieces of wood, one of which was placed upright in the earth, and the other crossed it after the form of the figure of a cross. The upright part was commonly so high that the feet of the person crucified were 2 or 3 feet from the ground.
On the middle of that upright part there was usually a projection or seat on which the person crucified sat, or, as it were, “rode.” This was necessary, as the hands were not alone strong enough to bear the weight of the body; as the body was left exposed often many days, and not unfrequently suffered to remain till the flesh had been devoured by vultures or putrefied in the sun. The feet were fastened to this upright piece either by nailing them with large spikes driven through the tender part, or by being lashed by cords. To the cross-piece at the top, the hands, being extended, were also fastened, either by spikes or by cords, or perhaps, in some cases, by both. The hands and feet of our Saviour were both fastened by spikes. Crosses were also sometimes made in the form of the letter X, the limbs of the person crucified being extended to the four parts, and he suffered to die a lingering death in this cruel manner. The cross used in the Crucifixion of Christ appears to have been the former. The mention of the cross often occurs in the New Testament. It was the instrument on which the Saviour made atonement for the sins of the world. The whole of the Christian’s hope of heaven, and all his peace and consolation in trial and in death, depend on the sacrifice there made for sin, and on just views and feelings in regard to the fact and the design of the Redeemer’s death. See the notes at Joh 21:18.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 And led him away to crucify him. It was…
And led him away to crucify him. It was the custom for men condemned to die by crucifixion to carry their cross, which Jesus did through the city; but going out, or being gone out of the city, and, as it is probable, fainting under the weight of it, (his strength as man being exhausted) they forced a man of Cyrene, named Simon, perhaps a Gentile, or Cyrene, in Lybia, to carry the cross after him. St. Luke says, they laid the cross upon him to carry after Jesus; whether it were that they made Simon carry the whose cross, or whether he only bore it up behind, is not expressed. St. Luke tells us, a great crowd followed, and a number of women, who wept and lamented; to whom Christ said: weep not over me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children, on account of the punishments and miseries that will shortly happen. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v32
TENTH SECTION
GOLGOTHA: THE CRUCIFIXION. (GOOD FRIDAY.)
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Mat_27:32-56
(Mar_15:21-41; Luk_23:26-56; Joh_19:17-30; Isaiah 53—Pericopes: Mat_27:33-38; Mat_27:39-44; Mat_27:45-56)
32And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled [impressed, ἠγγάρευσαν ]41 to bear his cross. 33And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha,42 that is to say, a [the] place of a skull,43 34They gave him vinegar [wine?]44 to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. 35And they crucified him, and parted [divided, διεμερίσαντο ] his garments, casting lots: [that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet (Psa_22:15), They parted [divided] my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast 3637lots.]45 And sitting down they watched him there; And [they] set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38Then were there [are] two thieves [robbers, λῃσταί ] crucified with him; one on the right hand, and another on the left. 39And they that passed by reviled him, wagging 40[shaking]46 their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in 41three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Like wise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, 42He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be [he is] the King of Israel,47 let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him [we believe on him].48 43He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. 44The thieves [robbers] also, which [who] were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth [reproached him in like manner, or with the same thing, τὸα ὐτὸ …ὠνείδιζον αὐτόν ].49
45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried [cried out, ἀνεβόησεν ] with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (Psa_22:1) that is to say, My God, my God, why hast 47thou forsaken me?50 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that [hearing it], said, This man calleth for Elias [Elijah]. 48And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. [But] 49The rest said, Let be [Come, Wait, ἄφες ],51 let us see whether Elias [Elijah] will come to save him.52
50[And] Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost [his spirit].53 51And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake [quaked], and the rocks rent [were rent, ἐσχίσθησαν ]; 52And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which [who] slept arose. 53And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
54Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the [a] Son of God [Θεοῦ υἱός ]. 55And many women were there beholding afar off, 56which [who] followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: Among which [whom] was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children [the sons of Zebedee].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Survey.—The same brevity and sublimity with which Matthew described Christ’s sufferings during His trial, characterize his account of the crucifixion. Even Mark, in several parts, is more minute. Matthew, however, gives the fullest account of the blasphemy against Christ’s Messianic dignity; and he alone relates the effect produced upon the realm of the dead by the death of Jesus. The chief points are, Simon of Cyrene; Golgotha; the bitter wine; the parting of the garments; the watch (this last is recorded by our Evangelist alone); the two robbers crucified with Jesus; the blasphemies of the foes; the mocking by the robbers; the darkening of the sun; Jesus’ exclamation, My God, and the varying interpretations and the real meaning of the same; the giving up of His spirit; the rending of the temple-vail; the excitement in the world of the dead; the centurion’s testimony; the women beholding. The fulfilment of the Old Testament symbols of the Messiah’s sufferings is the point of view from which all is described.
Mat_27:32. As they came out.—The executionstook place outside of the camp, and, accordingly, also outside of the holy city: Num_15:35; 1Ki_21:13; Act_7:56; see Lightfoot, p. 499. Instead of being led forth by lictors, the command of whom Pilate, as
sub-governor, did not enjoy, Jesus is conducted to the cross by the soldiery. A centurion on horseback, called by Tacitus exactor mortis, by Seneca, centurio supplicio prœpositus, headed the company. A herald, going in front of the condemned, proclaimed his sentence. Braune states: “There is a Jewish tradition to the effect that a herald went through the city, crying for forty days, Jesus was to be stoned: if any one could witness against Him, let him appear; but no one came forward.” We know from Mat_28:11, that the Jews began very early to throw discredit upon the statements of the Evangelists. These falsifications were, at a later date, attempted especially in relation to the history of Jesus’ birth and death, and regarding the Messianic predictions of the Old Testament. The statement, moreover, of the Talmud, that there were two vails before the Most Holy, is evidently a concoction to remove the significance of the fact attested by the Evangelists.
They found a man of Cyrene.—Simon was from Cyrene, in African Libya, where many Jews were living. Ptoetmæus Lagi, when he obtained supreme power in Palestine, transported 100,000 Hebrews to Pentapolis, in that district. They had a synagogue of their own in Jerusalem. It is noteworthy, that we find in Act_13:1, a Simon Niger associated with Lucius of Cyrene. Mark (Mat_15:21) des gnates Simon “the father of Alexander and Rufus” two men who must have been well known to the Christian churches of that day, probably as brethren in the faith. Perhaps Simon was present as a pilgrim at the Passover (Act_2:10); at all events, he was but lately come to Jerusalem, as his appellation, Κυρηναῖος , indicates. It is not likely that he was at that time more intimately related to Jesus. He had been out in the field, while Jesus was undergoing His tria’s before the various tribunals. Grotius and others, however, assume that he was a follower of Jesus. Rambach: “He manifested, it would appear, some sympathy with Jesus, and was therefore compelled to carry His cross.” Perhaps, during his bearing the cross, he became more intimately acquainted with Jesus; at all events, this fact has preserved his name in everlasting remembrance.54 Simon Peter was not now, as he had promised, in his place: another Simon from a distant land must serve in his place. The very circumstance of Simon’s arriving, a stranger and alone, at this time, drew the attention of the company; and they forced him, that is, they required of him, according to military custom, this service. For the verb ἀγγαρεύειν, see above, Mat_5:41. Upon such requisitions, see Tholuck, Credibility of the Gospel History (German), p. 365. Simon may have been thus violently impressed by excited soldiers without being a Christian (Grotius), or a slave (Meyer’s supposition). Tradition reports that Christ had sunk to the ground beneath the load. It is possible that the captain of the band, who at a later period declared his conversion to the faith, was even now touched by a feeling of pity. The remainder of the way, it would appear, was short; and this is likely the reason why John omits the circumstance. According to custom, criminals were obliged to carry their own cross to the place of execution. [Comp. Plutarch, De sera numinis vindicta, c. Matthew 9 : ἕκαστος τῶν κακούργων ἐκφέρει τὴν αὐτοῦ σταυρόν . That our Saviour bore His own cross (probably the greater part of the way), is expressly stated by Joh_19:17.—P. S.]
Mat_27:33. Golgotha.—Chald. גֻּלְגָּלְתָּא, Heb. גֻּלְגֹּלֵת that is, Skull. Hieronymus and others say this place of execution was so termed from the skulls of criminals.55 On the contrary, it is maintained by Cyril, Calovius, de Wette, and others, that the name arose from the conical shape of the hill.56 Certainly, for the second supposition, two reasons present themselves,—1. That Golgotha means skull, and that the place is not called κρανίων τόπος place of skulls, but κρανίου, skull,—Luke uses κρανίον; 2. that the skulls were not allowed to lie upon the place of execution unburied, but were covered up. The tradition of the Fathers, that Adam was buried there, gives us no assistance in explaining the name. Against the second supposition, the late origin of the name, which is not found in the Old Testament, comes in. If now we think of the Jewish mode of execution, stoning, in which the head was the first part injured, we gain something to support the first explanation.57 It would appear that Golgotha had not been selected as a place of execution till a late date; and that then the valley of Gehinnom ceased to be employed in that way. It is not unlikely that, up till this time, the place had been nameless, and now received this designation, and, it is possible, by way of reference to its shape.
The Christian tradition has made the position of Golgotha, which was certainly no hill, but merely an elevated place, to be that of “Mount” Calvary, the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church lies within the walls of the present city, and in the north-western quarter. In opposition to this view, it is alleged that, without making any mention of the line of the city walls, which may belong to a later date, the city would have been in this part exceedingly small, if we suppose the present district of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to hare lain outside the walls. But, in reply, it is asserted, that a city may easily be small in some quarters, and extend in others. The fact is, Jerusalem then ran out more toward the south side. Against this identity the following have spoken decidedly:—Robinson (Biblical Researches, Bost. ed. 1856, vol. i. p. 407–418; vol. iii. 254–263; and Neue Untersuchungen, Halle, 1847); Titus Tobler: Golgotha, St Gallen, 1851, p. 224 ff.58 For the identity are—Karl von Raumer: Palästina, p. 355; Scholz: de Golgathœ situ, compare Friedlieb: l. c. p. 137; Schubert [Reise in das Morgenland, vol. ii. p. 503 ff.]; Schultz: Jerusalem, p. 96; Krafft: die Topographie Jerusalems, Bonn, 1846, p. 230.59 Wolff: Reise in das gelobte Land, Stuttgart, 1849, p. 83, pronounces in favor of the probability of the identity (more undecidedly in his work “Jerusalem,” Leipzig, 1857.) Berggren is decided for the identity, in the tract, Flavius Josephus, der Führer und Irrführer der Pilger im Alten und Neuen Jerusalem, Leipzig, Matt 1854:—“It may be quite indifferent to a Christian where the place of execution, Golgotha, and Christ’s grave, were, inasmuch as the truth of the Gospel history is not dependent upon the traditions regarding the external and local circumstances in the life and death of Jesus. But, overlooking the fact that tradition is often worthy of attention, there are all possible positive reasons to bring forward, why we should seek Golgotha at once, and only there, where the tradition represents. Neither the old world nor the new has any ground for doubting the common opinion regarding the Holy Sepulchre.”
The following remark appears important:—Jeremiah predicts (Jer_31:38-40) that the city should it, future times extend beyond the north wall (the second wall), and enclose Gibeat Gareb, or the leper’s hill, and Gibeat Goath,60 or the hill of death (of roaring, groaning). The position of Gareb can correspond only with Under Bezetha, and the position of Goath only Upper Bezetha, where Golgotha rose. Both of these elevations were enclosed by Agrippa, as parts of the new city, and lay inside the third wall. From the context we learn that Gareb and Goath were unclean places, but, being measured in with the holy city, became sanctified. That the Goath-hill of Jeremiah is identical with the Golgotha of the Evangelists, is more than probable. The wall of Agrippa was built around Bezetha by Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great.
In conducting this controversy, the following points should be kept in mind: 1. That those who oppose the identity have never pointed out any other site for Golgotha. 2. The history of the city of Jerusalem. It has been proved that the city, at a later period, extended considerably from south northward and north-westward, and that the third wall, or wall of Agrippa, enclosed on this side a piece of ground which had hitherto lain outside the city. 3. The history of the holy places themselves. It has never been disproved, that, according to the testimonies of Eusebius and Hieronymus, a marble statue of Venus desecrated Golgotha from the days of Hadrian to those of Constantine, to prevent Christians from resorting to the holy place; and that this and similar desecratory monuments form the connecting link between the apostolic tradition and the time of Constantine (Krafft, p. 172). 4. A distinction must be drawn between the statements of tradition regarding the holy places in general, and the description of special points; and it is an erroneous conclusion, when we entertain doubts regarding the former, because doubts attach themselves to the latter (Krafft, p. 234). Schultz represents Golgotha as a rocky height, which rose straight up over against the city, having a precipitous face toward north and east, and was in this way a kind of stage, exposed to the eyes of all the city’s inhabitants.
As regards the Via dolorosa, or Via crucis, or the Lord’s road from the prætorium to Golgotha, mention was first made of it in the fourteenth century (Krafft, p. 168). The real way trod by our Lord must have lain somewhat more to the south.61 Braune’s statement, that the way was about an hour’s walking, is incorrect: it was very much shorter.
On the discovery of the holy cross by Saint Helena, the Basilika erected on Golgotha by her, and the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre, consult the Church Histories, and works of travel to the holy land. The central-point in the history of the Holy Sepulchre is the Crusades; but the fact, that the Mohammedans still possess the spot, is less saddening than that Christian sects contend and fight over the holy places, that this contention gave occasion lately to a bloody war, and that the superstitious deception of the holy Easter-fire forms the chief attraction of the feast of Golgotha!
Mat_27:34. Gave Him to drink.—It became a custom in later times, among the Jews, to give to those who were led away to execution a stupefying draught (Synedr. 6; Wetstein on Mar_15:23; Friedlieb, 141). The Rabbins considered this a custom of pious charity, and would ground it upon Pro_31:6 [“Prodeunti ad supplicium capitis potum dederunt, granumque thuris in poculo vini, ut turbaretur intellectus ejus, sicut dicitur: date siceram, etc.”]. In the days of the Christian martyrs, it sometimes happened that similar drinks were administered to the condemned on their way to execution by friends and brethren in the faith who accompanied them (Neander, Leben Jesu, p. 757). It cannot be shown to have been a Roman custom. Nevertheless the Roman soldier carried with him a wine, which, though weak in itself, was strengthened by being mixed with various roots. This common wine was called vinegar-wine (Mark), also vinegar (Matthew). Mark says myrrh was mixed with the wine.62 The Jewish Sanhedrin appointed for this purpose a grain of incense to be mixed with a cup of wine. The physician Dioskorides says myrrh was also used; Matthew, however, adds, “mingled with gall.” By χφλή the LXX. translate לַעֲנָח, wormwood, quassia. The Evangelist may have chosen the expression with reference to Psa_69:22; but he has not marked the fulfilment specially. There is no trace of a later mythical tradition. The most common drink was vinegar-wine; the strongest and most stupefactive mixture, wormwood. Jesus refused this intoxicating draught decidedly, and that, too, knowing its nature: “when He had tasted, He would not drink.” The Romans named such a drink, significantly, sopor. Jesus did not thus afterward refuse the unmixed vinegar-wine when He thirsted, and had finished His work.
Mat_27:35. And having crucified Him, σταυρώσαντες δέ αὐτόν κ.τ.λ .
1. The Cross, σταυρός : primarily a pale or beam, crux, two beams fastened together in the shape of a T; of these, the longer, called staticulum, projected often upward the shorter, or cross-beam, called antenna.63 In the middle of the larger beam there was a peg or a piece of wood, on which the sufferer rested; and this formed one of the most excruciating agonies of the cross.64 The height of the cross was not great, and the feet of the criminal were not more than two feet from the ground.
2. The Crucifixion. The most extreme capital punishment among several ancient nations; it was practised even by the Persians, Ezr_6:11; Est_7:9; still, the Persian instrument of execution was something between the Roman cross and the Germanic gallows. The cross of the Romans was the severest punishment for the worst criminals, and so disgraceful, that it dare not be inflicted on Roman citizens (crudelissimum teterrimumque supplicium, Cicero, Verr. 5, 64); only slaves, highway robbers, rebels, and outlawed prisoners of war, were made to suffer it (Joseph. Bell. 5 Judges 11, 1, etc.).65 Those condemned to the cross must first be scourged; then bear their own cross, also a tablet upon the breast stating their crime, as far as the place of execution, which lay outside the city, upon a thronged highway, or upon some exposed spot, that the crucified criminals might be mocked and at the same time inspire terror. When they had reached this place of execution, they were stripped, and, after the stupefying draught was administered, they were raised up and nailed to the cross, which had been previously erected, and above which was placed an inscription. There was, no doubt, another mode, according to which the criminals were fastened to the cross while it yet lay on the ground. But it would appear that the former was the more usual method (Friedlieb, p. l. c. 142). The arms were first extended and fastened to the cross-beam. The body rested upon a peg in the centre in a riding manner, which prevented the hands from being torn through, and allowing the person to fall. The feet, too, were fastened. Then began the nailing. The old traditional view of the Church, that the feet of the Lord were nailed as well as His hands, was contradicted since 1792 by Dr. Paulus, who maintained that the feet of Jesus were only bound. But this assertion has been disproved by Hengstenberg, Hug, and Bähr (consult Tholuck, Die. Glaubwürdigkeit der evangelischen Gesehichte; Hug, (Gutachten, ii. 174; Friedlieb, l. c. p. 144). The first proof that feet and hands were both fastened by nails, is supplied by Luk_24:39, where Jesus, after His resurrection, shows the disciples His hands and feet (with the marks in them). Again, we have the testimonies of the oldest Church Fathers, who wrote at a time when this punishment was still practised, upon this subject, namely, Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 97; Tertullian, Advers. Marc. 3:19. Further, heathen writers testify that the feet as well as the hands were nailed: Plautus, Mostellaria, Acts 2 Scene 1.66 There is no reference made here by the Evangelist to Psa_22:16.[67] This is a matter not to be overlooked. Moreover, the explanation of the words כָּאֲרִי [which the English Version renders: they pierced] is acknowledged to be very difficult and doubtful (compare Hengstenberg, Ewald, Hitzig [also Hupfeld, Delitzsch, and J. A. Alexander] on the passage). The typical Messianic reference of Psalms 22 to the sufferings of Christ does not, however, depend on Mat_27:16 th, although the similarity is very striking. See Meyer also on this passage. The spirit of torture of the old world must naturally manifest its inventive powers in the augmentation of the pains of this punishment. So arose the habit of crucifying with the head downward (Peter’s death), and such like (see Friedlieb, l. c. p. 146). Hence, too, arose the crux decussata, in an oblique form, in the shape of the letter X, upon which Andrew is said to have bled to death. The Roman punishment of crucifixion was introduced into Palestine after that country had become a province of the Roman empire. Meeting with a similar punishment, of a Jewish character, a modification ensued. Among the Jews, those who had been stoned to death were hanged upon a tree to excite terror, on the condition that the corpse was not to remain on the tree, but should be buried the same day; for one who is hanged is cursed of God (Gal_3:13), and the land was not to be polluted by such an one (Deu_21:22-23). Hence the Jews employ, of crucifixion, the more usual תָּלָה, to hang, and Christ is designated in Jewish polemical works, the hanged. According to the Roman custom, the crucified were not taken down: they were allowed to die slowly; and in the case of young and strong men, this continued sometimes three days. Their flesh was given to the birds, or other wild animals. At times their sufferings were shortened, by kindling a fire beneath, or allowing lions and bears to tear them to pieces. But the Jewish custom did not permit that, partly from a sense of humanity, partly from regard to symbolic purity. The bodies must, according to the law just quoted, be taken down and buried. Hence arose the Roman Crucifragium, the breaking of the legs (otherwise a punishment in itself); and with this a “mercy-stroke” was at times associated, which ended the pain of the sufferer. Were they already dead, the Crucifragium was superfluous; but to make sure of death, the easier mercy-stroke was given, that is, the body was pierced by a lance. We see in the Jewish custom two things, which were combined into one in the Roman: 1. The torturing execution; 2. the public exposure to insult and mockery; 3. the kindling of a fire beneath is the third point, and indicates an annihilating burial. Nero, probably, in his persecutions of the Christians, carried the thing further; later it became common; and the Inquisition, in the Middle Ages, employed this legacy of the Romans, and cherished it lovingly.
3. The Agonies of the Cross. Crucifixion was the most extreme punishment, shame, and torture, which could be devised by the old world, as represented by the severe Roman court of criminal justice. Only the Inquisition, with its fiendish inventions, has been able to surpass this torturing death. There are two sides, agony and disgrace. Each side presents three acts. The agony includes scourging, bearing the cross, suffering on the cross. The torture of the cross begins with the pain of the unnatural method of sitting on a peg, the impossibility of holding up the weary head, the burning of the nail-pierced hands and feet. Besides this, there is the swelling of arms and legs, feverish thirst and anguish, the gradual extinction of life through gangrened wounds or exhaustion. The disgrace and mental suffering also presents a climax: The Scourged One appears as the detested; the expelled Cross-bearer, as the rejected of God and men; the Cross-suspended, as an object of horror, and of cursing (1Co_4:13; Joh_3:14).—The unique character of Christ’s sufferings lies, however, first, in the contrast between His heavenly healthiness and sensibility, and this hellish torture; secondly, in the contrast between His holiness, innocence, philanthropy, and divine dignity, and this experiencing of human contempt, rejection, and of apparent abandonment by God; above all, thirdly, in His sympathy with humanity, which changes this judgment, to which the world was surrendered, into His own, and so transforms it into a vicarious suffering. Upon the bodily sufferings of Christ, during the crucifixion, the physician Chr. Gottl. Richter has written four treatises (1775).68
They divided His garments.—“Perfectly naked did the cruciarii hang upon the cross (Artemid. 2, 58; Lips. De cruce 2, 7), and the executioners received their clothes (Wetstein upon this passage). There is no ancient testimony to show that there was a cloth even round the loins. See Thilo, Ad. Ev. Nicod. 10, p. 582.” Meyer. There is, however, also a “retrospective” prophetic view; and the Jewish custom is to be remembered, the sympathy of the heathen captain, Christ’s mother beneath the cross, etc. The garments became the property of the soldiers, after Roman usage. The outer garment was divided probably into four, by ripping up the seams. Four soldiers were counted off as a guard, by the Roman code. The under garment could not be divided, being woven; and this led the soldiers to the dice-throwing. Matthew presents the different points as a whole.
Casting lots.—For the more explicit account, see Joh_19:23.—That it might be fulfilled.—According to the textual criticism (see above), we are led to think these words introduced from John, “although it is worthy of attention, that ῥηθὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ προφ. belongs only to Matthew.” De Wette. One is induced, certainly, to side with the minority of witnesses in this case. The addition is supported not merely by the mode of speech used by Matthew, but also especially by the fact, that he has put the crucifixion into the Aorist participle, as though he would emphasize particularly the fact brought forward by the finite verb. And this cannot be the division of the garments in itself, but its import. Accordingly the case stands thus: either the majority of the scribes have taken objection to the expression, ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου , or the others have expanded the words, “they divided His garments, casting lots,” according to Matthew’s meaning. The construction shows, however, that this explanation was intended. The prophecy in the psalm is of a typical nature. Upon the misconception of the passage, Psa_22:19, which Strauss charges home upon the Evangelist, see the author’s Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1602 (German edition).
Mat_27:36. And sitting down, they watched Him there.—The watch was set to prevent those who had been crucified from being taken down. In this case, they had a peaceful bivouac which assumed a significant meaning.
Mat_27:37.—And they set up over His head, etc.—The circumstance that the cruciarius, according to Dio Cass. 54, 8, was compelled to carry a “title” stating his guilt, suspended from his neck and resting upon his breast, while being led to the place of execution, justifies the conclusion that it was the custom to set up this title also above the criminal’s head, when fastened to the cross. We learn the same from the transactions regarding this title recorded by John, who lays peculiar stress upon the double meaning and significance of the superscription, Mat_19:20. This title, according to Matthew, was attached after the division of the clothes. The very soldiers seem to feel that the statement of the crime was not in this case the chief matter. The small, white tablet, upon which the accusation or sentence of death stood inscribed, was called titulus, σανίς, or also λεύκωμ α, αἰτία.—This is Jesus, The King of the Jews.—No other crime but this. The Jews have crucified their Messiah. He has His title of honor; they have their shame.
Mat_27:38. Then are two robbers crucified with Him, σταυροῦνται.—At this moment, and not till then, are (present). “By another band of soldiers;” for those who crucified the Lord have seated themselves beneath the cross. This arrangement was a combination devised by Pilate. First, the crucified Jesus is decked with the title, King of the Jews; then two robbers, as the symbol of His Jewish kingdom, are crucified. This was the governor’s revenge, that the Jews had overcome him, and humbled Him in his own estimation.—Two robbers, λῃσταί.—The usual punishment for such an offence was crucifixion. They were in all likelihood no common robbers, but fanatical insurrectionists, chiliastic enthusiasts, such as are frequently met with in later Jewish history. Comp. Mar_15:7.
Mat_27:39. But they that passed by.—Not laborers going to their work (Fritzsche, de Wette), but the people who, on the afternoon of the feast-day, were walking about outside the gate, and going toward this populous quarter, where a new town was rising. As we previously remarked, Golgotha was a rocky height, turned toward the city, forming thus a natural stage for the public exposure of the crucified. And there the citizens of Jerusalem came forth this day purposely, to walk about with pleasure.—Shaking their heads.—“Not as a sign of disapprobation, but, as we may see from Psa_22:8—as a gesture of passionate and malignant joy: compare Job_16:4; Psa_109:25; Isa_37:22; Buxtorf, Lexic. Talm. p. 2039.” Meyer. Query, was not disapprobation hidden under this malignant joy?
Mat_27:40. Thou that destroyest the temple. Following the participial form, more accurately, the destroyer of the temple (ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναόν). The popular accusation brought against Him by the citizens of Jerusalem, proud of their temple, though the false witnesses upon the trial had contradicted one another. Still, they understood that there lay in the rebuilding within three days an announcement of a delivering power, and also a claim laid to Messianic dignity: hence the summons, Save Thyself, and the parallel sentence, explanatory of the first: If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.—The witty mockers do not dream that He will really within three days rebuild the temple which they had destroyed. The parallelism, putting the words into poetic form, makes of the utterances a song of derision, which they improvise in their Satanic enthusiasm, as is still often observed in the East upon similar occasions.
Mat_27:41-43. The chief priests…with the scribes.—The burghers blaspheme, for they were at first stung with feelings of disapprobation; the members of the Sanhedrin mock for they think they have achieved a perfect victory. But their mockery is no less blasphemy: and here, too, appears that poetic parallelism which makes a derisive song out of their mocking. But the mockery rises in this case to frenzy:—He saved others (forced recognition) Himself He cannot save (blasphemous conclusion). Then, He is King of Israel: ironical no doubt, and again a wicked conclusion. Finally, He trusted in God (with blasphemous reference to Psa_22:9); and the godless conclusion, in which blasphemy against Christ passes unconsciously over into blasphemy against God, for whose honor they pretend to be zealous. Besides this, they unconsciously adopt the language of the enemies of God’s servant, Psalms 22. Thus are the statements, and even the prayers, of finished fanaticism usually filled with blasphemies. If He will have him, εἰθέλει αὐτόν:—if He has pleasure in him, after the Hebrew חָפֵּץ בּזֹ. It is worthy of note, that the mocking speech of the Sanhedrin consists of three members, while that of the other mockers presents but two.
Mat_27:44. The robbers also, etc.—Apparent contradiction of Luk_23:39. 1. Meyer and
others: It is an actual contradiction. 2. Ebrard and others: It is only a general expression, indefinitely put. 3. The older harmonists, Chrysostom, and others: At first, both mocked; afterward, only one. 4. At first, both mocked, ὠνείδιζον, in so far as they demanded that He as Messias should descend from the cross. But this the one did, as a nobler chiliast (millennarian), and with a heart filled by enthusiastic hopes; the other, in a despairing spirit. Afterward, the former resigned all earthly hopes, and in his death turned to the dying Christ; the other in his despair blasphemed the dying Lamb (ἐβλασφήμει, Luke). See the author’s Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1565.
Mat_27:45. Now, from the sixth hour there was a darkness, etc.—Since the third hour, or nine o’clock in the morning, Jesus had been hanging on the cross; from the sixth hour,—accordingly at midday, when the sun stood highest and the day was brightest, which also was the middle-point in His crucifixion-torments,—the darkness began. This statement regarding the time, appears to be opposed to that in Joh_19:14, where we read that it was the sixth hour (ὤρα ἦν ὡς ἕκτη), when Pilate pronounced sentence. If we adopt Tholuck’s view, that John follows the reckoning of time usual in the Roman forum, we obtain too early an hour. The periods of the day being reckoned especially according to the hours of prayer, 3, 6, 9, we may understand the passage thus: the third hour (nine o’clock in the morning) was already past, and it was going, was hastening on, to the sixth hour. The sixth hour was held peculiarly sacred by the Jews, especially upon the Sabbaths and the festivals. Mark’s statement is analogous, Mat_15:25 : it was the third hour when they crucified Jesus. Mark, like Matthew, contemplates the scourging as a part of the crucifixion; and that occurred between the third and sixth hour. This cannot have been an ordinary eclipse of the sun, because the Passover was celebrated at the time of full moon. Moreover, Luke mentions the darkening of the sun after the darkening of the earth; and hence it is manifest, that he ascribes the darkness which spread over the earth to no mere eclipse; but he ascribes, on the contrary, the darkness of the sun to a mysterious thickening of the atmosphere. The Christian Fathers of the first century appeal to a statement which is found in the works of Phlegon, a chronicler under the Emperor Hadrian (Neander, p. 756). Eusebius quotes the very words, under the date of the 4th year of the 202d Olympiad: “There occurred the greatest darkening of the sun which had ever been known; it became night at mid-day, so that the stars shone in the heavens. A great earthquake in Bithynia, which destroyed a part of Nicæa.”69 Hug and Wieseler (Chronol. Synopse, p. 388) reject this reference, inasmuch as Phlegon speaks of an actual eclipse. But when we see that Phlegon unites that eclipse with an earthquake, we may reasonably conclude he refers to some extraordinary natural phenomenon. Still, as it is alleged that the reckonings do not agree accurately with the year of Christ’s death (either two or one year earlier, see Wieseler, p. 388; Brinkmeyer, Chronologie, p. 208), we let this reference rest upon its own merits. Paulus and others make the darkness to be such as precedes an ordinary earthquake. Meyer, on the contrary, asserts that it was an extraordinary, miraculous darkness. Without doubt, the phenomenon was associated with the death of Jesus in the most intimate and mysterious manner. But the life of the earth has something more than its mere ordinary round; it has a geological development which shall go on till the end of the world. This development is conditioned by the development of God’s kingdom, forms a parallel to the same, and agrees in all the principal points with the decisive epochs in the kingdom of God (see the author’s Leben Jesu, ii. 1, p. 312; and Positive Dogmatik, p. 1227). Accordingly, the death of Jesus is accompanied by an extraordinary occurrence in the physical world. But that these occurrences, as natural phenomena, were produced by natural causes, cannot be denied. For, improper as it is to represent the wonder in nature as a simple, accidental occurrence in nature, it is equally improper to set nature outside of nature herself, or to deny the natural side of the wonder in nature. This darkening of the sun is then to be connected with a miraculous earthquake, which again stood connected with the occurrence in the life of the divine Redeemer, which we are now considering. The moment when Christ, the creative Prince, the principle of life to humanity and the world, expires, convulses the whole physical world. In a similar moment of death, is nature to go to meet her glorification. When Christ was born, night became bright by the shining of the miraculous star, as though it would pass into a heavenly day; when He died, the day darkened at the hour when the sun shone in fullest glory, as though it would sink into the awful night of Sheol. Heubner, referring to the eclipse mentioned by Phlegon, says, Suidas relates that Dionysius the Areopagite (then a heathen), saw the eclipse in Egypt, and exclaimed: “Either God is suffering, and the world sympathizes with Him, or else the world is hurrying to destruction.” See also, p. 457, the well-known statement of Plutarch (De oraculorum defectu). Ships which were sailing toward Italy, passed by the island Paxe. The Egyptian helmsman, Thamus, heard a voice bidding him say to the paludes, when he arrived, that the great Pan was dead. The announcement of this death called forth many outcries and a sound of bitter lamentation. Many interpretations of this mysterious legend.
Over all the land.—Theophylact: κοσμικὸν δὲ ἦν τὸ σκότος, οὐ μερικόν. Meyer agrees with this interpretation and thinks that, in accordance with the miraculous character of the whole event, ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν must mean here over the whole earth, and not over the whole land (as Erasmus, Maldonatus, Kuinöel, Olshausen, Ebrard, and others take it); yet he admits that the term must not be measured by the laws of physical geography, and expresses simply the faith of popular observation.70 But the legitimacy of “the popular hyperbole” lies in this, that the Israelites used the “whole land” for the whole earth. There is a reference certainly to the whole world, though the natural phenomena may have been fully seen only in the holy land, Syria, and Asia Minor.—To the ninth hour.—Highly significant continuance of the darkness. Mere shadows of this gloom were the darknesses which accompanied the decease of Romulus and that of Cæsar. Virg. Georg. i. 164.
Mat_27:46. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out, etc.—This is the only one of the “seven words” which is reported by Matthew and Mark: it is given accordingly in a pointed manner, and presented in its striking signification. Most exactly given by Mark in the vernacular Syro-Chaldaic dialect, Eloi, Eloi, etc.71 With this single exception the above-named Evangelists mention merely the loud cry of the Saviour without giving its contents. He cried out, ἀνεβόησεν; or, He shrieked with a loud and strong voice. The exclamation itself is given in its original form, as the “Talitha Cumi” and the “Abba” in Mark (Mat_5:41; Mat_14:36). Σαβαχθανί, Chald. שְׁבַקְתָּנִי=Heb. עֲזַבְתָּנִי. “The citation of this exclamation in the original tongue is fully and naturally explained by the mockery of Mat_27:47, which rests upon the similarity of sound. The Greek translator of Matthew’s Gospel was accordingly forced to retain the Hebrew words, though he adds the translation.” Meyer.—Explanation of this cry: 1. Vicarious experience of the divine wrath (Melanchthon and the older orthodox school). 2. Testimony that His political plans had failed (Wolfenbüttel Fragments). 3. Mythical, founded on Psalms 22, the programme of His sufferings (Strauss). 4. Lamentation, expressed in a scriptural statement, showing He had the whole psalm, with its sublime conclusion, before His mind (Paulus, Schleiermacher). 5. Objective or actual momentary abandonment by God (Olshausen). 6. Subjective momentary abandonment or feeling of being forsaken by God. De Wette, Meyer. The latter says that Christ was “for a moment overpowered (!) by the deepest pain;” that “the agony of soul arising from His rejection by men, united with the torture of the body, which now surpassed endurance;” that “His consciousness of union with God was for the moment overcome by the agony.” 7. Amid the faintness, or the confusion of mind at the presentiment of approaching death, He felt His abandonment by God; and yet His spirit rested firmly on, and His will was fully subject to, God, while He was thus tasting death for every man through God’s grace (Lange’s Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1573). Or the voice of conflict with death, a voice at the same time of victory over this temporal death to which humanity is subject. [We have in this exclamation an intensified renewal of the agony of Gethsemane, the culmination of His vicarious sufferings where they turned into victory. It was a divine-human experience of sin and death in their inner connection and universal significance for the race by one who was perfectly pure and holy, a mysterious and indescribable anguish of the body and the soul in immediate prospect of, and in actual wrestling with, death as the wages of sin and the culmination of all misery of man, of which the Saviour was free, but which He voluntarily assumed from infinite love in behalf of the race. But His spirit serenely sailed above the clouds and still held fast to God as His God, and His will was as obedient to Him as in the garden when He said: Not My will but Thine be done. While God apparently forsook Him, the suffering Head of humanity, in tasting death as the appointed curse of sin and separation from His communion, Christ did not forsake God, and thus restored for man the bond of union with God which man had broken. The exclamation: My God, My God, etc., implies therefore a struggle with death which was at the same time a defeat of the king of terror, and transformed death into life by taking away its sting, and completing the atonement. Hence the triumphant conclusion of the agony in the words: “It is finished!” Comp. the Doctrinal Thoughts below. There is great consolation in this dying word. Even if God hides His face from us, we need not despair; the sun of grace is still behind the clouds of judgment, and will shine through the veil with double effect.—P. S.]
Mat_27:47. This (man) calleth for Elijah.—Explanation: 1. Misunderstanding on the part, a. of the Roman soldiers (Euthym. Zigabenus), b. of the common Jews (Theophylact), c. of the Hellenists (Grotius). 2. Meyer, following de Wette: “A blasphemous Jewish joke, by an awkward and godless pun upon Eli.”72 If we conceive to ourselves the state of matters, we may easily assume that joking and mockery were now past (see Luk_23:48). It may be supposed that this loud cry, Eli, Eli, wakened up the consciences of the on-looking Jews, and filled them with the thought, Perhaps the turning point may now actually have come, and Elijah may appear to bring in the day of judgment and vengeance (Olshausen); and, occupied thus, they may not have heard the remaining words. It is by no means far-fetched to imagine that the Jewish superstition, after the long-continued darkness, took the form of an expectation of a Messianic appearance. At least, we may say that they sought to hide their terror under an ambiguous pun upon the words.
Mat_27:48-49. One of them ran and took a sponge.—The word of Jesus: I thirst, had immediately preceded this act, as we learn from John; and, succeeding the cry: Eli, marks that Christ was now conscious of having triumphed. Under the impulse of sympathy, one ran and dipped a sponge in a vessel of wine which stood there (the ordinary military wine, posca); and then fastening the sponge upon a hyssop-reed, which when fully grown is firm as wood, gave it to the Lord to drink. (See Winer, art. Hyssop.) According to John, several were engaged in this act. According to Matthew, the rest cry out to the man who was offering the drink, Wait (come), let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him. According to Mark, the man himself cries, Wait, etc.—an accurate picture of the excitement caused by the loud cry of Jesus. The one party seem to see in this act a disturbance of the expectation; the others see in it the fulfilment of the request, and a refreshment to support life till the expectation should be fulfilled. De Wette thinks the offer was ironical; but he confounds the second with the first draught. His view, too, is opposed by Christ’s reception of the second drink. Christ drank this draught, 1. because the wine was unmixed; 2. because now the moment of rest had come.
Mat_27:50. Jesus cried again, κράξας.—The last words,—not those recorded in Joh_19:30, but those in Luk_23:46 : “Father, into Thy hands,” etc. Meyer is disposed, without ground, however, to find in these words a later tradition, arising from Psa_31:5.73 Paulus’ assumption of a merely apparent death needs no refutation.
[As to the order of the seven words from the cross, the harmonists are not entirely agreed. The most probable order is that adopted by Stier, Greswell, Andrews, and others: Before the darkness: 1. The prayer of Christ for His enemies. 2. The promise to the penitent robber. 3. The charge to Mary and John. During the darkness: 4. The cry of distress to His God. After the darkness: 5. The exclamation: “I thirst.” 6. “It is finished.” 7. The final commendation of His spirit to God. Ebrard puts (3) before (2), Krafft (4) before (3).—P. S.]
Mat_27:51. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain.—Full development of an earthquake, which was mysteriously related to the death of Jesus, and yet was quite natural in its progress. The rending asunder of the veil was a result of the convulsion, although the earthquake is mentioned afterward. Such is ever the case in an earthquake: its approach is marked by such fixed signs as the shaking of houses, etc. Meyer holds that neither the earthquake nor the darkness were natural. But nature and spirit do not in the Scriptures pursue different roads; here nature is conditioned by spirit. An Earthquake, which is not natural, is a contradiction. Moreover, the veil which was rent was that before the Holy of Holies (הַפָּרֹכֶת, Exo_26:31 sq.; Lev_16:2; Lev_16:12), and not before the Holy Place. See Heubner, p. 459, for the refutation of this assumption of Michaelis.74 This rending was a result of the convulsion, and at the same time a sign of the removal of the typical atonement through the completion of the real atonement, which ensures us a free access to God, Heb_6:19; Heb_9:6; Heb_10:19. For the mythical embellishment of this fact, in the Evang. sec. Hebr., see Meyer. [It is simply the exaggerating statement quoted by St. Jerome in loc.: “In. Evangelio, cujus saepe facimus mentionem (he means the Gospel of the Hebrews), superliminare Templi infinitae magnitudinis fractum esse atque divisum legimus.” This exaggeration, which substitutes a thick beam of the temple for the veil, presupposes the simple truth as recorded by Matthew. Meyer fully admits this event as historical (against Schleiermacher, de Wette, and Strauss), and assigns to it the same symbolical significance as Lange and all the orthodox commentators. Comp. Heb_9:11-12; Heb_10:19-23. There is neither a prophecy of the Old Testament, nor a Jewish popular belief, which could explain a myth in this case. The objection of Schleiermacher, that the event could not be known except to hostile priests, has no force, since the rumor of such an event, especially as it occurred toward the time of the evening sacrifice, would irresistibly spread, and since “a great company of the priests” were converted afterward, Act_6:7.—P. S.]
Mat_27:51-52. And the rocks were rent.—Progress of the miraculous earthquake: the firm foundation of the holy city begins to split.
The graves were opened.—Awful, significant phenomenon, introducing the following ghostly phenomenon. The whole forms a type and symbol of the general resurrection and the world’s end, which is seen in its principle in Jesus’ death, and hence is manifested by natural signs. The opening of certain particular graves in the neighborhood of Jerusalem was a special representation of the coming resurrection, particularly of the faithful. But it was typical as well as symbolic, as is evident from the spiritual apparitions which succeeded. [Travellers still point us to extraordinary rents and fissures in the rocks near the supposed or real spot of the crucifixion, as the effects of this earthquake. The Jewish sepulchres, unlike our own, were natural or artificial excavations in rocks, the entrance being closed by a door or a large stone. Hence it may be supposed that, besides the rending of rocks, the stone doors of the graves were removed by the force of the earthquake.—P. S.]
Mat_27:52. And many bodies of the saints who slept, arose.—There is no ground for the opinion held by Stroth (in Eichhorn’s Repert. Mat_9:1, p. 123) and by the, elder Bauer (Bibl. Theol. des Neuen Test. i. 366), that both verses are interpolated. De Wette: “This surprising statement does not seem to belong to the common evangelical tradition. As even a legendary (mythical) representation, it does not harmonize well with the Messianic belief of that time (it may, to some degree, with the expectation of the first resurrection, Rev_20:4); and again, we cannot satisfactorily deduce the thing from the fact that a few graves were opened. (See Hase, § 148.) The legend is more fully developed in Evang. Nicodemi, cap. 17, 18.” Meyer’s view is, that the symbolical fact of the graves having opened, was transformed into the traditional history that certain persons actually arose; and hence he holds the passage to be an “apocryphal and mythical supplement.” With the one fact, that the graves opened, agrees the other, that after Jesus’ resurrection many believers saw persons who had risen from the grave, who had been delivered from Hades. These two facts became one living unity in the Apostle’s belief regarding the efficacy of Christ’s resurrection. Our text is thus the first germ of the teaching of the Church upon the Descensus Christi ad inferos, the development of which we have even in 1Pe_3:19; 1Pe_4:6. The appearance of the bodies may hence be regarded as symbolical; they were the representations of redeemed souls. The death of Christ is accordingly proved at once to be the life75 of the world; as an atoning death and a triumphant entrance into Hades, it acted upon the spirit-world, quickening especially Old Testament saints; and these quickened saints reacted by manifold annunciations upon the spiritual condition of living saints. Accordingly, it is not miracles of a final resurrection which are here spoken of; but, on the other hand, neither is it a miraculous raising from death, as was that of Lazarus, to live a second life in the present world. In this respect, the order laid down in 1Co_15:20 continues, according to which Christ is the ἀπαρχή. “According to Epiphanius, Ambrose, Calovius, etc., these dead arose with a glorified body, and ascended with Christ.76 In Actis Pilati (Thilo, p. 810) Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Noah, are especially named. A different account is found in Evang. Nic.” Meyer. A distinction is made in our text between the effect of the death of Jesus and His resurrection. By His death, the saints are freed from the bonds of Sheol (“their bodies arose”); by His resurrection, their action on this world is restored (“went into the holy city,” etc.).
[There are six resurrections mentioned in the Scriptures as preceding that of Christ, but all of them are only restorations to the present earthly life, viz.: (1) The son of the widow of Sarepta, 1 Kings 17 (2) The Shunamite’s son, 2 Kings 4 (3) The resurrection caused by the bones of Elisha, 2 Kings 13 (4) The daughter of Jairus, Matthew 9 (5) The son of the widow at Nain, Luke 7 (6) Lazarus, John 11. The translations of Enoch and Elijah from earth to heaven, not being preceded by death, do not belong here. The resurrection mentioned in our passage, if real, was a rehearsal, a sign and seal of the final resurrection to life everlasting, but did not take place till after the resurrection of Christ, μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ, which must be referred to the preceding ἠγέρθησαν as well as ἐξελθόντες. The rising was the result, not the immediate accompaniment of the opening of the graves, and is mentioned here by Matthew in anticipation, but with the qualifying insertion: after His resurrection, to preven misunderstanding. Christ’s death opened their tombs. His resurrection raised them to life again, that He might be the first-born from the dead (πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν, Col_1:18), and the first-fruits of them that slept (ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμηένων, 1Co_15:20; 1Co_15:23). Augustine, Theophylact, and others, supposed that these saints died again, while Origen, Jerome, Alford, Owen, Nast, and others, assume that they ascended with Christ to glory. There is also a difference of opinion among commentators, as to the question whether they were patriarchs and other saints of the olden times to whom Jerusalem was indeed a holy city, or saints who lately died and were personally known to some of the living. Owen favors the latter opinion with a doubtful “doubtless,” and specifies Simeon, Hannah, and Zachariah. Dr. Nast adds John the Baptist and Joseph. But in the absence of all Scripture information, it is perfectly useless to speculate on the age and number of these mysterious visitors from the spirit world. So much only appears certain to us, that it was a supernatural and symbolic event which proclaimed the truth that the death and resurrection of Christ was a victory over death and Hades, and opened the door to everlasting life.—P. S.]
Mat_27:54. Now when the centurion.—The centurion who had presided over the execution. See above.—And they that were with him.—The soldiers on guard, who at the beginning had been thoughtlessly gambling. Mark mentions, as the single witness of Christ’s majesty in dying, this captain, who, along with the captain in Capernaum (Matthew 8), and the captain Cornelius at Cæsarea (Acts 10), forms a triumvirate of believing Gentile soldiers, in the evangelic and apostolic histories. But Matthew associates with the centurion, his band; and Luke informs us, the consternation was general, Mat_27:48. The special testimony belongs, nevertheless, to the centurion.—Saw the earthquake, and what was done.—Not only the destructive effects of the earthquake upon the rocky region of Golgotha, but also the way in which Christ gave up His spirit (Mark and Luke).—Truly this was God’s Son [Θεοδυἱός].—Luke says, a just man. The word of a heathen must not always be taken in a heathen meaning (so Meyer, Heros, demi-god); least of all, here. Heathen became Christians, and their conversion was announced by their Christian confession. Yea, the centurion may easily have been acquainted with Jewish opinions; and so the accusation, Jesus had made Himself Messiah and God’s Son, was understood by the captain rather in a Christian sense, of a divine-human holy being, than in a heathen sense of a demi-god. The heathen coloring is exceedingly natural; but the germ is evidently not a superstitious conceit, but a confession of faith. [Alford likewise maintains against Meyer that the centurion used the words in the Jewish sense, and with some idea of what they implied. But the absence of the article before υἱός and the parallel passage in Luke should not be overlooked.—P. S.]
Mat_27:55-56. And many women were there.—Luke gives us an accurate account of these female disciples, ch Mat_8:2. They followed the Lord upon His last departure from Galilee, served Him, and supported Him out of their property. Matthew names, 1. Mary Magdalene. She was, judging from her name, a native of Magdala, on the Sea of Gennesareth; and hence she is supposed to have been the sinner who turned unto the Lord in that district, and anointed His feet, Luk_7:37. Out of the Magdalene, according to Mark, seven devils had been driven by Jesus; that is, He had wrought a miraculous deliverance of an ethical, not of a physical character (see the author’s Leben Jesu, ii. 2, 730 ff.); and this exactly agrees with the pardon of the great sinner. She is of course to be clearly distinguished from Mary of Bethany (Joh_12:1). Meyer says: “מגדלינא is mentioned by the Rabbins (Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, i. p. 277); but this must not be confounded with מגדלא, a female hairdresser, with whom the Talmud identifies the mother of Jesus (Lightfoot, p. 498).” 2. Mary the mother of James and Joses, that is, the wife of Alpheus (Joh_19:25), sister-in-law of Joseph, and of the mother of Jesus. [?] 3. The mother of Zebedee’s children, i.e., Salome: see Mat_20:20. She it is, undoubtedly, who is meant by the sister of Christ’s mother, Joh_19:25. The Evangelist chooses to name just these without excluding the mother of Jesus, and the other ministering women. “Hence we must reject the unnatural assumption of Chrysostom and Theophylact, which Fritzsche repeated, although Euthym. Zigabenus refuted it, that the mother of Jesus is the same with Mary the mother of James and Joses, Mat_13:55.” Meyer.
[Matthew and Mark (Mar_15:40) omit Mary the mother of the Lord, while John (Joh_19:25) expressly mentions her first among the women who stood by the cross, but omits Salome, his own mother, unless we assume with Wieseler and Lange that she is intended by “His mother’s (Mary’s) sister,” so that John and James the Elder would be cousins of Jesus. Luke mentions no names, but speaks generally (Luk_23:49): “And all His acquaintance, and the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.” To account for the omission of Mary by Matthew and Mark, we must suppose either that she had at that time left the cross with John who took her to his home in obedience to the dying request of the Saviour (Joh_19:26), or that there were different groups, the one mentioned by Matthew and Mark consisting only of those who ministered to the wants of our Lord of their substance (διακονοῦσαι αὐτῷ,, Mat_27:55). There must have been another group of disciples, including John and others, to whom He afterward showed the print of the nails as a proof of His identity. Comp. Luke’s all His acquaintance. The previous flight of the disciples, mentioned Mat_26:56, does not exclude their return to witness the mighty scenes “afar off.” John certainly was there, according to his own statement. These pious women, who, with the courage of heroes, witnessed the dying moments of their Lord and Master, and sat over against the lonely sepulchre (Mat_26:61), are the shining examples of female constancy and devotion to Christ which we now can witness every day in all the churches, and which will never cease. Woman’s love truly is faithful unto death. Women and children form the majority of the Church militant on earth, and, we may infer, also of the Church triumphant in heaven.—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See the preceding remarks.
2. The prevailing point of view from which the Evangelist represents the crucifixion and its agonies, is the fulfilment of the Old Testament types. Hence it is that he twice makes the chief fact merely introductory, which is marked by the use of the participial form, and brings out into prominence some special circumstance as the chief thought by the use of the finite verb. 1. Καὶ ἐλθόντες εἰς τόπον Γολγ., ἔδωκαν αὐτῷ πιεῖν, κ.τ.λ., Mat_27:33-34. 2. Σταυρώσαντες δὲ αὐτὸν, διεμερίσυντο, κ.τ.λ., Mat_27:35.
3. The four chief points in the history of the passion, before us, are: (1) Jesus in the power of the Gentiles: (a) they press a Jew into the service of the cross; (b) they offer their stupefying drink to the Lord while dying; (c) they divide among themselves, and gamble for, His clothes, and guard His corpse; (d) they make the King of the Jews a robber-chief. (2) Jesus in the power of the Jews: (a) the derisive song of the people; (b) Christ blasphemed by the chief of the Jews and the teachers; (c) insulted even by their own dying criminals—He can give us no help. (3) Jesus sinks into apparent hopelessness, and with Him the Jewish and Gentile world, though then it is that He is really victorious: (a) the funeral pall of the world, or the darkening of the noon-day sun; (b) Jesus’ exclamation, or the judgment of death; (c) the last disappointed chiliastic expectation of help from Elijah here; (d) the last cry of Jesus, or the dark mystery of redemption. (4) The destruction of the world’s old form, and the signs of redemption and of the new world: (a) the temple service, or the slavery of conscience in this world, removed,—the access to the throne of grace in the Holy of Holies free; (b) the prison of Sheol, or the slavery of the spirits in the other world, removed,—the way of resurrection open; (c) the power of the Gentile tyrannical rule removed,—the Gentile centurion compelled, in his terror of soul, to make a confession of faith; (d) the slavery of women (and of the oppressed classes) removed,—the believing women, in their heroic spirit of faith, free.
4. Simon of Cyrene, an illustration of the fate which befel the Jews after Christ’s crucifixion under Gentile masters. An omen of the maltreatment and shame which were awaiting the Jews at the hands of the Gentile world, but likewise of their end; the Jews are to be excited and compelled by the Gentile world to take up the cross of Christ (Romans 11). Remarkable issue! Even up to that moment, the Jews still were imagining that they had subjected the Gentiles to themselves in the crucifixion of Christ, while the subjection of the Jew to the Gentile was now really becoming visible.
5. Golgotha, the old world’s accursed place of execution, transformed by Christ into the place of pilgrimage for the new world, and into the new city of Jerusalem.
6. The intoxicating drink, the old world’s remedy in suffering, anguish, and torture, proved by Christ, and rejected by Him with full and clear consciousness. The sympathy of the world with the suffering Christ, the complaint of Christ regarding the world’s consolations; and He, conscious of a truer comfort, does away with all these unavailing consolations of the old world.
7. The gamblers beneath Christ’s cross changed into confessors of His glory. The heirs of His coal are at the end witnesses of His spirit. The military guard changed beneath His cross into a camp of peace.
8. Christ, the King of the Jews, between the thieves, distinguished as a robber chief, become the royal Saviour and Judge of the world. The same title which honored the Lord, was the shame of the Jews.
9. The feast celebration of the unbelievers: (1) The people walk up and down before the cross, and blaspheme; (2) the hierarchical powers mock; (3) the transgressors and despairing are angry, and revile. God, however, condemns: (1) The first in their ignorance, speaking as they do merely from lying hearsay; (2) the second in their raving wit, in that they condemned themselves by openly blaspheming against God, while they imagine that they mock Christ (the bulls of the Romish Church, consigning Christians to perdition); (3) the third in their thoughtlessness, who dream not that redemption is so near; (4) generally, the millennarian expectations, according to which the old world is to be glorified, destitute of salvation though it be. But God, condemning this old world, founds a new world of redemption and salvation.
10. The darkness over the earth.—The indication of that development which this terrestrial cosmos is to pass through, according to the teaching of Scripture. The sign that the earth, and not the sinner only, suffers from the curse (Genesis 3; Deuteronomy 28); that the earth sympathizes with Christ (Zechariah 11); the presage of the earth’s final (eschatological) death and victory (Matthew 24).
11. Eli, Eli.—The darkness which spread over the heavens was a visible representation of the state of Christ’s soul during this period of silent suffering upon the cross. The bodily effects of the crucifixion began at this time to cease. The inflammation arising from the wounds in His hands and feet, the lacerated brow and back stretched on the cross, and the inner fire of the fever, consumed His strength. The great interruption in the flow of blood, which formerly circulated so peacefully, weighed down His head, oppressed His heart, and took from Him the joyous feeling of life; and, suffering these agonies, the Lord hung during the long weary hours beneath the heaven’s mourning blackness. At last the dizziness experienced before fainting must begin to make itself felt,—that condition in which consciousness commences to dream, to reel, to be lost, and then returning, to behold the awful apparitions presented by the imagination. This is a state in which we see how near death is related to madness. Jesus was experiencing the approach of death. He was “tasting” death,—tasting death as only that holy and pure Life could taste death. But in this His death, He felt the death of mankind; and in this death of mankind, their condemnation to death. This experience He adopted as His own, receiving it into His own consciousness, and then sanctified it by His loud cry to God: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” In that cry, His deep, full feeling of that great, full death, was changed into a prayer to God; and so His contest with and victory over death, became the glorification of death by the destruction of its sting: the completion of the atonement. His experience of being forsaken by God is expressed in the words: forsaken Me; His soul’s firm hold on God, in the words: My God, My God! The question: Why, is not the murmuring objection of one in despair, but the question of God’s child and servant; and almost immediately afterward, in the hour that He became conscious of victory, and cried aloud: It is finished, He received the answer through the eternal Spirit. From the beginning of His life He knew this, but in this moment it became a fact of experience, that He gave His life for the life of the world; and this enabled Him to declare soon afterward that all was now completed. We should not, accordingly, look upon this exclamation of Jesus as an exceptional singularity in Christ’s sufferings, but as the real climax, with which judgment changed into, victory, and death, the result of the curse, becomes the glorious redemption. This cry of Jesus, which is in one sense the darkest enigma of His life, becomes, when thus considered, the most distinct and most transparent declaration of the atonement. The doctrine of the personal union of the divine and human natures is as little disturbed by this passage as by the soul-sufferings of Jesus in Gethsemane; for the Evangelist refers to no unholy fear and trembling of His human nature, but to a holy one. But if divinity was really and fully united in Him with humanity, then His divine nature, even in the deepest depths of His human suffering, must be united with His human. And this was manifested here. No alteration was produced in God, however; but the deepest human pain, in other cases called despair, the full feeling of death becomes glorified as the fullest atoning submission.
12. The 22d Psalm.—The numerous points of agreement between this psalm and the history of Christ’s passion, led Tertullian to say that the psalm contained totam Christi passionem. We may regard all the psalms as Messianic in the widest sense, and arrange them into: (1) Such as contain isolated Messianic references; (2) such as are typical of the life, sufferings, and victory of Christ; (3) such as are acknowledged prophecies of the ideal Messiah, and of the Messiah’s kingdom. The 22d psalm belongs to the second class. For manifestly in it a servant of God under the old economy describes his own unbounded theocratic Messianic sufferings. The representation becomes, without the writer’s knowledge, but truly with the Spirit’s knowledge, typical of the bitter agonies of Christ (comp. the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p. 673).
13. The curtain in the temple, before the Holy of Holies (see the descriptions of the temple in Winer, etc.).—This curtain was not merely torn in one spot: it was rent into two pieces, from top to bottom. This circumstance signifies that the real atonement was perfected; accordingly, that typical offerings and priestly mediation were done away; that the access to the throne for every believing soul, in the name of the Father, and of the Spirit of Christ, is now quite free. This view we might support from many a Scripture passage (Rom_3:25; Rom_5:2; the entire Epistle to the Hebrews). And hence, the excitement which takes place in the realm of death, which hitherto was under bondage, is the result, not of Jesus’ mere entrance into the realm of death, but of His entrance into the same in the might of His atoning death. Thus, too, is the idea of spiritual apparitions here realized; but these apparitions are to be entirely distinguished from the appearance of ghosts. See the article Gespenst (Spectre or Ghost) in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopädie.
14. The effects of the atoning death of Jesus: (1) Upon the realm of the dead (beginning of the resurrection); (2) upon the Gentile world (beginning of Confessions); (3) upon the world of the oppressed classes, namely, of women: free communion with Christ, in spirit, suffering, and victory.
15. At the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews sallied forth from the city in bands to free themselves, and were nailed by the Romans by hundreds to the cross. The cross of redemption cast upon the Jews numberless shadows of itself, as crosses of condemnation.
16. The cross, which to the old world was the symbol of deepest abhorrence, shame, infamy, and perdition, has now become for the new world the symbol of honor, blessing, and redemption. Even the superstition and vanity of the world have adopted this sign. It has risen to be the object of veneration. It is the original form of most of our orders of honor. But the glorification of the cross is the symbol and type of the transformation of death from a curse into salvation.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On the Whole Section.—See the preceding christological reflections.—Christ treated as the slave of mankind: 1. By the Jews, estimated at a slave’s price; 2. by the Gentiles, executed like a slave.—A contemplation of Christ’s-cross: 1. The sufferings of the cross,—(a) on the side of the Gentiles, Mat_27:32-38; (b) on the side of the Jews, Mat_27:39-44. 2. The contest on the cross, Mat_27:45-50 : (a) its reflection in the natural contest between light and darkness; (b) its culmination,—the contest between life and death in the heart of Christ (Eli!); (c) the false explanation (Elijah): (d) the decision (the drink of refreshment, the cry of triumph77). 3. The fruits of the cross, Mat_27:51-56 : (a) symbol of the atonement; (b) of the resurrection; (c) of the conversion of the Gentiles; (d) of the companionship with Christ in suffering and victory.—The cross as the truest exemplification of, and testimony to: 1. Christ’s patience; 2. man’s guilt: 3. God’s grace.78—Christ on Golgotha.—The Lord’s silence and utterances in His death-hour: 1. His unbroken silence as regards the impotent hostility of the world. 2. His holy utterances: (a) His cry of suffering and of victory addressed to God; (b) His cry of awakening and of victory, addressed to men.—The mysteriousness of the atonement: 1. The deep darkness in which its central point is hidden: (a) the conceit of the Gentiles, who imagined that they crucified a transgressor; (b) the mockery and blasphemies of the Jews; (c) the darkening of the sun; (d) the silence of God; (e) the mysterious utterance of Christ Himself; (f) the misinterpretation of His words on the part of men, and the disappointed expectation. 2. The clear light: (a) the clear and kingly consciousness, which I would not submit to be stupefied, and which would suffer sensibly, free from opiates; (b) the distinct testimony to truth, which shines forth in spite of all the perversions of enemies (the King of the Jews, God’s Son, who saved others, who trusted in God, from whom the dying, no more than the living, can free themselves); (c) the instinct of nature, which testifies by its mourning to Jesus’ glory; (d) the freedom and obedience with which Jesus adopts death as His own, and thus conquers; (c) the glorious results of the death of Jesus.—The Lord’s death: 1. The result of the world’s most deadly hate; an unparalleled murder and death. 2. The result of Christ’s unconquerable love; the all-comprehensive death, in that all died in the One. 3. The result of God’s grace; it was the world’s redemption (its atonement, deliverance, illumination, sanctification).—The sublimity of the atoning death of Jesus, as it appears: 1. Towering above the most fearful and terrific guilt (blasphemy); 2. overcoming the most terrible temptation (the struggle against abandonment by God); 3. bursting through the most formidable barriers (the feeling of death); 4. displaying boundless and eternal efficacy (extending as far as the highest height of heaven, the depths of Sheol, the depths of the Gentile world, the depths of the human heart).
The Particular Portions.—Christ led to the cross: 1. The way to the cross, the falling cross-bearer; the greatest burden and oppression. 2. The place of the cross, or Golgotha, the place of a skull, the heaviest ban and curse. 3. The endurance of the cross the severest agony and shame. 4. Christ’s companions in crucifixion, the bitterest mockery and derision.—Simon of Cyrene; or, the man, coming from the country, who unconsciously became involved in the history of the cross.—Let us go forth with Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, Heb_13:13.—Golgotha, the place of blackest curse, changed into the place of greatest blessing.—Golgotha and its counterparts: 1. The counterparts of its curse: (a) the wilderness; (b) the grave; (c) the battle-field; (d) Sheol; (e) Gehenna. 2. The counterparts of its blessing: (a) Paradise and Golgotha—Paradise lost and regained, Golgotha present and disappeared; (b) Sinai and Golgotha—the law and the gospel; (c) Moriah79 and Golgotha—the shadow and the substance; (d) Gethsemane and Golgotha—the sufferings of the soul, and the sufferings of the cross; (e) Olivet and Golgotha—triumph, and suffering changed into the most glorious triumph.—The honors which the blinded people of Israel prepared for their King: 1. The procession of honor (beneath the weight of the cross); 2. the wine of honor (vinegar mingled with gall); 3. the guard of honor (gambling over the booty, His clothes); 4. the seat of honor (the cross); 5. the title of honor (King of robbers).—The intoxicating bowl and its false salvation rejected for the true salvation, which Christ with full consciousness has obtained for us.—The despairing world, and its means of strength.—Christ assures Himself of the clearness of His consciousness, and so of victory.—Soberness the necessary condition of all deliverance, 2Ti_2:26.—Moral and physical intoxication, the beginning of destruction; moral (spiritual) and physical soberness the beginning of salvation.—Christ must taste our death, Heb_2:9; He preserved a pure taste for that duty.—The visible inheritance left by Jesus, and the inheritance left to His spiritual heirs; 1. The visible inheritance: a booty of Gentile soldiers, an inheritance for which they gamble, cast lots, and squander their time. 2. The spiritual inheritance: His righteousness, His peace, His word and sacrament.—And sitting down, they watched Him. See how the duty of the military guard changes beneath the cross into a camp of rest, through the spirit of peace, which proceeds from Christ,—The fulfilment of the Old Testament in Christ’s sufferings; or, Christ presented with gall to drink, robbed, the King of the Jews.—Christ between the robbers; or, the beginning of His kingdom: 1. In His power to save; 2. in His power to condemn. —The blasphemy against, and the mockery of, the Crucified One; or, the sins of unbelief and obduracy.—Even the mocking and blaspheming foes of Christ must, against their will, praise Him.—The enthusiasm of derision and its result, the song of scorn: the most matured fruit of death.—The reviling robbers; or, dissatisfaction of the crucified transgressors with the crucified Saviour may issue in two different results: 1. It may lead to an unconditional surrender; 2. or to despair.
The darkening of the earth and the sun, the heavens’ testimony to the dying Jesus. A testimony: 1. That creation is dependent upon Christ’s consciousness; 2. that nature is entirely dependent upon spirit; 3. that the fate of the earth is entirely dependent upon the fate of the kingdom of God.—The last hiding of the holy God from the Crucified One, becomes, through the enduring trust of Christ, a presage of His full revelation.—Eli, Eli; or, the last struggle, and victory in one battle-cry.—Christ’s suspense upon Golgotha, the return and the culmination of His suspense in Gethsemane; 1. The full realization of abandonment; 2. the perfect harmony between His will and that of God.—Christ has altered condemnation to mean deliverance, and has thus given it its true meaning: 1. He changed the death, which sprang from the curse, into salvation; 2. He changed the mourning, which nature in her anger assumed because of Him, into compassion.—The crucified Jesus our trust and peace in the severest trial.—“He calls for Elias;” or, Christ crucified even in His utterances.—The last destruction of worldly expectations of deliverance, the beginning of the true deliverance.—Christ’s thirst slaked by His foes: a sign of His repose after the fight. 1. In the wilderness, He hungered after He had fought and fully vanquished, and angels ministered unto Him; 2. here he thirsted after the victorious struggle, and His enemies are compelled to minister unto Him.—Jesus receives His last refreshing draught out of the hands of His enemies in token of peace,—in token that His love has vanquished the world’s hate.—Christ’s last cry, though wordless, was doubtless a cry of triumph.—Death was overcome in Christ’s death, and the sun returned.—And lo, the veil rent.—The glorious and saving efficacies of the death of Jesus: 1. Atonement; 2. the dead redeemed, and the right of resurrection given to them; 3. the world’s conversion; 4. the perfection of the heart.—The new order of things instituted by the death of Jesus: 1. Believing suppliants have become priests (the rent veil); 2. the dead arise; 3. Gentile soldiers fear God and confess Christ; 4. women stand beneath the cross, and beside the grave, God’s heroines.—The spiritual apparitions at Jerusalem, a spring flower of the resurrection.—The earthquake at Christ’s death a sign of the world’s fate under the working of Christ; a sign: 1. Of the end of the old world: 2. of the beginning of the new, Hag_2:6.
Selections from Other Homiletical Commentators
Starke:—Simon of Cyrene, the picture of all believers; for they must bear the cross after Christ, 1Pe_4:13; Luk_9:23; Gal_5:24.—If we lovingly help others to bear their cross, we do a good work.—Luther’s margin: Golgotha, the gallows, and the block.—He would not receive the draught, because He would suffer with full understanding, and had still various utteranance to pronounce.—Nova Bibl. Tub.: See how the Life-fountain pants with thirst, to atone for golden wine-goblets, excess, and drunkenness.—We should carefully guard our senses and our reason.—Luther’s margin: The garments of righteousness do not require to be divided, every one employs them whole and altogether.—Hedinger: Christ’s poverty our wealth, His nakedness our covering.—Christ in the midst of the thieves: this figure gives us to see Jesus surrounded by the two bands of soldiers.—He was reckoned with the transgressors.—Suffering is with some a suffering of martyrdom; with others, penance; with others, a self-inflicted punishment, 1Pe_4:15-16.—Zeisius: Christ’s cruel mocking, the best remedy against the world’s envenomed mocking and derision.—Thou who destroyest the temple! The world has learned in a masterly way to pervert the words of the pious.—What worldlings do not understand of the mysteries of Christ, is to them only matter of contempt, scorn, and ridicule.—The darkness signifies: 1. The power of darkness, of sin, and of death over Him, who is the Sun of Righteousness; 2. the horror of this murder, from which the sun immediately hid his face; 3. that the Sun of Righteousness was darkened to the Jews, and the light of grace withdrawn, Joh_12:46.—Quesnel: Whosoever will not follow Christ, the light of the world, shall remain in darkness, and shall end by being precipitated into eternal darkness.—That Christ does not here say: My Father, but My God, must have its special reason.—All is dark before His eyes; he cannot know when the end and deliverance should come(?).—We had forsaken God; hence must Christ, again, be forsaken for our sake.—Learn from this example, that both may be true,—united with God, forsaken of God,—when the heart has had no experience of the power of the Spirit, of the divine life, of the sweetness of God’s love, of the hope of eternal glory.—The last cry: He roars when He snatches, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the prey from hell.—Luther’s margin: The veil rends: here is the crisis, and an entirely new existence begins, as when the prophet says: “His rest shall be glory,” Isa_11:10.—Such a rent reveals: 1. That every shadow would be now, through Christ, distinctly illuminated; 2. that He, by His, Spirit, would remove every covering and darkness, from the law; 3. that the atonement was complete, so that it was not annually to be repeated; 4. that all had now a ready access to the Father; 5. that all ceremonies had ceased.—Bibl. Wurt.: Heaven, which had been closed, is now once more opened, Heb_9:11-12.—The most firm and hard bodies in nature spring asunder; how is it then that man’s heart is so hard?—Christ has deprived death of his power, 2Ti_1:10.—The centurion: those who acknowledge God’s mighty works, and fear in consequence, are near conversion.—The women: the grateful forsake not their benefactors in time of need.—Friends and relations should remain united even in suffering.
Gerlach:—In their blindness, the members of the Sanhedrin mocked Him, employing, without willing it, the words of the enemies of the Messiah, from Psa_22:9, which passed dimly before their mind; and in this manner, the prophecies of this Psalm receive a literal fulfilment. A circumstance which has been often repeated. When Farel stood before the ecclesiastical court in Geneva, and denounced the mass, the president asked the bench: “He has blasphemed God, what further need have we of witness? What think ye?” They all replied: “He is guilty of death.”—Jesus upon the cross lived the 22d Psalm through, in His body and in His soul. His word: It is finished! points to its conclusion, Mat_27:24.—The veil, the type of earthly, sinful, mortal human nature, rent,—earth, the theatre of sin, was shattered,—the heathen soldiers (chiefly of the German race, for the Romans had at that time a German legion in Palestine), were deeply impressed by the majesty of Jesus.
Lisco:—Every man mocks in his own way, and hi the terms that come most readily; and so here the scribes revile in the language of Scripture.
Heubner:—He was obedient to the death of the cross.—If Jesus had not trod this path, we had been led to the execution-place of hell.—He was cast out of the city of God, that we might obtain an entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem.—He had carried His cross from youth onwards upon His heart, now He beareth on His shoulders the tree of shame.—If we would have consolation from the cross of Christ, we must determine to enter into the companionship of the cross, by crucifying lusts within, and bearing the cross of shame cast upon us from without.—The highest honor is to bear Christ’s cross.—Golgotha: here the Prince of Life overcame death upon his own territory.—This place was part of the Moriah chain, upon which Isaac was to have been offered up.—The drink: the Christian never betakes himself, when suffering and oppressed with care, to worldly pleasures, sensual enjoyments, intoxication, 1Ti_5:23 (the Stoics intoxicated themselves, to deaden their pains).—The world always gives gall to God’s children; Christ has tasted all this bitterness for us.—Why was this mode of death chosen by Christ? 1. It was the most painful and shameful death; (a) the most painful: the body was stretched out, Psa_22:18, gaping wounds, thirst, exposure to the wind and changing weather; (b) the most shameful: quite naked, the Roman mode of punishing slaves, accursed of the Jews, Deu_21:23. 2. The most appropriate for revealing Christ’s glory to contemporaries and to posterity, a lingering and visible dying. 3. He hangs, lifted up on the cross. He draws to Himself the looks of all the world. 4. He hangs there as the atoning Mediator, typified by the paschal lamb and the brazen serpent: (a) upon a tree. The serpent was to be overcome upon a tree, having overcome the first man upon a tree. (b) Suspended between heaven and earth as Mediator, (c) Set in the pillory in the place of men. He took all up with Himself.—Lavater: Jesus Christ upon the cross, Satan’s greatest triumph, Satan’s greatest defeat: 1. The cross, expressive symbol of self-denial, of self-sacrificing love; 2. the greatest of God’s wonders, the mystery of all mysteries, the holy symbol (the cross in the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere).—Naked and poor did Jesus hang upon the cross, indicating that He renounced all possessions of earth, all honor, all rule, stripped Himself entirely, and hung there an offering consecrated to God, which had all its value in itself alone.—The superscription of the cross is: 1. In the meaning of Pilate, an apparent justification of the Jews; 2. according to God’s intention, a punishment of their vain and selfish Messianic expectations; 3. to all time, a declaration of the true, heavenly, kingly dignity of Jesus.—The blasphemy: a High Priest who wishes to destroy God’s temple, a Saviour who does not save Himself, a Son of God who appeared to be forsaken by God on the cross, seems to us self-contradictory; but a High-Priest who removes the shadow to bring in the religion of the Spirit, a Saviour who offers Himself up, a Son of God who is obedient to His Father even unto death, is to the spiritual eye an object worthy of adoration.—They did not know what to reproach Him with, except His piety, His benevolence, His trust in God.—The one incomparable death. His death-hour was the world’s most sacred hour.—The Roman guard: at last the hour of redemption strikes for many a hardened heart, when it acknowledges the Crucified One.—The soldier, despite his rough exterior, has an open, blunt manner, which keeps him, when moved, from concealing the truth or hardening his heart.
Braune:—The darkness ceased not till Jesus died.—Jesus, the light of the world, which shined in darkness, came to keep souls from darkness: He has finished His work; and the token of this completion we have in the expressive sign of the departing darkness, just as the bow of peace stretched a sign of peace over the falling waters of the deluge.—The dead and crucified Redeemer makes light.—We must renounce with Him the darkness of sin and error.—The following is found in Angelus Silesius: Though Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem, and not in thee, thou remainest, nevertheless, eternally lost.—If the cross of Golgotha is not erected in thy heart, it cannot deliver thee from the Evil One.—Mark, that it is to thee of no avail that Christ has risen, if thou continuest lying in sin and the bonds of death.
Good Friday.—See Fr. Strauss: Das ev. Kirchenjahr, p. 211; Bobertag: Das ev. Kirchenjahr, p. 150; Brandt: Homilet, Hülfsbuch, 3 Bd., 298; Archœological. The Quadragesima, or the forty days of the passion-week, and of Lent, concludes with the Great Week, ἑβδομὰς μεγάλη, hebdomas magna, Septimana major. During this season, there was divine worship daily, morning and evening, much secret meditation, a strict fast was observed, and acts of beneficence performed. It began upon Palm Sunday (κυριακή s. ἡμέρατῶν βα ῒων), dominica palmarum. Among the holy days of this week, the fifth was specially celebrated, ἡ μεγάλη πέμπτη, feria quinta paschœ, as the commemoration of the last Passover, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper (dies cœnœ Domini). All took part in the holy communion, which in some places was held at night, though this was an unusual time. And then, too, occurred the rite of Washing the Feet, introduced by the lesson from Joh_13:1-15. The origin of the later designation of Green Thursday [Maundy Thursday], dies viridium, is very obscure. Some deduce it from the custom of eating on that day fresh spring vegetables (probably with reference to the bitter herbs of the Israelitish Passover); others from the passage, Psa_23:2, the green pasture,80 probably a symbol of the Holy Supper. The sixth day succeeded, παρασκευ ή, ἡ μέρα τοῦ σταυποῦ, dies dominicœ passionis, as a day of humiliation and fasting. The meaning of the German names, Charwoche, Charfreitag (Good Week, Good Friday), is also uncertain; from carus, or χάρις, or the old German form of küren, to choose, or karo, garo, to prepare, to equip; hence=preparation-week, παρασκευή. “The Constit. Apostolicœ; v. 188, forbid any festivals οὐχ ἑορτῆς, ἀλλὰ πένθους, and enjoin the strictest fast, because this was the day of the Lord’s suffering and death.” The texts were in the rule taken from the last section of the Passion-lesson (from the four Gospels), often from John 18, 19; sometimes Isa_52:13-15. Many preachers had no particular text.
Selections from Sermons
Proclus:—As the whole state mourns when the king dies, so to-day the whole creation puts aside its joyous brightness.—O mystery! Christ to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks folly, but to us the power of God, etc.—Schweizer:—Simon of Cyrene: Am I still a servant through custom, and through compulsion, or am I filled with the freedom and joy of God’s children?—Ahlfeld:—Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews: 1. A king upon the cross; 2. upon the cross a king.—Schultz:—The redemption which Jesus by His death hath purchased for us.—Gentzken:—What is the cross? 1. A mirror: there thou beholdest thy guilt. 2. A seal of God’s grace and mercy. 3. A temple of virtue.—Theremin:—It is finished: 1. God’s counsel; 2. the work of Jesus’ love; 3. the good works of His people, finished in Him.—Hossbach:—With what consciousness the dying Saviour looked back upon His finished life.—Mazeroll:—Christ’s death, the completion of His work.—Schuderoff:—Jesus’ exaltation in His deepest humiliation.—Hagenbach:—How Jesus manifested Himself even in His sufferings as the Son of God.—The same:—To this very hour does the quiet congregation of the Lord gather together around His cross, amid all the tumult and bustle of this world (the same feelings, duties, consolation).—Harms:—The death of Christ, the chief lesson of faith, and the chief command to duty.—Nitzsch:—Christ’s crucifixion viewed in connection with other acts of the world, and of worldly wisdom.—Palmer:—Jesus in the midst of robbers: in this we have shown: 1. The Lord’s gentleness and love; 2. the Lord’s glory and judicial authority.—Nitzsch:—The contemplation of the dying Lord makes us of a different mind. It changes: 1. Our secure self-righteousness into repentance; 2. our wicked and despairing thoughts into confidence; 3. our repining into a willing endurance of trial, rich in hope.—Dräseke:—Christ’s struggles, and our struggles.—Bobe:—Behold the Lamb of God!—Florey:—Christ upon the cross: 1. His shame is thy honor; 2. His weakness thy strength; 3. His lamentations thy peace; 4. His death thy life, 1Jn_1:6; 1Jn_1:9; 1Co_1:30; 2Ti_2:11.—A Knapp:—The great sermon for the world which has gone forth from the cross of Christ: 1. What God preached; 2. what the heavens; 3. the earth; 4. the pious; 5. sinners; 6. the dying Jesus.—Hofacker:—The world-atoning death of Christ in its power and effects.—Gaupp:—What testimony the cross gives unto Jesus.—Kapff:—Consider how our atonement is completed through the death of Jesus.
The Seven Last Words.—The consideration of these words comes in more appropriately in the commentary on Luke and John. See Rambach: Betrachtungen über die sieben letzen Worte Jesu, 1726; Arndt: Die sieben Worte Christi am Kreuz, 1840; Braune: Das Evangelium von Jesus Christus, p. 425; Brandt: Homilet. Hülfsbuch, vol. 3 p. 326; Fr. Krummacher: The Suffering Saviour, 1857; Lange: Auswahl von Gast und Gelegenheitspredigten, 2 Ausg. Die sieben letzen Worte, p. 208 sqq.
[This section is so rich and exhaustive that it would be mere repetition to add the practical reflections of the Fathers and the English commentators, whom we are in the habit of consulting and making contributors to the American edition of this work.—P. S.]
Footnotes:
[42]Mat_27:33.—Γολγοθά. is the prevailing reading. [Other readings are γολλγοθά, γολγοθθά, γολγαθῦν In Luk_23:33 the English Version, following the Vulgate, translated the Greek κρανίον cranium, a hare skull, ints the Latin calvary (calvaria). The popular expression “Mount Calvary” is not warranted by any statement of the Evangelises concerning the place of crucifixion, which was probably a small round and barren elevation of the shape of a skul;—P. S.]
[43]Mat_27:33.—Lachmann: ὅ ἐστιν κρανίου τό πος λεγό μενος. The reading ὅ is better supported than ὅς and few MSS. omit λεγόμενος Great variety in the readings [In English κρανίου τόπος should be renderer either with the definite article: the place of a skull, as the Authorized Version does in the parallel passages, Mar_15:21 and Joh_19:17, or without any article: Place of a skull.—P. S.]
[44]Mat_27:34.—Lachmann reads οῖ̓νον following B., D., K., L., etc.: this is opposed by A. and others, reading ὄξος. Meyer holds the first reading to have been introduced from Mar_15:28. [Cod. Sinait. reads likewise οῖ̓νον, wine, as in Mar_15:23. But the five uncial (Sinait., B., D., K., L.) and the ten cursive MSS., which support this reading, are nearly all Alexandrine. On their side are the Egyptian and the old Latin Versions (the Vulgate: vinum, and hence the Roman Catholic Versions: wine). It is possible that οῖ̓νον was a wilful alteration to harmonize Matthew with Mark. Tischendorf and Alford adhere to the received reading: ὄξος, vinegar. The difference, of course, is only apparent. It was probably sour wine with myrrh, given to criminals to stupefy them.—P. S.]
[45]Mat_27:35.—All the uncial Codd. [including Cod. Sinait.] omit the reading of the Recepta, from “that it might” to the end of the verse, Δ alone excepted. It is supposed to have been interpolated from Joh_19:20. [Mill and Wetstein, and all the modern critical editors omit the words in question from ἵνα to κλῆρον Dr. Lange puts them in brackets. Comp. his Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]
[46]Mat_27:39.—[So Cheke, Campbell, and Scrivener render κινοῦντες. Lange: schüttelten. Norton: nodding, Conant, however, defends wagging as better expressing the contemptuous, scornful motion intended by the Evangelist.— P. S.]
[47]Mat_27:42.—Βασιλεὺς Ἰσραήλ ἐστιν. Fritzsche and Tischendorf adopt this reading, omitting the preceding εἰ, according to B, D., L., etc. The irony is thus stronger. Εἰ is probably an exegetical addition from Mat_27:40.
[48]Mat_27:42.—The reading: πιστεύομεν αὐτῷ, according to Lachmann and his authorities, is stronger [than the text. rec.: πιστεύσομεν αὐτῷ]. The reading: ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ also, is well supported and significant. [Cod. Sinait. reads: ἐπ̓α ὐτ όν—P. S.]
[49]Mat_27:44.—[Or: upbraided or were upbraiding, Wiclif, Cheke, Doddridge, Campbell, Scrivener; or reproached, Rhemish Version, Conant, and N. T. of the Am. B. U.; or reviled him, Norton. The rendering: cast in his teeth, dates from Tyndale, and was retained in the following revisions, but would hardly be defended now.—P. S.]
[50]Mat_27:46.—The difference in the mode of writing the Hebrew words is unimportant. See Lachmann and Tischendorf. [The best authorities are in favor of lema instead of lama.—P. S.]
[51]Mat_27:49.—[This is, in modern English, the corresponding word for σ̓́φες, which must be connected with the following ἴδωμεν without comma. It is the hortatory come or wait now, and not, as is usually supposed, a rebuke: let him alone, as if they intended to stop the man who offered the vinegar. Comp. Mar_15:36, where that person himself utters the words ἄφες ἴδωμεν, in common with the rest. Lange: Lass nur, wir wollen sehen; Luther: Halt, lass sehen; van Ess: Wart! lass sehen; Ewald omits it altogether and translates simply: lass uns sehen. Conant and the Revised N. T. of the Am. Bible Union: Let alone, which invites the same popular misunderstanding as if it meant: Let him alone.—P. S.]
[52]Mat_27:49.—The addition: ἄλλος δέ λαβών λόγχην, κ.τ.λ., though supported by B., C, L., is here quite out of place, and is an interpolation from Joh_19:34. [The same addition, from ἄλλος to αῖ̔μα is found in Cod. Sinait., which usually agrees with the Vatican MS.—P. S.]
[53]Mat_27:50.—[So Middleton, Campbell, Scrivener, Crosby, Conant. Better than expired, as Norton translates. The article in τό πνεῦμα is employed as a possessive pronoun. To give up the ghost, is now used in a low sense.—P. S.]
[54][Meyer: “That Simon became a Christian in consequence of his carrying the cross and his presence at the crucifixion, may be inferred from Mar_15:21.” So also Alford and others.—P. S.]
[55][Hieron. in Mat_27:33 : “Golgotha, quod est calvariÆ locus. Audivi quemdam exposuisse Calvariœ locum in quo sepultus est Adam, et ideo sic appellatum esse, quia ibi antiqui hominis sit conditum caput....Favorabilis interpretatio et mulcens aurem populi, nec tamen vera. Extra urbem enim et foras portam loca sunt in quibus truncantur capita damnatorum, et Calvariœ, i.e., decollatorum sumsere nomen.”—The ancient Jewish-Christian tradition that Adam was buried where the second Adam died and rose again, is also mentioned by Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine, and turned to practical account. Augustine: “Quia ibi erectus sit medicus, ubi jacebat ægrotus.” Dr. Wordsworth allegorizes on Golgotha (from גָּלַל volvit hence a rolling, and a skull from its roundness), and brings it in connection with the hill Gilgal. Jos_5:9, where Joshua had his camp and rolled away (גַּלּוֹהִי) the reproach of Egypt. So by our Jesus at Golgotha the shame and guilt of sin was rolled away from the Israel of God; and there was His camp, for He conquered by the cross. Rather far fetched.—P. S.]
[56][So also Reland, Palest, p. 860, Bengel, Winer, Ewald, Meyer, A. Alexander. The objection of Alford and Wordsworth, that no such bill or rock is known to have existed (comp. Stanley, Palestine, p. 454), is hardly valid in view of the hilly and rocky character of Jerusalem and its vicinity. Ewald identifies it with “the hill Gareb,” Jer_31:39; Krafft and Lange with Goath, which was without the city. Williams (Holy City, 2:240) supposes that the rock of Calvary was part of a little swell of the ground forming a somewhat abrupt brow on the west and south sides, which would afford a convenient spot for public execution, as it was sufficiently elevated to raise the sufferers above the gazing crowd —P. S.]
[57][This is hardly of sufficient account. The explanation of Jerome appears to me very doubtful for three reasons: 1. The name would then be not the place of a skull (τόπος κρανίου), still less a skull simply, as in the Hebrew and in the Greek of St. Luke (κρανίον), but the place of skulls (τόπος κρανίων); 2. there is no record that the Jews had a special place for public execution; 3. it is extremely unlikely that a rich man, like Joseph of Arimathea, should have kept a garden in such a place (for the sepulchre of Christ was near the place of crucifixion, Joh_19:41).—P. S.]
[58][Also John Wilson, Barclay, Bonar, Stewart, Arnold, Meyer, Ewald, Sam. J. Andrews: The Life of our Lord upon the Earth., New York, 1863, p. 560 sqq.. and Arnold, art. in Herzog’s Encyklopädie, vol. 5:307 ff., where the reader will find a summary of the principal arguments on both sides of the question with special reference to Robin son and Williams, as the chief champions of the opposite views. Korte, a German bookseller, who visited Jerusalem, A. D. 1788, at the same time with the learned Pococke, was the first who took a stand against the supposed identity of the spot of the Holy Sepulchre with the place of the crucifixion and sepulchre of our Lord. The late Dr. Robinson, of Union Theol. Seminary, New York, strongly opposes the old tradition, and lays down the general principle “that all ecclesiastical tradition respecting the ancient places in and around Jerusalem and throughout Palestine is of no value; except as far as it is supported by circumstances known from the Scriptures or from other cotemporary testimony” (Bibl. Researches in Palestine, etc., vol. 1 p. 258 and 3 p. 263 of the last Boston edition. Comp. also James Ferguson, art. Jerusalem, in W. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 1 p. 1028 sqq Ritter, Winer, Bartlett, Stanley, and Ellicott, leave the matter doubtful.—P. S.]
[59][Comp. also on the same side Chateaubriand, who led the way in this century in a plausible defence of the old tradition, reasoning mainly a priori that the Christians must have known from the beginning and could never forget the places of Christ’s death and burial (Itinéraire de Paris à Jerusalem, Paris, 1811); Tischendorf (Reise in den Orient, Leipzig, 1846, vol. ii. 17 ff.); Geo. Finley (On the Site of the Holy Sepulchre, London, 1847); Olin; Prime; Lewin (Jerusalem, London, 1861); G. Williams (The Holy City, London, 1845; 2d ed. 1849, 2 vols.). Dr. Alford on Mat_27:33 does not enter into the merits of the question, but gives it as his opinion that Williams “has made a very strong case for the commonly received site of Calvary and the Sepulchre.” The question is of little practical importance. The main argument in favor of the identity is derived from the unbroken Christian tradition. But while we are reluctant to break with a tradition of such extent, it is repugnant to sound Christian feeling to believe that a spot so often profaned and disgraced by the most unworthy superstitions, impostures, and quarrels of Christian sects, should be actually the sacred spot where the Saviour died for the sins of the race. At all events the testimony of tradition in such a case is not so important as maintained by Williams when he affirms that “the credit of the whole Church for fifteen hundred years is in some measure Involved In its veracity.” The Christian Church never claimed geographical and topographical infallibility, and leaves the question of the holy places open to fair criticism. The Apostles and Evangelists barely allude to the places of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection. They fixed their eyes upon the great facts themselves, and wershipped the exalted Saviour in heaven, where He lives for ever. It was only since the age of Constantine, in the fourth century, that those localities were abused in the service of an almost idolatrous superstition, yet not without continued protest from many of the wisest and best men of the Church. From the Gospels so much only appears with certainty as to the place of the crucifixion, that it was out of the city, Mat_28:11; Joh_19:17; comp. Heb_13:12; yet near the city, Joh_19:20; apparently near a thoroughfare, as may be inferred from Mar_15:29; and that the sepulchre was near the place of the crucifixion, Joh_19:41, in a garden and hewn in a rock, Mat_27:60 and the parallel passages.—P. S.]
[60][Or accurately Goah, גֹּעה, the th being added to connect the Hebrew particle of motion,—Goathah. Gesenius derives it from גָּעָה, to low, or moo, as a cow. Hence also the translation of the Targum the heifer’s pool. The Syriac, on the other hand, has leromto, to the eminence, perhaps reading גֹּאָה.—P. S.]
[61][“If the trial of the Lord was at the palace of Herod on Mount Sion, He could not have passed along the Via dolorosa.” Andrews, 1. c p. 534.—P. S.]
[62][There is do necessary contradiction, as asserted by Meyer and Alford, between the “vinegar mingled with gall” of Matthew and the “wine mingled with myrrh” of Mark, since the common wine of the soldiers was little better than vinegar, and since χολή, gall, is used the Septuagint for various kinds of bitter substances. See Winer, sub Essig, vol. 1 p. 349 f.—P. S.]
[63][There were three forms of the cross: 1. Crux immissa or capitata, a transverse beam crossing a perpendicular one at some distance from the top,=+. According to tradition this was the form of the Saviour’s cross, which is thus commonly represented on ancient coins and in modern pictures of the crucifixion. There is no proof of this, but it appears probable from the fact that the “title” was placed over the head. The so-called Greek cross is a form of the crux immissa, where the two beams cross each other in the middle, and the four arms are of equal length. 2. Crux commissa, a transverse beam placed on the top of a perpendicular one, resembling the letter T. 3. Crux decussata, or St. Andrew’s cross, like the letter X. The cross which appeared to Constantine, was of this form, with the Greek letter R in it, so as to represent the first two letters of the word Christos= See pictures of coins of Constantine in Baronius’ Annales ad ann. p. 312; in Münter’s Sinnbilder der alten Christen, p. 86 sqq., and the second volume of my Church History, p. 27 sq.—P. S.]
[64][This needs explanation. The projection on the middle of the larger beam, on which the sufferer sat, a wooden pin called sedile (ἐφ̓ ῷ̔ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ οταυρούμενοι, Justin Mart Dial. c. Tryph. p. 818), was rather a relief, and prevented the weight of the whole body from falling upon the arms, which otherwise would soon have been torn from the nails. But in protracting the sufferings, it may be said to have been a chief source of pain.—P. S.]
[65][Crucifixion was abolished as a punishment by Constantine, the first Christian emperor, no doubt under the influence of the humane spirit of Christianity, which in this and many other features improved the Roman legislation, first indirectly and then directly, from the time of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius (although these emperors were heathen and persecutors) to Justinian. Comp. the writer’s Church History, vol. ii. (now in course of publication) § 18, p. 107 ff.—P. S.]
[66][The passage of Plautus alluded to above, reads thus: “Ego dabo ei talentum, primus qui in crucem excucurrerit, sed ea lege, ut offigantur bis pedes, bis brachia.” Here the only thing extraordinary is the repetition (bis), while the nailing of the feet itself is supposed to be the usual method. Each foot was probably nailed to the cross separately, and not both by one nail. In earlier pictures of the crucifixion, Christ was attached to the cross by three or four nails indifferently. Early tradition speaks of four nails. After the thirteenth century the practice prevailed of representing the feet as lying one over the other and both penetrated by only one nail. It is possible that the crown of thorns remained upon His head as represented by painters, since Matthew and Mark mention the removal of the purple robe by the soldiers, but not of the crown. See Friedlieb, Archæol. p. 145, and Andrews, Life of Christ, p. 538—P. S.]
[67][Not: Mat_27:17, as in the Edinb. edition, which follows the German quotations of Psalms here and elsewhere, not knowing that the German, like the Hebrew Bible, treats the inscriptions of the Psalms as part of the text and numbers them as Mat_27:1, while the Authorized English Version separates them from the text in smaller type. Hence all the German references to Psalms, which have an inscription, must be changed to suit the English Bible. The important words referred to above are: they pierced my hands and my feet.—P. S.]
[68][Dr. Christian Friedrich G. Richter. born 1676, died 1711, was a pious physician of the Orphan House in Halle, and the author of thirty-three excellent German hymns full of unction, several of which have passed into common use in public worship (e. g., Freuse such, erlöste Brüder; O Lisbe, die den Himmel hat serrissen; Es kostet viel, ein Christ nu sein; Es ist nicht schwer ein Christ su sein; Mein Salomo, dein freundliches Regieren; Es glünset der Christen inwendiges Leben; 0 wie selig sind die Seelen, He thus describes the physical sufferings of the crucifixion: 1. On account of the unnatural and immovable position of the body and the violent extens on of the arms, the least motion produced the most painful sensation all over the body, but especially on the lacerated back and the pierced members. 2. The nails caused constantly increasing pain on the most sensitive parts of the hands and feet. 3. Inflammation set in at the pierced members and wherever the circulation of the blood was obstructed by the violent tension of the body, and increased the agony and an intolerable thirst. 4. The blood rushed to the head and produced the most violent headache. 5. The blood in the lungs accumulated, pressing the heart, swelling all the veins, and caused nameless anguish. Loss of blood through the open wounds would have shortened the pain, but the blood clotted and ceased flowing. Death generally set in slowly, the muscles, veins, and nerves gradually growing stiff, and the vital powers sinking from exhaustion.—But all the ordinary sufferings of crucifixion give us but a faint idea of the sufferings of the sinless Godman and Redeemer of the world, which stand out solitary and alone,—the unexhausted and inexhaustible theme for meditation, gratitude, and worship to all ages and generations of the redeemed. See the excellent remarks of Dr. Lange in the text. Even the infidel Rousseau exclaimed: If Socrates lived and died like a sage, Jesus of Nazareth lived and died like a God.—P. S.]
[69][I add the original of the remarkable passage of Phlegon, who was a freedman of the heathen emperor Hadrian, and wrote a Sylloge Olympionicarum et Chronicorum: Τῷ Δ ἔτει τῆς ΣΒ ὀλυμπιάδος ἐγένετο ἔκλειψις π̔λίου μεγίστη τῶν ἐγνωσμένων πρότερον, καὶ νύξ ὥρα ἕκτῃ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐγένετο, ὥστε καὶ ἀστέρας ἐν οὐρανῷ φανῆνα. Σεισμός τε μέγας κατὰ Βιθυνίαν γενόμενος τὰ πολλὰ Νικαίας κατεστρέψατο. The same passage is quoted by Julius Africanus, a. d. 222, In Syncellus’ Chron. 257, Ven. 322, Par.: φλέγων ἱστορεῖ ἐπὶ Τιβερίου Καίσαρας ἐν πανσελήνῳ (in the middle of the month) ἔκλειψιν ἡλίου γεγονέναι τελείαν ἀπὸ ὥρας ἕκτης μέχρις ἐννάτης. Another heathen historian, Thallus, as quoted by Julius Africanus, mentions the same eclipse of the sun: τοῦτο τὸ σκότος ἔκλειψιν τοῦ ἡλίου Θάλλος ὰποκαλεῖ ἐν τρίτῃ τῶν ἱστορίων. Eusebius mentions a third authority without naming it. To these testimonies must be added those of Tertullian, Origen, Rufinus, who boldly appeal to the Roman archives for the proof of the eclipse of the sun at the time of the Saviour’s death. See on this whole subject the learned astronomical investigation of Dr. Seyffarth, Chronologia Sacra, Leipzig, 1846, p. 130 ff. and p. 281 ff. Seyffarth, who defends the æra Dionysiaca as correct, both as to the year and day of Christ’s birth, puts this eclipse on the 19th of March, a. d. 33, and regards it both as a natural and as a supernatural phenomenon. He infers this even from Phlegon’s testimony, who says that this eclipse surpassed all others ever seen (μεγίστη τῶν ἐγνωσμένων πρότερον), and yet there can be no greater natural eclipse of the sun than a total eclipse, such as is not unfrequently witnessed in every generation. But the majority of orthodox commentators regard it as a purely supernatural event on account of the time of the passover in the full moon, when the sun cannot be obscured by the moon. So also Meyer, Stier, Alford, Wordsworth, who calls it a σκότυς θεοποίητον, Andrews, and Nast. At all events, the unanimous testimony of all the synoptical Gospels must silence all question as to the universal belief of this darkness as a fact. The omission of it in John’s Gospel is of no more weight than the numerous other instances of such omission. The darkness was designed to exhibit the amazement of nature and of the God of nature at the wickedness of the crucifixion of Him who is the light of the world and the sun of righteousness.—P. S.]
[70][This passage is entirely mistranslated in the Edinb. edition, so as to give the very opposite sense. I compared Meyer’s fourth edition, and gave his view more fully than Dr. Lange who quotes from the third edition. Alford confines the expression to that part of the globe over which it was day, but sees no strong objection to any limitation, provided the fact itself, as happening at Jerusalem, is distinctly recognized.—P. S.]
[71][Wordsworth infers from this an argument for the use of vernacular Scriptures.—P. S.]
[72][So Alford: “intended mockery, as οῦ̔τος clearly indicates.” Also Alexander, Ellicott, Andrews, Owen, Crosby, Stier, Nast, etc.—P. S.]
[73][Not: Mat_27:6, as the Edinb. edition has it, slavishly following the German here and in similar quotations, without referring to the passage, and ignorant of the difference of the German and English Bibles in numbering the verses of Psalms, which arises from a different view of the inscription in its relation to the Psalm. The passage here meant is: “Into thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed, me, O Lord God of truth.” These were the dying words of Luther and of other great men. The τετέλεσται of John was said before the words recorded by Luke: Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit, and the latter are implied in the παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα with which John relates the death of the Saviour immediately after the exclamation: It is finished! The connection must be plain to every one, and there is no excuse for Meyer’s arbitrary assumption of the unhistorical character of the dying exclamation in Luke.—P. S.]
[74][Origen likewise referred it to the outer veil, and thought that the inner veil would not be taken away till that which is perfect is come, 1Co_13:10.—P. S.]
[75][The Edinb. edition has just the reverse: “the death of the world.”—P. S.]
[76][The fathers, however, correctly assumed that the dead did not actually arise till after the resurrection of Christ. Jerome in loc.: “Non antea resurrexerunt, guam Dominus resurgeret, ut esset primogenitus resurrectionis ex mortuis.”—P. S.]
[77][The Edinb. translation substitutes for culmination, the doubtful issue, for decision (Entscheidung), dissolution, and for cry of triumph (der Siegesschrei, viz.: It is finished!), the death-cry!—P. S.]
[78][In German an untranslatable rhyme: Christi Geduld, der Menschen Schuld, Gottes Huld.—P. S.]
[79][The Edinb. edition has here: Mary, mistaking the German Moria for Maria, and this in spite of the connection, which makes it sufficiently plain that Mount Moriah is intended, as the seat of the temple, which represents the types and shadows of the Jewish worship.—P. S.]
[80][The Edinb. edition has instead: the green ear! How the German: grüne Aue, could be thus mistaken, especially in connection with the quotation of Psa_23:2, I am unable to explain. Is it possible that the translator mistook Aue for Aehre!—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 § 140. — LEADING FORTH AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS,…
§ 140. — LEADING FORTH AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS, Mat_27:32-34.
31. Led him away to crucify him — From the judgment hall of Pilate at the fortress of Antonia, Jesus is led forth to crucifixion. That he was led to a spot without the city gates, we are assured by St. Paul. Heb_13:11-12. But in what direction, whether east or west, neither Scripture, nor any reliable tradition, nor any circumstantial evidence informs us. Tradition, indeed, of a later date has fixed upon a spot, where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands as a monument of the event. (See map of city.) But clear circumstantial proof shows that the site of that church was not without the ancient city walls.
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While our Lord was led forth a multitude, mostly women, follow him weeping. Jesus addresses them with a compassionate prophecy of the sorrows which the sins of their countrymen were bringing upon their heads. Luk_23:27-31.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv31–37 31, 32. Jesus is led to Crucifixion
31, 32. Jesus is led to Crucifixion
Mar_15:20-21; Luk_23:26-32; Joh_19:16-17
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St Luke has several particulars of what happened on the way to Golgotha, omitted in the other Gospels. The great company of people and of women who followed Him; the touching address of Jesus to the women; the last warning of the coming sorrows; the leading of two malefactors with Him.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 (31) They took the robe off from him.—At this…
(31) They took the robe off from him.—At this point we have to insert the account which St. John gives (Joh_19:4-5) of Pilate’s last attempt to rescue the “just Man” whom he had unjustly condemned. He showed the silent Sufferer in the mock insignia of royalty, as if asking them, Is not this enough? The cries of “Crucify Him!” were but redoubled, and once again the cowardly judge took his place in the official chair, and passed the final sentence. The “raiment” which they put on Him again included both the tunic and the cloak, or over-garment. In this case, the former was made without seam or opening (Joh_19:23), and the mere act of drawing it roughly over the lacerated flesh must have inflicted acute agony.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv31–37 Vers. 31-33. Jesus is led to crucifixion. Via dolorosa.…
Vers. 31-33. Jesus is led to crucifixion. Via dolorosa. (Mar_15:20-23 Luk 23:26-33Jo Luk_19:16, Luk_19:17) In these accounts, those of Matthew and Mark are most alike, though varied in expression and in some details; that of Luke is the fullest; that of John distinct from the rest.
St. Matthew, omitting some details, hurries to the final scene. Took the robe off from him; i.e. the scarlet robe with which they had arrayed him (ver. 28). Whether they removed the crown of thorns is uncertain. The Lord is always depicted wearing it upon the cross. His own raiment (ta imatia autou , his garments). The term would include the outer and inner garments, especially the seamless tunic for which the soldiers cast lots. (Joh_19:23 Psa_22:18) Thus unknowingly they were preparing to fulfil prophecy. Led him away to crucify him. This must have been about 9 a.m. Executions took place outside the city walls. (see Num_15:35, 36 Act_7:58) "The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the priest for sin, are burned without the comp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate". (Heb_13:11, Heb_13:12) Lange describes the procession: "Instead of being led forth by litters, the command of whom Pilate, as sub-governor, did not enjoy, Jesus is conducted to the cross by the soldiery. A centurion on horseback, called by Tacitus "Exactor mortis," by Seneca "Centurio supplicio praepositus," headed the company. A herald, going in front of the condemned, proclaimed his sentence." Behind him walked the prisoner, bearing the instrument of his punishment; a small company of soldiers completed the cavalcade.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On v32 Mat 27:32-56.
Mat 27:32-56.
Crucifixion Of Jesus
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Found also in Mar 15:21-41 Luk 23:26-49 Joh 19:17-37. In their accounts of the crucifixion, Matt. and Mark most nearly agree in the selection and order of the material, as they have been doing since Mat 19:1. Luke gives much that they do not contain, and John’s narrative is nearly all additional to the other three. Matthew’s account divides itself into Mat 27:3, Mat 27:2-34, Mat 27:35-38, Mat 27:39-44, Mat 27:45-50, Mat 27:51-56.—the time of the crucifixion was beyond question from about 9 A. M. to 8 P. M., and probably A. D. 30; if so, the day of the month was probably April 7 (Wieseler, p. 855, Clark’s "Harm." p. 291). As to the place, see below on Mat 27:33.
I. Mat 27:32-34. He Is Led To The Place Of Crucifixion, And Refuses The Stupefying Draught
And as they came out, not out of the praetorium, but out of the city, as shown by the statement of Mark and Luke that Simon was "coming out of the country." It was customary and natural to go out of the city for executions. (Num 15:35 f,; 1Ki 21:13 Act 7:58) A man of Cyrene. Cyrene was an old Greek settlement on the coast of Africa, immediately south of Greece, and west of Alexandria. Being a place of much trade, it contained many Jews; the second Book of Maccabees (2Ma 2:23) was originally written by one Jason of Cyrene. The city is mentioned in Act 2:10, Act 6:9, Act 11:20, Act 13:1, all going to show that Cyrenean Jews were numerous; and often seen in Jerusalem and vicinity. Simon by name. The name shows that he was a Jew. Mark adds, "the father of Alexander and Rufus," who must for some reason have been well known among the Christians at the time when Mark wrote. We cannot say whether this was the Rufus of Rom 16:13, the name being very common. Mark and Luke state that Simon was "coming out of the country," just entering the city as the procession went out of the gate; there was no objection to journeying on the feast-Sabbath (see on "Mat 27:39"). Compelled, more exactly impressed (Rev. Ver. margin), a peculiar word employed by Mark also, and explained above see on "Mat 5:41". To bear his cross, We have seen on Mat 16:24 that it was customary to make the condemned carry his cross to the place of crucifixion. Meyer shows that this was usually the upright post, the transverse piece or pieces being carried separately and fastened on after reaching the place; in some instances (Keim) the accused bore the transverse portion, perhaps in rare instances the whole. John says (Joh 19:17, R.V.)that Jesus went out, bearing the cross for himself. So we must suppose that the burden proved too great for one who had spent a sleepless and troubled night, including the supper and farewell discourse, the agony in Gethsemane, the apprehension and series of trials, the repeated mockings and terrible Roman scourging; and when he fell under the burden or walked too slowly for their convenience, the soldiers used their power of impressing the first stout man they met. Luke says they "laid on him the cross, to bear it after Jesus." Some think this means that Simon walked behind Jesus, bearing one end of the piece of timber; but the more obvious view is probably correct.—On the way, Jesus was accompanied (Luk 23:27-32, R. V.) by "a great company of the people, and of women," who were bewailing him; and in tender compassion he broke his calm silence to say, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children," and went on with an intimation of coming national calamities, which we now readily understand as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, A place of a skull. In Hebrew gulgoleth is ’skull, from a root meaning to roll, indicating the globular form of a skull. This in Aramaic would be gulgoltha, which is found in the Syriac of Jerusalem, and easily contracted, by omitting either l, into gugoltha (Syriac Pesh., and Hark.), or golgotha, the form found in most documents. Thus the word means simply skull, and so Luke (Luk 23:33, Rev. Ver.) says, "unto the place which is called The skull," while Matthew, Mark, and John have literally ’skull-place.’ The notion was early suggested (Jerome) that this denoted a burial-ground, or a place of execution, marked by a skull or skulls lying on the surface.[1] But the Jewish law did not allow bones to remain unburied, and this would have been carefully observed near the city. So it must have been (Cyril of Jerus.) a round hill or rock, somewhat resembling a skull in shape. Mark, Luke, and John all have the Greek definite article, ’unto the place,’ indicating that it was known by this name. It is common among us to call a rounded mountain-top or hill-top a head, as "Caesar’s Head" in the Blue Ridge; compare headland.
[1] Accordingly, Tyn., Cran., Gem, rendered ’a place of dead men’s skulls,’ though the Greek is singular, ’a place of a skull.’ So they did also in Mark. But in Luke (Luk 23:33) this rendering was impossible, and so they fell back upon the Latin translation Calvaria, which meant skull, and gave us Calvary. Tertullian already began to treat this Calvaria as the name of a place. Jerome mentions the notion of some that Adam was buried in Golgotha, and Christ’s blood dropped upon his tomb; and says the people liked to hear it.
It was suggested in the last century (Herzog), and has been fairly established by Robinson ("Biblical Researches") and others, that this cannot have been the place discovered at the request of Helena, the mother of Constantine, and now covered by "the Church of the Holy Sepulchre." Golgotha was "without (or outside) the gate ", (Heb 13:12) while "nigh to the city"; (Joh 19:20) but the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is far within any probable position of the city wall at the time of the crucifixion. The reverence many feel for whatever has been believed for fifteen hundred years has caused earnest resistance to this conclusion, but in vain; see results of recent English explorations in Conder; I, pages 361-371.—the site of Golgotha has for a generation and more been apparently quite unknown. But Thenius, AD. 1849, and independently Fisher Howe, pamphlet on "The True Site of Calvary" (New York, Randolph, 1871), suggested a theory which has of late been adopted by many. The northern extension of the Temple Hill, beyond the walls, rises into a rounded hill resembling the top of a skull, and some sixty feet above the level of the surrounding ground. A cut across the ridge to protect the wall from being commanded by an enemy’s military engines, gives to this rounded hill a perpendicular southern face, in which is the entrance to a cave called the Grotto of Jeremiah. Seen from the Mount of Olives and other points of good view, this hill looks strikingly like a skull, with a great eyeless socket. The cut across the ridge must have been ancient, from military necessity, and the cave is probably ancient too. The theory is that this hill was Golgotha or Calvary. The site fulfils all the conditions. It is outside the great northern gate, and near. The hill rises beside, and its summit is in lull view of, the great northern road, which accounts for passers by; (Mat 27:39, Mar 15:29) and the Romans were accustomed to crucify in a conspicuous place, to make the lesson more notable. It is in a region abounding in ancient tombs, which accounts for Joseph’s garden and tomb. And this site accounts for the tradition of a hill, "Mount Calvary," which is traced back to the fourth century. A Jewish tradition points to this hill as "the place of stoning," i. e., the regular place for executions. And a Christian tradition makes it the scene of Stephen’s death, afterwards by tradition located elsewhere.—This theory was adopted by the late Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem, by General (Chinese) Gordon,"Reflections in Palestine,"1883, and by Professor Sir J. W. Dawson, "Syria and Palestine," 1885. It is favoured by Schaff. "Through Bible Lands," and Conder, both publishing in 1878, and is advocated by Edersh. Dr. Selah Merrill, Amer. Consul at Jerus., in "Andover Review," Nov. 1885, says that "for some years past there has been a growing conviction" to this effect and that "hundreds of Christian tourists visit the place every year, and few of them go away unconvinced that both the arguments and the strong probability are in favour of" this view.
Gave him vinegar (or wine) to drink, mingled with gall. Mark, ’wine mingled with myrrh.’ The correct text in Matthew is clearly ’wine;’ it was probably changed in many documents to agree with Mat 27:48 below; and with Psa 69:21. Talmud Bab. says (Lightfoot) that to criminals on the way to execution was given a drink consisting of wine mixed with a bit of frankincense to stupefy them, and that according to tradition, the noble women of Jerusalem furnished this at their own expense. This may be connected in our minds with the "daughters of Jerusalem," who had sorrowfully accompanied the procession. (Luk 23:27) The term ’gall’ in Matthew must be used generally to denote any bitter and nauseous substance, which in this case would be some bitter vegetable narcotic. It would seem (Keim, Plump.), that Matthew’s word sometimes denotes wormwood; see Sept. of Deu 29:18 Pro 5:4. Keim: "The drink might have been prepared from poppies or wormwood. Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, thought of hashish, the Indian extract of hemp." Dr. A. Coles, "Life of our Lord in Verse," (New York, Appleton), suggests mandragora, mandrake, "which is said to have been employed by the ancients as an anaesthetic in surgical operations."
II. Mat 27:35-38. He Is Crucified Between Two Robbers
Mar 15:24-27 Luk 23:32 f.; Joh 19:18-22.
And they crucified him. For the different kinds of cross, see the Bible Dictionaries. There can be no doubt that the Saviour’s cross was of the shape with which we are familiar, an upright post with a transverse piece some distance below the top, the inscription being placed "above his head." But the cross was not so high as the ordinary representation, the person being usually but a foot or two above the ground, and this would especially be the case in Palestine, where timber was scarce. The hands were nailed to the transverse beam. This sometimes extended across the post at right angles; but in other cases consisted of two parts sloping upward from the post, so that the body seemed to hang by the hands, though it was really supported by a projecting peg. The feet were usually nailed to the post, we do not know whether together or separately; but more probably the latter. They were sometimes drawn up so that the soles rested against the post, but in other cases stood upon a projection. It has been maintained by Paulus and others that the feet of Jesus were not nailed, but bound to the post or left loose. But the risen Saviour identified himself by showing "his hands and his feet", (Luk 24:39 f.) and certain supposed ancient evidence that only the hands were nailed in crucifixion is indistinct, and far out-weighed by contrary statements. (See Meyer, Smith’s "Bib. Dict." Amer. ed.,"Crucifixion," or Keim). It cannot be determined whether the sufferer was fastened to his cross before or after its elevation; the method appears to have varied.—The physical suffering produced by crucifixion was fearful. The constrained and immovable posture of the body and arms would gradually produce violent aching and cramps; the pierced limbs became inflamed, producing fever and thirst; the circulation of the blood being hindered, it gathered in the head and lungs, causing great distress; the body would gradually grow stiff, and the vital powers sink from exhaustion. (See Richter in Schaff.) Our Lord’s mental suffering (Mat 27:46) must have been greater still; but we should not underrate the physical.
A cross mark of various shapes appears as a symbol in several ancient religions. But this has really nothing to do with Christianity, into which the cross did not enter as a symbol, but as a historical fact. Persons interested in the doubtful symbolisms referred to may find an account of them in Baring-Gould’s "Medieval Myths," and a condensed statement in "Homiletic Review," Jan., 1886, p. 76 ff.
Mark tells us (Mar 15:25) that the crucifixion began at "the third hour," which soon after the equinox would be almost exactly 9 A. M. Joh 18:14 long seemed hopelessly to contradict this, by saying "it was about the sixth hour" when Pilate was ending the trial. But the view of Wieseler and Ewald is now widely adopted, that the Fourth Gospel counts the hours as we do, making the sixth hour 6 A. M., and we could easily suppose that the preparations consumed the intervening three hours. This view is strenuously opposed by Farrar (App. to "Life of Christ "), but he is answered by McClellan, p. 737 ff.; see also Westcott on John. All the passages of John in which hours of the day are mentioned may be readily understood in this way, and it seems to be necessary for Joh 20:19, when compared with Luk 24:29, Luk 24:36.—At this point Luke mentions (Luk 23:34) that Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Every one feels that these must be words of Jesus, and they are most probably genuine as a part of Luke’s Gospel, though it is hard to account for their absence from some important early documents.
And parted his garments among them, casting lots. John explains in detail that they "made four parts, to every soldier a part," there being a quaternion or group of four soldiers detailed to crucify and guard each prisoner, (compare Act 12:4) who naturally took his clothing as their perquisite. John also adds that his ’coat,’ or tunic, the undergarment (see above see on "Mat 5:40"), "was without seam, woven from the top throughout," apparently a costly garment, and no doubt a gift of affection, and that being unwilling to "rend " this, they cast lots for it; and that this occurred in the course of providence that the Scripture might be fulfilled (compare above see on "Mat 1:22"), which saith, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. This quotation from Psa 22:18 was introduced by some copyists into: Matt, being given in v. 85 by documents of no great value. Jewish feeling required (Mishna, Sanh., VI, 3) that the person of one stripped when about to be stoned should not be left wholly exposed; and though the Roman custom for crucifixion was otherwise, we may perhaps suppose that Jewish feeling was in this case regarded.
And they set up[1] over his head his accusation written, it being common to put over a crucified man a statement of his crime. We know not whether in this case, as in one described by Suetonius, the title was borne before the criminal in the procession. John says, (Joh 19:20, correct text) "it was written in Hebrew, and in Latin, and in Greek." The first (Aramaic) was the language of the people, the second that of the civil rulers, the third that of general intercourse throughout that part of the world. A pillar was dug up at Jerusalem not many years ago, bearing an inscription in these three languages. The inscription on the cross is given in different terms by the four Gospels. We have seen that the same is to some extent true of the words spoken from heaven at the baptism and the transfiguration, so as to show beyond question that the Evangelists are not solicitous to give always the exact words. It is very likely that the inscription was verbally different in the three languages; and it has been ingeniously suggested (Westcott, "Int." p. 328) that John, who says carefully, ’and it was written,’ etc., gives the exact Greek form, ’Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,’ of which Mark gives only the special point of accusation, ’the King of the Jews’; and that then Matt. has the Hebrew, and Luke the Latin form. This is possible, but the matter is of little importance, as the inscription is substantially the same in all the forms. John adds that Pilate himself wrote the inscription, and curtly refused to alter it when requested. He had been compelled to yield the main point, and he was determined not to yield here; see as to his character see on "Mat 27:11".
[1] Some grammarians and commentators have earnestly discussed the question whether this aorist ought to be rendered like a pluperfect, ’had set up,’ because they think the inscription must have been put up before they parted the garments. This is mere learned trifling. Any animated writer, in narrating a series of occurrences, would consult convenience as to taking up this or that point. Besides, who knows that the soldiers would nail up the title before they divided the plunder?
Then were there two thieves (robbers) crucified with him. It is quite likely that these were comrades of Barabbas, (Mat 27:16) who would have been here between them had not Jesus taken his place. Our Lord had said the night before, (Luk 22:37) "This that is written must yet be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors." (Isa 53:12) This was substantially fulfilled by punishing him as if for transgression; but all the more strikingly by associating him with actual transgressors. Wetstein gives passages of ancient writers which show that crucifixion was the regular punishment for robbery. The Greek language has two words, kleptes ’thief,’ and leistes ’robber,’ differing very much as our words do. The former occurs sixteen times in New Testament, and in Com. Ver. is always correctly rendered ’thief’; the latter is four times correctly rendered ’robber,’ but eleven times ’thief’; including all the references to the two persons crucified with Jesus, and also Mat 21:13, Mat 26:55. In Joh 10:1, Joh 10:8 the distinction is observed in Com. Version. One evil result of this irregular translation has been that people would read "Barabbas was a robber", (Joh 18:40) and it did not occur to them that these two were like him. Besides, a robber would be more likely than a thief to exhibit the character shown by the penitent on the cross. Rev. Ver., and other recent versions, observe the distinction throughout, as there is no difficulty whatever in doing. Luke has here a general term, ’malefactors’ or evil-doers; John simply ’two others.’
III. Mat 27:39-44. On The Cross He Is Mocked And Reviled
Mar 15:29-32; Luk 23:35-43.
Crucifixion itself was the most disgraceful punishment in use, being appointed by the Romans for slaves, and expressly forbidden for Roman citizens—while the law of Moses (Deu 21:23) declared one "accursed" who even after being killed was hanged on a tree. In this case all that could be thought of was done to aggravate the disgrace. Several different classes of persons joined in railing and mocking at Jesus. We must remember the similar treatment when he appeared before the Sanhedrin, (Mat 26:67 f.) before Herod, (Luk 23:11) and before Pilate. (Mat 27:27-31)
(a) They that passed by, probably along a road leading into and out of the city, which according to the above-stated theory concerning Golgotha (on Mat 27:33) would be the great northern road. Some have inferred that this must have been a working day, and not the first day of the passover, which would be a Sabbath; but Edersheim says that "travelling, which was forbidden on Sabbaths, was not prohibited on feast-days, "adding that" this is distinctly stated in the Talmud." Reviled him. The Greek word is borrowed as ’blasphemed’ in Mat 9:3, Mat 26:65, and explained above see on "Mat 12:31". Com. Ver. translated it ’railed on him’ in the parallel passages, Mar 15:29, Luk 23:39. Thou that destroyest the temple, etc. This accusation (see on "Mat 26:61") the rulers had probably spread while persuading the crowds to prefer Barabbas. Save thyself. The word is used (see on "Mat 1:21") both of bodily and spiritual saving. If thou be the Son of God, as in Mat 4:3, Mat 4:6. The form of expression assumes that he is the Son of God, but their whole tone and manner showed that they meant the contrary. It is not clear that the Jews understood this expression to carry the idea of Deity (compare on Mat 26:63); they certainly understood that one who assumed it claimed supernatural power.
(b) The chief priests—with the scribes and elders. Of these three classes the Sanhedrin was constituted (see on "Mat 26:59"); so all classes of the rulers took part in the mocking. While the other mockers all address Jesus, the rulers do not condescend to speak to him, but speak contemptuously about him in his presence. Notice Mar 15:31, R.V., "mocking him among themselves"; and Luke has the same difference. The rulers make three distinct taunts. (1) He saved others, probably refers to bodily healing. The other clause may be either an assertion or a question (margin, Rev. Ver.), as the Greek in this class of expressions makes no difference; the substantial meaning is the same either way. (2) If he be the King of Israel. This is said in irony, derision. He had that morning claimed before them to be the Messiah (Mat 26:63 f.), and the Messiah was of course to be king; the inscription also declared him to be the King of Israel. Euthym.: "For as they could not change the inscription, they try to prove it false." The irony not being understood, ’if’ was inserted, like Mar 15:40, and passed into most documents, but is wanting in some of the earliest and best.[1] And we will believe him, or, on him. They would have done no such thing. He had wrought miracles even more wonderful, and upon learning it they were only the more determined to kill him. (Joh 11:47-53) Our Lord never responded to any demand for signs of his mission. (3) He trusted in God, properly perfect tense, has placed his trust on God and keeps it there. ’Trusted,’ past tense, Com. Ver., is an erroneous translation; ’on’ here and in Mat 27:42 is the literal meaning of the Greek preposition. The similar words of Psa 22:8 probably occurred to the rulers through general familiarity as expressing their thought—a sort of unconscious Messianic quotation (compare below on Mat 27:46), like the unconscious Messianic prediction of Caiaphas in Joh 11:51 f.— Edersheim: "These jeers cast contempt on the four great facts in the Life and Work of Jesus, which were also the underlying ideas of the Messianic Kingdom: the new relationship of Israel’s religion and temple (’thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days’); the new relationship to the Father through the Messiah, the Son of God (’if Thou art the Son of God’ R. V.); the new all-sufficient help brought to body and soul in salvation (’He saved others’); and finally, the new relationship to Israel in the fulfilment and perfecting of its mission through its King (’He is the King of Israel, R. V.’)."
[1] Wanting in à B D L, 33, 102, Theb. If originally present there would have been no objection to it.
(c) Luke states (Luk 23:36) that "the soldiers also mocked him," offering him the sour wine they were drinking. At a later period, this was given him in kindness. (Joh 19:29)
(d) The thieves also; better as in Rev. Ver., the robbers (see on "Mat 27:38") also that were crucified with him, east upon him the same reproach, viz., that he had professed to trust in God and claimed to be the Son of God and yet was not now delivered. Cast the same in his teeth, is a vigorous image of Com. Ver., but not presented by the Greek. Mark makes a similar statement, ’they that were crucified with him reproached him.’ But in Luke we find a striking difference. There, (Luk 23:39-43) "one of the malefactors railed on him," as pretending to be the Messiah, while the other believed that he was the Messiah; yea, more discerning than the Twelve, he believed that though now despised and rejected he would come again as king, even as he had of late been teaching (Luk 19:11 f.; Mat 25:31, Mat 16:28), and in humble petition said, "Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom," R.V. How he learned so much, and understood so well, we do not know; but the Saviour, who made no response to taunts and revilings, from whatsoever source, answered the first word of petition, and promised more than he had asked. Not merely shall the penitent robber be remembered when the crucified comes again as king, but "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." —Now the question has been much discussed, and cannot be solved with certainty, how we are to reconcile Luke’s account with that of Matt. and Mark. The prevailing view is that both the robbers at first reviled, and afterwards one of them, impressed by the Saviour’s aspect and his prayer for the crucifiers, and perhaps recalling earlier knowledge of his teachings and miracles, became now convinced that he was indeed the Messiah. This makes it all the more wonderful that he should understand so thoroughly, though of course not impossible under special divine influence. But Matthew and Mark may be understood, with many expositors, as merely including in general the Saviour’s fellow-sufferers among the different classes of revilers, without distinguishing between the two, which would have required a full account of a matter they did not undertake to narrate. If it be asked how they could omit this, the same question arises as to their giving only one of the seven words on the cross, and so in many other cases. In this view the penitent robber may have become a believer in Jesus as the Messiah on some earlier day, since his crime, yet hardly since his sentence, for among the Jews that was quickly followed by execution (see on "Mat 27:1").—However this may be regarded, we must remember the general and impressive fact that Jesus was reviled by many classes of persons, by the people at large, the rulers (all sections of the Sanhedrin), the soldiers; and even participation in suffering did not prevent reviling. This mocking and railing probably began when he was first lifted on the cross, and continued from time to time. Observe that all the verbs here, ’railed,’ ’said,’ (Mat 27:41), ’reproached, (Mat 27:44, Rev. Ver.), are in the Greek imperfect tense, denoting continued or repeated action.—At some point during the first three hours occurred the pathetic incident of Joh 19:25-37, "Behold thy son," and "Behold thy mother." Thus the Saviour spoke three times that we know of during the first half of the crucifixion.
IV. Mat 27:45-50. He Cries Out In The Darkness, And Dies
Mar 15:33-37 Luk 23:44-46 Joh 19:28-30. From the sixth hour.... unto the ninth hour (compare on Mat 20:3), from twelve o’clock to about three P. M. Darkness, supernatural. It cannot have been an eclipse of the sun, because the Passover was at the middle of the month, and the month always began with the new moon, so that the moon was now full, i. e., on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. Thus all the long discussion about the account of an eclipse said to have been given by Phlegon, a writer of the second century, is beside the mark, for this was not an eclipse. ’The sun’s light failing,’ Rev. Ver., Luk 23:45 (correct text), need not mean what is technically called an eclipse, but simply states that the sun failed, without indicating the cause. All men feel alarmed by any sudden and great darkness. The Rabbis said (Wün.) that such an occurrence was a bad sign for the world, and was to be expected upon occasion of certain great crimes or misfortunes. Wetstein has many passages from Greek and Latin authors showing a similar feeling. Over all the land, viz., of Palestine. The word might mean ’earth’ (margin Rev. Ver.), compare on Mat 5:5; but it was dark, naturally, over half the earth, and a miraculous darkness over all the enlightened half is improbable, seeing that so large a proportion of the persons involved would not know its meaning, and so it would be a useless miracle. The supernatural darkness was an appropriate concomitant, and may be regarded as a sort of symbol of the Saviour’s mental suffering, which at last found expression in his loud cry. Through nearly all this period he seems to have continued silent. He must have been enduring a dark sorrow, a crushing grief, even greater than in Gethsemane, seeing that he speaks here in more impassioned distress; and here, as there (see on "Mat 26:44"), it can be explained only by the fact that "he was wounded for our transgressions," was "made sin for us," "gave his life a ransom for many" (compare on Mat 20:28). Cried with a loud voice, showing great suffering. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. The original words are given, because Eli, explains the supposition of ’some’ (Mark likewise) of the bystanders, that he was calling for Elijah. The first words are here given in the Hebrew, like the Psalm, but by Mark in tile Aramaic Eloi, which Jesus had doubtless spoken. The last word is given by both in the Aramaic (so in the Targum, Buxtorf), the Hebrew having another term[1] of the same sense. Our Lord’s borrowing the phraseology of Psa 22:1, does not show that Psalm to be Messianic; compare his borrowing in Luk 23:46 from Psa 31:5, and his answering each of Satan’s three special temptations by quoting from Deuteronomy 6-8. Still, as Psa 22:13, was a Messianic prophecy, (Joh 19:24) we may suppose that Psa 22:1 was designed by the Spirit of inspiration to be used by the Messiah on the cross. It is commonly said that Psalms 22 was not regarded by the Jews as Messianic. Edersheim. (App. IX) gives two references to it (Mat 27:7, Mat 27:15) as applied to the Messiah in a collection made in the thirteenth century, but believed to consist of ancient material. Tertullian thought that Psalms 22 "contains the whole passion of Christ." Why hast thou forsaken me? A more literal translation would be, Why didst thou forsake me (margin Rev. Ver.), but it would amount to the same thing. ’Why’ is not here ’for what cause,’ but ’to what end’; yet the distinction must not be pressed. (compare Mat 9:4) If the question be asked in what sense the Father forsook the Son, the answer is that we really do not know. In himself the Saviour was still well-pleasing to the Father, in voluntarily laying down his life that he might take it again; (Joh 10:17 f.) it must have been as our substitute, because he "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," that he was forsaken. If it be asked how he could feel himself to be forsaken, we must remember that a human soul as well as a human body was here suffering, a human soul thinking and feeling within human limitations (Mar 13:32), not psychologically unlike the action of other devout souls when in some great and overwhelming sorrow. Compare W. N. Clarke on Mar 15:34. Hanna: "It was the sensible comfort only of the divine presence and favour that was for the time withdrawn; the felt inflowings of the divine love that were for the time checked. But what a time of agony must that have been to him who knew, as none other could, what it was to bask in the light of his Father’s countenance; who felt, as none other could, that his favour indeed was life! On us—so little do we know or feel what it is to be forsaken by God—the thought of it, or sense of it, may make but a slight impression, produce but little heartfelt misery; but to him it was the consummation and concentration of all woe, beyond which there was and could be no deeper anguish for the soul."
[1] Hebrew ’azavthani’, which some "Western" documents have endeavoured to reproduce here by changing into zaphthani and similar forms; so also in Mark.
This man calleth for Elias, or Elijah. The grand figure which Elijah made in the history, and the promise of his coining in Mal 4:5 f., caused him to stand out in the Jewish mind as the greatest of the prophets. There was a general expectation, derived from Mal., that he would work various wonders (compare on Mat 16:14). It is not easy to determine whether this utterance was a mocking misrepresentation by Jews, or a misunderstanding by Roman soldiers. Jews can hardly have really misunderstood, for the opening vowel of Eli has to the Oriental ear a very different sound from that of Elijah. Soldiers, if long resident in Palestine, might have become acquainted with the popular expectations concerning Elijah. Gave him to drink, is imperfect tense, probably describing the kindly soldier as repeatedly applying the sponge to the sufferer’s parched lips. The rest said, imperfect tense, describing them as engaged in saying. Bengel: "After the dreadful darkness they returned to scoffing." Let be, let things stay as they are; do not give him any aid or comfort—see if Elijah will hear his prayer; for if so, all his wants will be supplied. They seem to have amused themselves with the thought that this pretended Messiah was in his helpless extremity calling on tim predicted forerunner of Messiah to come and help him. Whether Elias, or Elijah, will come,[2] or is coming. As to spelling Elijah, instead of Elias, see on "Mat 1:2".
[2] The addition in margin Rev. Ver., ’And another took a spear and pierced his side, and there came out water and blood,’ must be regarded as an insertion from Joh 19:34. It is found in à B C L U T, a few cursives, and less important versions, Chrys., Cyril. This only shows, as we have seen in several other cases (compare on Mat 24:36), that à B, even with other support, present some distinctly erroneous readings. It might be urged that the words were omitted because they represent the piercing as preceding the Saviour’s death, whereas John makes it follow; but that difference would only have been a reason for removing the passage to the close of Mat 27:50 or 54 or 56, or else there would have been some tampering with the position of the passage in John, which is not the case. The passage of John was written by some student on the margin of Matt. from memory,and by a copyist awkwardly introduced into the text. No critic would question this, but for the persuasion of some that B à C L "can do no wrong."
The reed probably means in general a staff for walking, which we in like manner call a cane. From Joh 19:29 it appears to have been made from a stalk of hyssop; and Tristram ("Nat. Hist.") says that the capers which is probably the Biblical hyssop, would furnish a stalk three or four feet in length. The vinegar was probably a sort of sour wine, though vinegar itself (no doubt diluted with water) was used as a cooling drink. (Rth 2:14) It was given mercifully, to refresh the sufferer’s parched mouth. John shows (Joh 19:28) that it was done in consequence of his saying "I thirst." He had refused the stupefying draught at the beginning, but asked for this slight refreshment when near the end. Then he uttered a third word (John), "It is finished," and finally a fourth (Luke), "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." So there were four sayings close together, and near the end; and with the three uttered during the first three hours, we find in all seven sayings on the cross, of which one is recorded by Matt. and Mark only, three by Luke only, three by John only.
Cried again with a loud voice, Mark likewise. This seems to denote great bodily suffering. The sayings just quoted from Luke and John can hardly be here meant, for they were not of such a nature as to be uttered in a loud voice; it must have been a cry of pain or distress. This great outcry in the moment of dying was not a natural result of mere death by crucifixion, which would produce gradual exhaustion. Taken in connection with the blood and water brought forth by the soldier’s spear, (Joh 19:34) it has been thought to shew that our Lord died from a bursting of the heart. This is argued with great force by Stroud, "Physical Cause of the Death of Christ," republished in New York, and by Hanna, App. to "Life of Christ." The question possesses a certain kind of interest, but cannot be settled. Let us beware of spending too much thought upon the surroundings and physical conditions of our Lord’s death. The great matter is that he "died for our sins," "tasted death for every man."—Yielded up the ghost (spirit). The closing expiration seems a natural indication of letting the immaterial in us, which is oftenest called spirit, go forth from the body "unto God who gave it." ’Gave up the ghost’ was good in old English, but we do not now use ’ghost’ in that sense.
V. Mat 27:50-55. Portents Following His Death, And The Effects
Mar 15:38-41 Luk 23:47-49. The vail of the temple (naos, see on "Mat 4:5"), was a richly wrought and heavy curtain which hung between the "Holy Place" and the "Holy of Holies." (Exo 26:31-35) There are some Talmudic statements to the effect that this vail was double in the second temple, but that is a matter of no consequence; nor have we anything to do here with an outer vail (Grimm), which hung between the porch and the Holy Place. Once a year the high priest lifted a corner of this heavy curtain and passed into the Holy of Holies, carrying sacrificial blood which he sprinkled on the mercy seat, and made supplication for the forgiveness of his own sins and those of the people. (Heb 9:7) The sudden rending of this vail from the top to the bottom (Mark likewise, showing that it was not done by human agency) symbolized the complete opening for all of a way of access through Christ to the throne of divine mercy. Christ, our high priest, has entered the true Holy of Holies in heaven, offering once for all the all-sufficient atoning sacrifice of his own blood; (Heb 9:11-28) and now in his name we may look without dread upon the very throne of God, and come with boldness to the throne of grace.—The (Heb 4:16, Heb 10:19) other portent is mentioned by Matthew only. Earthquakes are common in Palestine, and this earthquake need not be thought supernatural. The earthquake might naturally rend rocks and open tombs—not graves like ours, but tombs in the rock. (Compare on Mat 27:61) But the rising of the dead was of course supernatural. Notice that they were bodies of the saints. The clause after his resurrection is ambiguous, as it may be connected with what precedes or what follows. It is more naturally connected with what follows; then we understand that they rose at the time of Christ’s death, when the earthquake opened the tombs, but appeared only after he appeared. It may be that they appeared only to believers, who knew that Jesus had risen. The conjecture of Plump. concerning this matter is of some interest. He holds that the tombs opened by the earthquake were near Jerusalem, and as the term "saints" was almost from the first applied to Christians, he thinks that these saints were believers in Jesus who had died before his crucifixion. On this supposition, we see some reason for their appearing to Christian friends and kindred, in order to show that they were not shut out from a share in the kingdom. (Compare 1Th 4:13 f.) "The statement that they did not appear till after our Lord’s resurrection, is from this point of view significant. The disciples were thus taught to look on that resurrection, not as an isolated phenomenon but as the ’first fruits’ of the victory over death, (1Co 15:20) in which not they themselves only, but those also whom they had loved and lost were to be sharers."—The holy city, compare on Mat 4:5.
Our Lord’s death is described as specially impressing three classes of persons. (a) The Roman centurion, or as we should say, captain (see on "Mat 8:5"), and also his soldiers who conducted the crucifixion, were convinced that Jesus was what he claimed to be. When... they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, ere taking place (correct text), or coming to pass (compare on Mat 1:22), apparently referring to the long-continued supernatural darkness, and perhaps also to the Saviour’s aspect and expressions, they feared exceedingly. (Rev. Ver.) Well they might fear; for they had been engaged in putting to an ignominious death one who, as they now felt sure, was not a criminal, not an impostor nor a fanatic, but truly the Son of God. Was, because his life had ended. Mark has the same expression as Matt. Luke gives "Certainly this was a righteous man." If so, he was what he claimed to be, and he had claimed to be the Son of God. So the difference is only apparent, and in fact we may in this case suppose that he used both expressions. The Greek might mean ’a son of God,’ and some suppose that the heathen centurion thought only of one among many demigods. But this Greek phrase is very often used as definite, determined by the connection, and here it is easy to suppose that he had borrowed the phrase from the Jews, and understood it in their sense, which was more or less vague. (Compare on Mat 26:63)
(b)"All the multitudes that came together to this sight," the throngs of Jewish spectators, (Luk 23:48, Rev. Ver.) "returned smiting their breasts," satisfied that a great wrong had been done, and fearing that they would suffer for it.
(c) Many of his own followers beheld his death, with the deepest grief. Many women. But Luke mentions also men—"all his acquaintances", (Luk 23:49) nominative plural, masculine. Beholding afar off through timidity, and through delicacy. The only women of his following who came near the cross were his mother and her sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (Joh 19:25) Ministering unto him. They personally bought and prepared food; and they also furnished money wherewith to purchase food and to pay for cooking it—all this being suggested by the term and circumstances, compare Luk 8:2 f.
Mary Magdalene, i. e., from Magdala, probably the place now called Mejdel, on the western shore of the Lake of Galilee (see on "Mat 15:39", where the correct text is Magadan.) Mary Magdalene has received scant justice in Christian literature and art. The heavy affliction of being possessed by "seven demons," from which it was doubtless Jesus that delivered her, does not prove that she had been exceptionally wicked. A late tradition identified her with the "woman that was a sinner," in Luk 7:37 ff. This tradition is first mentioned in Jerome and Ambrose, was probably nothing but an inference from the severe demoniacal possession, and was never received in the Greek Church. The identification is not only unsupported by anything in Scripture, but rendered highly improbable by the way in which Luke just afterwards mentions Mary Magdalene as a new personage. (Luk 8:2) Next, it was taken for granted that the "woman that was a sinner " had been guilty of unchastity, and upon this foundation only, this highly improbable tradition, and this uncertain supposition, it long ago became common to call an abandoned woman a Magdalen. The celebrated paintings of the Magdalen are historically an abomination, and religiously quite hurtful. There is at Dresden a painting "of the School of Titian," which represents her as a woman of middle age, once very beautiful, with deep lines of suffering in her face but over it all a look of gentleness, peace, and unutterable gratitude. This conception is historically reasonable. Christ did save persons of the class to which she is usually referred, (Mat 21:32) and will save such persons still if they repent and believe him; but that is no reason for involving this special friend of his in undeserved dishonour. The usage about Mary cannot now be wholly corrected, but It may be personally avoided. With this list of three women, ’Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee,’ comp, Mark’s three (Mar 15:40, Rev. ver.; Mar 16:1), "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Little, and of Joses, and Salome." This leaves little doubt that the mother of Zebedee’s sons was Salome. Again, in John, (Joh 19:25) the women present are "his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." Here his mother’s sister might be Mary the wife of Clopas. But it is not likely that two sisters would be named Mary; and if we understand that here are four distinct persons, then they fall into two groups, the first group being two unnamed persons, the second two named persons—and this rhythmical form of statement (Westcott on John) resembles the style of the Fourth Gospel. Now it is generally agreed that John’s "Mary the wife of Clopas" is the same as "Mary the mother of James the Little and of Joses" in Mark and Matt. (Compare on Mat 10:3) Leave aside then the mother of Jesus in John’s list, with Mary Magdalene, who is the same in all, and it becomes highly probable that Salome, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, was the sister of our Lord’s mother. This theory helps to account for the prominence of James and John, and for the ambitious request of their mother in Mat 20:20. Then also John’s omission of his mother’s name would be (Westcott) exactly like his constant omission of his own name. These devout and loving women, and (Luke) some men with them, saw for themselves that the Master really died, and where he was buried. (Mat 27:61)
Homiletical And Practical
Sermons and devotional books often give overwrought descriptions of the crucifixion. The feelings excited by contemplating it ought to be natural and genuine, and not galvanized. It is better to imitate the reserve and simplicity of the Evangelists, making our narration and description quiet and in elaborate. Any other course is injudicious, in questionable taste, and really irreverent.
Mat 27:32. Simon of Cyrene. (1) A man sharing undeserved reproach. (2) A man rendering involuntary service to Christ. (3) Yet, let us hope, learning to walk voluntarily after Christ, bearing his own cross, (Mat 16:24) as we know that his two sons did. (Mar 15:21) Calvin: "In the sight of men, this task brought him to the lowest degradation; but God turned it into the highest honour."
Shall Simon bear thy cross alone,
And other saints be free?
Each saint of thine shall find his own,
And there is one for me.[1]
Mat 27:33. Because of Gethsemane and Golgotha, we sinners may hope for Paradise.
Mat 27:35. Shakespeare:
In those holy fields
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet,
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed,
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
[1] Recent hymn books have: "Must Jesus bear the cross alone," etc. Having in youth heard it sung with "Simon" instead, we have long been satisfied, on principles of text criticism, that this was the original form. A friend who has given much attention to hymnology, recently stated that the stanza in the above-quoted formis taken from the "Penitential Cries" of Rev. Thomas Shepherd, of Braintree, Essex, England, published in 1692. The hymn in its now common shape has borrowed only this one stanza from the original. It is credited in some collections to Prof. G. N. Allen 1852, who wrote the familiar tune, and may have made the changes and the additions.
Mat 27:40."Save thyself." How easily he could have done so! But his object was still to save others (Mat 27:41); he was dying that men might live.
Mat 27:42. Euthym. "And he would have come down, if it had been true that they would believe. Like them are many now who propose their own conditions of believing, but really would not believe on any condition." Calvin: "It is too common with the impious to measure the power of God by present appearances, so that whatever he does not do, they think he cannot do."
Mat 27:46
(1) He is my God, yet he has forsaken me.
(2) He has forsaken me, yet he is my God.—
Mrs. Browning:
"Yes, once Immanuel’s orphaned cry his universe hath shaken.
It went up single, echoless, ’My God, I am forsaken!’
It went up from the Holy’s lips amid his lost creation,
That, of the lost, no son should use those words of desolation."
Mat 27:47. Henry: "It is no new thing for the most pious devotions of the best men to be ridiculed and abused by profane scoffers."-
Mat 27:50. Jer. Taylor: "O holy and immaculate Lamb of God, who wert pleased to suffer shame and sorrow, teach me to apprehend the baseness of sin, in proportion to the greatness of those calamities which my sin made it necessary for Thee to suffer, that I may hate the cause of Thy sufferings, and adore Thy mercy, and imitate Thy charity, and copy out Thy patience and humility, and love Thy person to the uttermost extent and degrees of my affections."—Through the cross of Christ may the world be crucified unto us, and we unto the world (Gal 6:14)
Mat 27:51. Our "great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God,"has passed through the vail of the heavens into the true sanctuary, and there ever lives to intercede; let us therefore come with boldness. (Heb 4:14-16, Heb 7:25)
Mat 27:54. If men will but look candidly at the life and death, the teachings and claims of Jesus Christ, must they not acknowledge him to be more than a mere man?
Mat 27:55. Calvin: "When the disciples had fled hither and thither, yet some women from their company had been kept by God as witnesses; more brightly then shone out their piety towards the Master."
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv32–33 Him they compelled to bear His cross.
Mat_27:32
Him they compelled to bear His cross.
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Simon bearing the cross
I. We may derive from this narrative A confirmation of our faith. It was in accordance with the customs of the country; the correspondence is minute. Not compassion towards Christ that His cross was carried.
II. An affecting illustration of our Saviours love.
1. The preliminary sufferings were marked by severity.
2. The preliminary sufferings were marked by ignominy.
III. We may see an incitement to christian obedience.
1. TO self-denial
2. To observance of the public ordinances of religion. (R. Brodie, M. A.)
Simon the Cyrenian
I. It is interesting to remark that the accomplishment of ancient prophecy seems often to have hung upon a thread, so that the least thing, a thought, a word, might have sufficed to prevent its occurrence. The marvel is that the enemies of Christ were not more on the alert than to allow things to be done which they could see were evidences of His Messiahship. How easy for them to have taken care that vinegar and gall should not be given Him on the cross. It is a striking proof of the certainty with which God can reckon on every working of the human mind. Isaac was a type of Christ; he carried the wood on which he was to be sacrificed. This type was fulfilled when our Lord was led forth carrying His cross. This was the better Isaac, bearing the wood for the burnt-offering. Yet how near was the prophecy to being defeated! It was only for a part of the way that Christ carried the cross.
II. What induced the fierce and brutal soldiers to grant the redeemer this little indulgence, and relieve Him for a time of the burden of the cross. They probably feared, from the exhausted condition of our Lord, that death would ensue before He reached Calvary. This an incidental notice which shows us how great were the endurances of the Mediator. This incident shows us that Christ was as sensitive to bodily pain as we are.
III. The incident symbolical. If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. He teaches His disciples that they must bear the same cross as Himself. St. Paul says:-I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, etc. There is no greater mistake than to represent it as an easy thing to attain eternal life; the bearing the cross is the indispensable condition of wearing the crown. Many a cross is of our own manufacture, the consequence of our sin; these are not the cross which was laid upon Simon, and which had first been on Christ. They are counted worthy to suffer shame for His name-so we read of the apostles. The offence of the cross has not ceased. The followers of Christ gain nothing by those compromises which may be made in hopes of conciliating the world. You will make it all the heavier by avoiding it when it lies in the clear path of duty. But take comfort: the cross was carried by Christ before it was carried by Simon. And is this all that was typically represented by the laying of the cross on Simon the Cyrenian? Indeed we ought never to press a type too far: it is easy, by indulging the imagination, to injure or bring into discredit the whole of the figurative lesson. Yet there is one thing more which we would venture to advance, though we may not speak with the same confidence as when asserting that Christ taught by action, as He had before taught by word, that His disciples must suffer with Him, if they ever hope to reign. We have already mentioned our inability to ascertain any particulars respecting Simon, or even to determine whether he were a Jew or a Pagan. Many of the ancient fathers suppose him to have been a Pagan, and consider that, in being made to bear the cross after Christ, He typified the conversion of idolatrous nations which either have been or will be brought to a profession of faith in our Lord. And there are no such reasons against this opinion as can require its rejection, nor such even as can show that the weight of probability is on the opposite side. We must be therefore at liberty to entertain the opinion, and, at least, to point out the inferences which would follow on supposition of its truth. But once let it be considered that Simon was a Pagan, and our text becomes one of those bright, prophetic lines which shoot through centuries of gloom, giving promise of a morning, if they cannot scatter night. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The cross to be borne gladly
Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, conversing with Mr. Gurney, made the following remarks:-Should you see a poor maniac knocking his head against a wall, and beating out his brains, you would not be angry with him, however he might taunt you. You would pity him from your very soul; you would direct all your energies to save him from destruction. So it will be with you: the world will mock and trample on you: a man shall come, and, as it were, slap you on the face. You rub your face and say, This is strange work; I like it not, sir. Never mind, I say, this is your evidence; it turns to you for a testimony. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but now you are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Many years ago, when I was an object of much contempt and derision in this university, I strolled forth one day, buffeted and afflicted, with my little Testament in my hand. I prayed earnestly to my God, that He would comfort me with some cordial from His word, and that, on opening the Book I might find some text which should sustain me. The first text which caught my eye was this: They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear His cross. You know Simon is the same name as Simeon. What a world of instruction was here-what a blessed hint for my encouragement! To have the cross laid upon me, that I might bear it after Jesus-what a privilege! It was enough. Now I could leap and sing for joy as one whom Jesus was honouring with a participation in His sufferings. My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv31–37 31. When they had mocked him. Pilate presented the…
31. When they had mocked him. Pilate presented the bleeding prisoner once more to the people, evidently to secure their pity, and made one more effort to release him, but in vain (John 19:5). Then Jesus was led away to the cross.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v35 Mat_27:35. That it might be fulfilled, etc.—Omitted in R.V.…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_27:35. That it might be fulfilled, etc.—Omitted in R.V. It ought not to be questioned that the words were interpolated by the copyists, from Joh_19:24 (Scrivener).
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Mat_27:36. They watched Him there.—See R.V. They remained on guard over Him.
Mat_27:37. His accusation—This was what was technically known as the titulus—the bill, or placard, showing who the condemned person was, and why he was punished (Plumptre).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_27:35-44
On the cross.—After a long approach to the cross, we stand, in this passage, as it were, at its foot. What is the real nature—what was the supposed nature—of the Sight we see there?
I. Its true nature and force.—On the one side, this is almost too plain. The cross itself, for example, tells of nothing but shame. It was the death of the outlaw, the villain, the slave. No Roman citizen, do what he might, could be put to death in that way. Every one recognised it as involving a “curse” (Gal_3:13). What was seen in front of the cross also testified the same thing. The garments belonging to a crucified man were the usual perquisites of those who put him to death. This mark of shame also was not omitted in the case of our Lord. As prophecy had noted of Him beforehand in this particular as in so many others, so it was done (Mat_27:35). Nor was there wanting testimony of the same kind on each side of His cross. On either side of Him there hung those who were known to be guilty of crime (Mat_27:38); and guilty of such crime, moreover, as made them fully worthy even of that infamous death (Luk_23:41). So plain was it so far that He was being treated then as one of the worst of mankind. On the other side, however, there was that in this sight which was correspondingly dark and occult. What was the meaning, e.g., of that conspicuous “title” which stood over His head? The usual purport of such inscriptions was an affirmation of guilt. They set forth in plain language the particular enormity for which the culprit beneath them had been condemned to that death. In this case, however, there was in reality (Mat_27:37) no “accusation” at all. The chief priests, we are told (Joh_19:21), had noted this with no little concern. They had even besought Pilate in consequence—but besought him in vain—to have that “title” changed in some way (ibid., Mat_27:22). So significant did this peculiarity seem as well in his eyes as in theirs. It was simply repeating what he had said all along (Mat_27:23-24). That is why he kept to it still. Nor does it seem to have been less important, it is to be noticed next, in the eyes of all who tell us the tale. The precise words objected to and yet retained, are put down as these: “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” It is worthy of note that all the four Evangelists, comparatively brief as all their accounts are, tell us of this title. It is as worthy of note that no two of them do so in quite the same words. It is more worthy of note that, notwithstanding these obvious dissimilarities between them, they all agree in comprising in their descriptions of the title, the above-specified words. In all these ways, therefore, we are pointed to them as specially worthy of note. And we can see, also, for ourselves, that they are so in a kind of mysterious way, when we compare them with those other plain points which we noted before. Taken in combination with these, how surprising indeed is the language spoken by this virtual acquittal of Christ! How extraordinary and perplexing the announcement it makes! An acknowledged King numbered with malefactors! Perfect innocence dying as guilt! God’s Holy One in the position of the worst of mankind!
II. Its supposed nature, as seen at the time.—What was thought of it, in the first place, by the ordinary observer? Such would be those mere “passers-by” of whom we read in Mat_27:39—men who had taken no special part in bringing about the crucifixion of Jesus, but had heard something of the particulars of the case from common report, and had connected these with what they now saw. To them the contrast would be so violent as to be even a matter of jest (see Mat_27:40). That is all that they would see in that sight; a pretentious career, brought to an ignominious—not to say a ridiculous—end. Not unlike this were the thoughts of those who were most accountable for that sight. To them what they saw was only convincing proof of what they had all along said. A complete answer, e.g., to all the miracles which were said to have been wrought by His power. Even if such things were true, they were fully disposed of as proofs of His mission by this total absence of miraculous power at a time like the present, which clearly called for it most. So also of His recent pretension (ch. 21, etc.) to be King of the Jews. That was equally disposed of by His present inability to come down from the cross. And so, finally, even of the very piety that had been heard in His words. If that were a real thing, why did God now let Him remain on that cross (see Mat_27:42-43)? All that they saw, in short, was, in their judgment, simply condemnation of Him! And even those, lastly, who were suffering with Him saw nothing more in that sight; nothing more, at first, although one of the two saw much more indeed in the end (Luk_23:39-43). But, for the time present, in the eyes of both of them, there was nothing but despair in that “sight.” Even these miscreants only saw in it evidence that He was as bad as themselves! Did they not imply, indeed, by the “reproaches” they “cast on Him,” that He was even worse than themselves?
The story furnishes us with illustrations:—
1. Of the utter blindness of sin.—Two vivid truths, as we have seen, were inscribed on that cross: innocence, on the one hand; guilt, on the other. All the eyes of all the sinners who gazed on it, saw only the latter. The light of the former was but darkness to them.
2. Of the partial blindness, even of faith.—How many Christians there are who do not see to this day the full “guilt” of the cross! The guilt implied in the fact that Christ ever came to that cross! And that, being there, He was allowed to remain there, both by God and Himself? Why else was it that He did not reply to His enemies by coming down from the cross? Surely it was sin, though not His own sin, which kept Him up there!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_27:35. Christ’s sufferings unique.—The unique character of Christ’s sufferings lies—
1. In the contrast between His heavenly healthiness and sensibility and this hellish torture.
2. In the contrast between His holiness, innocence, philanthropy and Divine dignity, and this experiencing of human contempt, rejection, and of apparent abandonment by God. Above all,
3. In His sympathy with humanity, which changes this judgment to which the world was surrendered into His own, and so transforms it into a vicarious suffering.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Crucifixion.—Dr. Christian F. G. Richter, a pious physician of the Orphan House in Halle, who died in 1711, thus describes the physical sufferings of the crucifixion:
1. On account of the unnatural and immovable position of the body and the violent extension of the arms, the least motion produced the most painful sensation all over the body, but especially on the lacerated back and the pierced members.
2. The nails caused constantly increasing pain on the most sensitive parts of the hands and feet.
3. Inflammation set in at the pierced members and wherever the circulation of the blood was obstructed by the violent tension of the body, and increased the agony and an intolerable thirst.
4. The blood rushed to the head and produced the most violent headache.
5. The blood in the lungs accumulated, pressing the heart, swelling all the veins, and caused nameless anguish. Loss of blood through the open wounds would have shortened the pain; but the blood clotted and ceased flowing. Death generally set in slowly, the muscles, veins, and nerves gradually growing stiff, and the vital powers shrinking from exhaustion.
Gambling.—Look upon the picture presented in this verse, and endeavour to realise its frightful significance. There is nothing that can subdue the passion of the hardened gambler. Never, perhaps, did the hideousness of the gambling mania receive a more tragic illustration. We are apt to think that the more frantic forms of gambling are past incidents in the world’s history. Whenever we wish to glorify the nineteenth century we choose the eighteenth as a convenient preface. The picture of gambling in the eighteenth century is as bad as it is possible to conceive. It was the century in which Charles James Fox ruined himself with gambling debts, the century in which family after family with historic names were dishonoured, broken up, destroyed, by gambling follies. Gambling, no doubt, at the present day is more decorously conducted, but it is even more universally practised now than in the eighteenth century. But what is gambling? Here is the definition of it which is given us by the first philosopher of our time; and you who do not respect the Bible will at least respect, perhaps, the intellectual thoughts of Herbert Spencer. “Gambling is a kind of action by which pleasure is obtained at the cost of pain to another. It affords no equivalent to the general good; the happiness of the winner implies the misery of the loser.” The desire to possess money is a natural and not necessarily a pernicious desire. But two things must be remembered: first, to get money by honourable means; and second, that any possession of money which does not contribute to the common social good is infamous and evil. This is the indictment that I would bring against gambling:—
I. It renders men morally callous.—hardens them as no other vice does; it shuts their eyes to almost all the things that are beautiful in life; it fills them with a frantic passion for gain.
II. It destroys the very radical principles of honour and honesty.—There is a form of business—if it may be called by that honoured name—on the Stock Exchange, which is nothing but gambling.
III. It excites the fatal passion of cupidity.
Conclusion.—To get money without work is always a perilous thing. You see it in the spendthrift who inherits money from a penurious father, and who gets rid of it with all the rapidity he can. There is a proverb in Lancashire that “From shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves is only three generations,” and it is a proverb which applies to many places besides Lancashire. But it is far worse to get money by gambling. All sense of pleasure or value in the possession of money is lost when it is got by gambling, when a man finds by a little craft and cunning it is possible for him to float like scum on the surface of society and to have no root down in anything. It unsettles the mind, it destroys intellectual taste. I defy any youth who has once acquired a passion for gambling to apply his mind to any study, any hard task that will better him in mind and which will raise him in society. It destroys self-respect. It renders you, sooner or later, morally callous, spiritually deaf. And it is not surprising that it does all this when we recollect that in the light of the teaching of Jesus Christ it is a profoundly immoral act; for the teaching of Jesus Christ is that money is a stewardship.—W. J. Dawson.
The degradation of gambling.—Charles Dickens was not a Puritanical or Pharisaical writer, was he? Read what he has to say upon Doncaster races as he saw them. George Eliot was not a Puritanical or a Pharisaical writer. Read her description of the gambling tables which you will find in Daniel Deronda. Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Hardy are novelists who have not yet been accused of being Puritanical or Pharisaical. Two of the most extraordinary chapters in the greatest books of these artists are chapters which describe what Stevenson calls “the disgusting vice of gambling.” And the daily papers are not over Puritanical or Pharisaical; they simply chronicle the time. But even the Press has become frightened at last with the horrible growth of cupidity which is being fostered at the present hour by those who ought to know better, for they profess to provide journals which elevate and instruct and amuse. Or, if you do not care to take evidence of this kind, go and see for yourselves. Look at the sort of faces that one sees on the racecourse—the bestial, the foxy, the degraded. Travel in the same railway-carriage with habitual gamblers and hear what their talk is like. I stayed, some time ago, in one of the fairest of English cathedral cities. My friend, who is certainly not a Puritan, looking at the broad stretch beyond the city wall, said, “In a few weeks that green turf will be covered with the scum of the earth, with faces which haunt you afterwards like a dream of hell.” Is that strong language? No stronger than the language which Charles Dickens used about Doncaster racecourse. I have known such mad debauches after races, such diabolical impurities, that they are unnameable; they are all but unutterable. The gambling passion is the most insensate of all passions; it does more to render the heart callous than any other; it does not end with itself, but incites into diabolical activity every lust and passion of depravity; and the soldiers gambling at the feet of the dying Christ afford us just the type of moral deformity to which the lust of unearned gain reduces men.—Ibid.
Mat_27:34-35. The inhumanity of man.—The Roman soldiers sat down at the foot of the cross. Some one of them took the dice out of his pocket, which was carried commonly by all Romans of that class. Another produced a bottle of cheap sour wine. There, beneath the shadow of the cross, with the blood trickling down from the burning arms and feet of the Crucified, they drank and gambled for the garments of the One that died to save them. I know not where you will find in history a more striking illustration of the inhumanity of man than in that scene—the drinking and the gambling at the foot of Christ’s cross.—L. Abbott, D.D.
Mat_27:36. The Roman soldiers on guard.—They were a little tired with their march and their work, and they had to stop there on guard for an indefinite time, with nothing to do but two more prisoners to crucify; so they take a rest, and idly keep watch over Him till He shall die. How possible it is to look at Christ’s sufferings, and see nothing! These rude legionaries gazed for hours on what has touched the world ever since, and what angels desired to look into, and saw nothing but a dying Jew. They thought about the worth of the clothes, or about how long they would have to stop there, and, in the presence of the most stupendous fact in the world’s history, were all unmoved. We, too, may gaze on the cross, and see nothing.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_27:37. The inscription on the cross.—A better inscription for the cross the Apostles themselves could not have devised. “This is Jesus,” the Saviour—the Name above every name. How it must have cheered the Saviour’s heart to know that it was there! “This is Jesus, the King,” never more truly King than when this writing was His only crown. “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,” despised and rejected of them now, but Son of David none the less, and yet to be claimed and crowned and rejoiced in, when at last “all Israel shall be saved.”—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Mat_27:39-43. The scoffing wayfarers.—The passers-by were representative men.—
I. Reason of their conduct.—
1. Christ was unpopular—they went with the stream.
2. It gratified their vanity—“we are wise, open-eyed men.”
3. They felt the bitterest hatred—practical Christianity always repulsive.
II. The heinousness of their conduct.—
1. They misrepresented His words.
2. They derided His claims.
3. They jested at His agonies.
III. The folly of their conduct.—
1. Thought there was force in their argument.
2. Imagined themselves secure.
3. What did they gain?
IV. Treatment their conduct received.—Silence.
1. The disciples did not denounce them.
2. Nor did the crowd protest.
3. Nor did Jesus speak—His public sayings were ended; He is silent, but observant (see Mat_12:36.)—Stems and Twigs.
Mat_27:39. Running with the stream!—How many of these scoffers, to whom death cast no shield round the Object of their poor taunts, had shouted themselves hoarse on the Monday, and waved palm branches that were not withered yet! What had made the change? There was no change. They were running with the stream in both their hosannas and their jeers, and the one were worth as much as the other. They had been tutored to cry, “Blessed is He that cometh!” and now they were tutored to repeat what had been said at the trial about destroying the temple. The worshippers of success are true to themselves when they mock at failure.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_27:40. The first prayer to the Crucified One.—I. Think of the speech as spoken by those who were passing by.—Their complete phrase was, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” It was no easy thing for these men to believe that Christ was the Son of God.
II. Think of this challenge as spoken by the leaders of the people.—It is plain that their minds were not easy. The mental questions would arise: “Have we gone too far? Is it possible that we have made a tremendous mistake? What if, after all, this should be the Christ of God, the King of Israel?” To keep down their doubts, to keep up their courage, they drew together in close conference, and talked one to another in answer to unspoken language of horrible misgiving and surmise. “Is that the Saviour? He cannot save Himself—that the King! He is not even King over that cross.”
III. Think of the cry as spoken by the soldiers.—For them the word “Christ” was jargon; the word “Israel” had no meaning; but the word “King” roused them to a rough and terrible play. To them it was rare sport to make believe that this was a coronation day, and grimly ridiculous to speak of a king crowned with thorns, and nailed upon his throne; and they, therefore, caught up the banter, and joined in the chorus of infamy.
IV. Think of this cry as joined in by one, if not both, of the malefactors.—It is at least certain that one of the dying men struck in with the cruel cry.
A storm of voices rang out the call, “Come down from the cross.” The only answer to this exasperating demand was a kingly, expressive silence.
1. It was the silence of power.
2. The silence of intensity in resistance of temptation.
3. He was silent because it was a moral impossibility that He should have come down from the cross.
4. It was the silence of One who was doing a great work, and who would not stop to answer trivial words about it.—C. Stanford, D.D.
Mat_27:42. Christ’s enemies condemned out of their own mouth.—
I. Their affirmation.—Sublimely true, and it condemns them. “He saved others.” This testimony condemns them:—
1. For their base ingratitude.
2. For their daring impiety.
II. Their denial.—Gloriously true, and it condemns them. “Himself He cannot save.” In the Divinest sense He could not save Himself. His moral weakness here is His glory. He could not, because He had undertaken to die, and He could not break His word. He could not, because the salvation of the world depended upon His death. The greatest man on earth is the man who cannot be unkind, etc. The glory of the omnipotent God is that He cannot lie. Learn:
1. The worst men may give utterance to the greatest truths. These murderers of Christ here proclaim
(1) Christ as a Saviour: “He saved others “;
(2) Christ as a Sacrifice: “Himself He cannot save.” Not a coerced sacrifice, but a voluntary one.
2. The best men are often most glorious in their weakness. “Himself He cannot save.” Godly tradesmen are too weak to make fortunes at the expense of honesty, etc. The grandest man on earth is the man who is too weak to be untrue, ungenerous, and self-seeking.—Homilist.
The cross a throne.—O blind leaders of the blind! that death which seemed to them to shatter His royalty really established it. His cross is His throne of saving power, by which He sways hearts and wills, and because of it He receives from the Father universal dominion, and every knee shall bow to Him. It is just because He did not come down from it that we believe on Him. On His head are many crowns; but, however many they be, they all grow out of the crown of thorns. The true kingship is absolute command over willingly submitted spirits; and it is His death which bows us before Him in raptures of glad love; which counts submission, liberty, and sacrifice blessed. He has the right to command because He has given Himself for us, and His death wakes all-surrendering and all-expecting faith.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv31, 35 Mat 27:31-34; Mar 15:20-23; Luk 23:26-33; Joh 19:16-17. “And…
CHAPTER 27.
JESUS LED TO CALVARY
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Mat 27:31-34; Mar 15:20-23; Luk 23:26-33; Joh 19:16-17. “And they took Jesus, and led Him away, carrying His cross.” Mark: “And when they mocked Him, they divested Him of His purple robe, and put on Him His own raiment, and led Him away, that they may crucify Him.” You see the crown of thorns was not taken off but remained on His brow throughout His crucifixion. “They compel Simon, a certain Cyrenian along with them, having come from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, that he may bear His cross.” As the city of Cyrene stood on the northern shore of Africa, there is at least a probability that this was a stout, muscular colored man, who enjoyed the honor of carrying the cross, which proved too much for the fainting Jesus after a night of sleepless harassment and terrible suffering, attended by the loss of much blood.
Luk 23:27-32. “And a great crowd of people followed Him, and of women, who continued to weep and bewail Him. And Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves, and your children. For, behold, the days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs which did not bring forth, and the breasts which did not nurse. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.” These words of our Savior describe the horrific sufferings which came on those people forty years from that date, the Roman wars lasting five years, and resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem, the death of a million, the slavery of another million, the exile of the little remnant, and the annihilation of the Jewish polity. All this He saw in vivid panorama before His eyes — mountains of the dead, rivers of blood, and the desolation of the city and the land.
“Because if they do these things in the green tree, what may be done in the dry?” This statement is metaphoric; e. g., If, while Mercy’s door is wide open, the Holy Ghost wooing, Jesus and His apostles and evangelists preaching, and everything prosperous and auspicious, they reject and crucify Him who came from heaven to save them, killing their own Christ for whom they had waited two thousand years, what will they do when the Holy Ghost has retreated away, and God has turned them over to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind, to believe lies and be condemned? Thus the green tree emblematizes the mercy and grace abounding in the days of Jesus; and the dry, the horrific spiritual dearth coming on the land because they insulted God, slew His Son, and outraged the Holy Ghost.
“And there were also two others, malefactors, being led, along with Him to be put to death.” Mat 27:33-34 : “And having come into the place called Golgotha, which is denominated the place of a skull, they gave Him vinegar mingled with gall to drink; and tasting it, He did not wish to drink.” This was a soporific potion, conducive to the lulling of the nerves to insensibility and the obtundification of the feeling, so as to mitigate the awful severity of the pain, somewhat corresponding with the modern chloroform. You see that Jesus declined to drink it, preferring to enjoy the clear and unclouded exercise of His intellect and the full acumen of His nerves. So when physicians want you to take chloroform, or some kind of a nervous sedative, which might probably render you unconscious of your suffering, you have the example of Jesus declining all artificial relief when passing through the terrible ordeal of crucifixion, enjoying the normal exercise of nerves and brain. Calvary is not far from Pilate’s judgment-hall, the ascension beginning in the city about one square from the hall, and continuing really to the summit of Calvary, passing northward through the Damascus Gate, then turning somewhat eastward, the mountain being one of the peaks of Bezetha, and within the angle formed by the road to Jericho, leading east, and the way to Damascus leading north, as the Romans were in the habit of crucifying their criminals in the most public and conspicuous places, so as to present the greatest possible terror to evildoers. Heb 13:12, locates it “without the gate.” Calvary is Greek, and means “skull,” because the hill has the shape of a human skull. When I first came to Jerusalem, with nothing but the Scripture for my guide, I recognized Calvary before any one pointed it out to me.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv33, 36 Mat 27:33 - Mat 27:50.
Matthew
THE CRUCIFIXION
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Mat 27:33 - Mat 27:50.
The characteristic of Matthew’s account of the crucifixion is its representation of Jesus as perfectly passive and silent. His refusal of the drugged wine, His cry of desolation, and His other cry at death, are all His recorded acts. The impression of the whole is ‘as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.’ We are bid to look on the grim details of the infliction of the terrible death, and to listen to the mockeries of people and priests; but reverent awe forbids description of Him who hung there in His long, silent agony. Would that like reticence had checked the ill-timed eloquence of preachers and teachers of later days!
I. We have the ghastly details of the crucifixion.
Conder’s suggestion of the site of Calvary as a little knoll outside the city, seems possible. It is now a low, bare hillock, with a scanty skin of vegetation over the rock, and in its rounded shape and bony rockiness explains why it was called ‘skull.’ It stands close to the main Damascus road, so that there would be many ‘passers by’ on that feast day. Its top commands a view over the walls into the temple enclosure, where, at the very hour of the death of Jesus, the Passover lamb was perhaps being slain. Arrived at the place, the executioners go about their task with stolid precision. What was the crucifying of another Jew or two to them? Before they lift the cross or fasten their prisoner to it, a little touch of pity, or perhaps only the observance of the usual custom, leads them to offer a draught of wine, in which some anodyne had been mixed, to deaden agony. But the cup which He had to drink needed that He should be in full possession of all His sensibilities to pain, and of all His unclouded firmness of resolve; and so His patient lips closed against the offered mercy. He would not drink because He would suffer, and He would suffer because He would redeem. His last act before He was nailed to the cross was an act of voluntary refusal of an opened door of escape from some portion of His pains.
What a gap there is between Mat 27:34 - Mat 27:35! The unconcerned soldiers went on to the next step in their ordinary routine on such an occasion,-the fixing of the cross and fastening of the victim to it. To them it was only what they had often done before; to Matthew, it was too sacred to be narrated, He cannot bring his pen to write it. As it were, he bids us turn away our eyes for a moment; and when next we look, the deed is done, and there stands the cross, and the Lord hanging, dumb and unresisting, on it. We see not Him, but the soldiers, busy at their next task. So little were they touched by compassion or awe, that they paid no heed to Him, and suspended their work to make sure of their perquisites,-the poor robes which they stripped from His body. Thus gently Matthew hints at the ignominy of exposure attendant on crucifixion, and gives the measure of the hard stolidity of the guards. Gain had been their first thought, comfort was their second. They were a little tired with their march and their work, and they had to stop there on guard for an indefinite time, with nothing to do but two more prisoners to crucify: so they take a rest, and idly keep watch over Him till He shall die. How possible it is to look at Christ’s sufferings and see nothing! These rude legionaries gazed for hours on what has touched the world ever since, and what angels desired to look into, and saw nothing but a dying Jew. They thought about the worth of the clothes, or about how long they would have to stay there, and in the presence of the most stupendous fact in the world’s history were all unmoved. We too may gaze on the cross and see nothing. We too may look at it without emotion, because without faith, or any consciousness of what it may mean for us. Only they who see there the sacrifice for their sins and the world’s, see what is there. Others are as blind as, and less excusable than, these soldiers who watched all day by the Cross, seeing nothing, and tramped back at night to their barrack utterly ignorant of what they had been doing. But their work was not quite done. There was still a piece of grim mockery to be performed, which they would much enjoy. The ‘cause,’ as Matthew calls it, had to be nailed to the upper part of the cross. It was tri-lingual, as John tells us,-in Hebrew, the language of revelation; in Greek, the tongue of philosophy and art; in Latin, the speech of law and power. The three chief forces of the human spirit gave unconscious witness to the King; the three chief languages of the western world proclaimed His universal monarchy, even while they seemed to limit it to one nation. It was meant as a gibe at Him and at the nation, and as Pilate’s statement of the reason for his sentence; but it meant more than Pilate meant by it, and it was fitting that His royal title should hang above His head; for the cross is His throne, and He is the King of men because He has died for them all. One more piece of work the soldiers had still to do. The crucifixion of the two robbers {perhaps of Barabbas’ gang, though less fortunate than he} by Christ’s side was intended to associate Him in the public mind with them and their crimes, and was the last stroke of malice, as if saying, ‘Here is your King, and here are two of His subjects and ministers.’ Matthew says nothing of the triumph of Christ’s love, which won the poor robber for a disciple even at that hour of ignominy. His one purpose seems to be to accumulate the tokens of suffering and shame, and so to emphasise the silent endurance of the meek Lamb of God. Therefore, without a word about any of our Lord’s acts or utterances, he passes on to the next group of incidents.
II. The mockeries of people and priests.
There would be many coming and going on the adjoining road, most of them too busy about their own affairs to delay long; for crucifixion was a slow process, and, when once the cross has been lifted, there would be little to see. But they were not too busy to spit venom at Him as they passed. How many of these scoffers, to whom death cast no shield round the object of their poor taunts, had shouted themselves hoarse on the Monday, and waved palm branches that were not withered yet! What had made the change? There was no change. They were running with the stream in both their hosannas and their jeers, and the one were worth as much as the other. They had been tutored to cry, ‘Blessed is He that cometh!’ and now they were tutored to repeat what had been said at the trial about destroying the temple. The worshippers of success are true to themselves when they mock at failure. They who shout round Jesus, when other people are doing it, are only consistent when they join in the roar of execration. Let us take care that our worship of Him is rooted in our own personal experience, and independent of what rulers or influential minds today say of Him.
A common passion levels all distinctions of culture and rank. The reverend dignitaries echoed the ferocious ridicule of the mob, whom they despised so much. The poorest criminal would have been left to die in peace; but brutal laughter surged round the silent sufferer, and showers of barbed sarcasms were flung at Him. The throwers fancied them exquisite jests, and demonstrations of the absurdity of Christ’s claims; but they were really witnesses to His claims, and explanations of His sufferings. Look at them in turn, with this thought in our minds. ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save,’ was launched as a sarcasm which confuted His alleged miracles by His present helplessness. How much it admits, even while it denies! Then, He did work miracles; and they were all for others, never for His own ends; and they were all for saving, never for destroying. Then, too, by this very taunt His claim to be the ‘Saviour’ is presupposed. And so, ‘Physician, heal Thyself,’ seemed to them an unanswerable missile to fling. If they had only known what made the ‘cannot,’ and seen that it was a ‘will not,’ they would have stood full in front of the great miracle of love which was before them unsuspected, and would have learned that the not saving Himself, which they thought blew to atoms His pretensions to save others, was really the condition of His saving a world. If He is to save others He cannot save Himself. That is the law for all mutual help. The lamp burns out in giving light, but the necessity for the death of Him who is the life of the world is founded on a deeper ‘must.’ His only way of delivering us from the burden of sin is His taking it on Himself. He has to ‘bear our griefs and carry our sorrows,’ if He is to bear away the sin of the world. But the ‘cannot’ derives all its power from His own loving will. The rulers’ taunt was a venomous lie, as they meant it. If for ‘cannot’ we read ‘will not,’ it is the central truth of the Gospel.
Nor did they succeed better with their second gibe, which made mirth of such a throne, and promised allegiance if He would come down. O blind leaders of the blind! That death which seemed to them to shatter His royalty really established it. His Cross is His throne of saving power, by which He sways hearts and wills, and because of it He receives from the Father universal dominion, and every knee shall bow to Him. It is just because He did not come down from it that we believe on Him. On His head are many crowns; but, however many they be, they all grow out of the crown of thorns. The true kingship is absolute command over willingly submitted spirits; and it is His death which bows us before Him in raptures of glad love which counts submission, liberty, and sacrifice blessed. He has the right to command because He has given Himself for us, and His death wakes all-surrendering and all-expecting faith.
Nor was the third taunt more fortunate. These very religious men had read their Bibles so badly that they might never have heard of Job, nor of the latter half of Isaiah. They had been poring over the letter all their lives, and had never seen, with their microscopes, the great figure of the Innocent Sufferer, so plain there. So they thought that the Cross demonstrated the hollowness of Jesus’ trust in God, and the rejection of Him by God. Surely religious teachers should have been slow to scoff at religious trust, and surely they might have known that failure and disaster even to death were no signs of God’s displeasure. But, in one aspect, they were right. It is a mystery that such a life should end thus; and the mystery is none the less because many another less holy life has also ended in suffering. But the mystery is solved when we know that God did not deliver Him, just because He ‘would have Him,’ and that the Father’s delight in the Son reached its very highest point when He became obedient until death, and offered Himself ‘a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing unto God.’
III. We pass on to the darkness, desolation, and death.
Matthew represents these three long hours from noon till what answers to our 3 P.M. as passed in utter silence by Christ. What went on beneath that dread veil, we are not meant to know. Nor do we need to ask its physical cause or extent. It wrapped the agony from cruel eyes; it symbolised the blackness of desolation in His spirit, and by it God draped the heavens in mourning for man’s sin. What were the onlookers doing then? Did they cease their mocking, and feel some touch of awe creeping over them?
‘His brow was chill with dying,
And His soul was faint with loss.’
The cry that broke the awful silence, and came out of the darkness, was more awful still. The fewer our words the better; only we may mark how, even in His agony, Jesus has recourse to prophetic words, and finds in a lesser sufferer’s cry voice for His desolation. Further, we may reverently note the marvellous blending of trust and sense of desertion. He feels that God has left Him, and yet he holds on to God. His faith, as a man, reached its climax in that supreme hour when, loaded with the mysterious burden of God’s abandonment, He yet cried in His agony, ‘My God!’ and that with reduplicated appeal. Separation from God is the true death, the ‘wages of sin’; and in that dread hour He bore in His own consciousness the uttermost of its penalty. The physical fact of Christ’s death, if it could have taken place without this desolation from the consciousness of separation from God, would not have been the bearing of all the consequences of man’s sins. The two must never be parted in our grateful contemplations; and, while we reverently abjure the attempt to pierce into that which God hid from us by the darkness, we must reverently ponder what Christ revealed to us by the cry that cleft it, witnessing that He then was indeed bearing the whole weight of a world’s sin. By the side of such thoughts, and in the presence of such sorrow, the clumsy jest of the bystanders, which caught at the half-heard words, and pretended to think that Jesus was a crazy fanatic calling for Elijah with his fiery chariot to come and rescue Him, may well be passed by. One little touch of sympathy moistened His dying lips, not without opposition from the heartless crew who wanted to have their jest out. Then came the end. The loud cry of the dying Christ is worthy of record; for crucifixion ordinarily killed by exhaustion, and this cry was evidence of abundant remaining vitality. In accordance therewith, the fact of death is expressed by a phrase, which, though used for ordinary deaths, does yet naturally express the voluntariness of Christ. ‘He sent away His spirit,’ as if He had bid it depart, and it obeyed. Whether the expression may be fairly pressed so far or no, the fact is the same, that Jesus died, not because He was crucified, but because He chose. He was the Lord and Master of Death; and when He bid His armour-bearer strike, the slave struck, and the King died, not like Saul on the field of his defeat, but a victor in and by and over death.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv31, 35 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXIII. A. On…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXIII. A. On the Way to the Cross].
CXXXIII. THE CRUCIFIXION. Subdivision A. ON THE WAY TO THE CROSS. (Within and without Jerusalem. Friday morning.) aMATT. XXVII. 31-34; bMARK XV. 20-23; cLUKE XXIII. 26-33; dJOHN XIX. 17.
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a31 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the bpurple, arobe, and put on him his garments [This ended the mockery, which seems to have been begun in a state of levity, but which ended in gross indecency and violence. When we think of him who endured it all, we can not contemplate the scene without a shudder. Who can measure the grace of God or the depravity of man?], d17 They took Jesus therefore: bAnd they lead him out to crucify him. aand led [722] him away to crucify him. dand he went out, bearing the cross for himself, a32 And as they came out, cwhen they led him away, athey found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: bone passing by, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, ahim they claid hold upon bcompel acompelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross. cand laid on him the cross, to bear it after Jesus. [Cyrene was a flourishing city in the north of Africa, having in it a large Jewish population, and Simon shows by his name that he was a Jew. The Cyreneans had one or more synagogues in Jerusalem ( Act_2:10, Act_6:9, Act_11:20). There were many Cyreneans afterwards engaged in spreading the gospel ( Act_13:1), and since the sons of this man are spoken of as well known to Mark's readers it is altogether likely that Simon was one of them. This Rufus may be the one mentioned by Paul ( Rom_16:13). The Roman soldiers found Simon entering the city, and because he was a stranger and they needed a man just then, they impressed him after the manner mentioned on Luk_19:43, Mat_24:15), Jesus refers to the sorrows which the Romans were to bring upon the Jews, and the meaning may be, If the fiery persecution of Rome is so consuming that my innocence, though again and again pronounced by the governor himself, is no protection against it, what will that fire do when it envelopes the dry, guilty, rebellious city of Jerusalem? Or we may make the present and the future grief of the women the point of comparison, and interpret thus: If they cause such sorrow to the women while the city is like a green tree, how much more when, like a dry, dead tree, it is about to fall.] 32 And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. b22 And they bring him unto the place dwhich is called in Hebrew, Golgotha: bwhich is, being interpreted, athat is to say, The place of a skull [Where this place was, or why it was so called, are matters of conjecture. All that we know certainly is that it was outside of, yet near, the city-- Heb_13:12, Joh_19:20], c33 And when they came unto the place which is called The skull, a34 they gave boffered him wine ato drink mingled with gall: bmyrrh: but aand when he had tasted it, he would not drink. bhe received it not. [This mixture of sour wine mingled with gall and myrrh was intended to dull the sense of pain of those being crucified or otherwise severely punished. The custom is said to have originated with the Jews and not with the Romans. Jesus declined it because it was the Father's will that he should suffer. He would not go upon the cross in a drugged, semi-conscious condition.] [724]
[FFG 722-724]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv33, 37 And when
And when
The Order of Events at the Crucifixion
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The order of events at the crucifixion:
(1) the arrival at Golgotha Mat 27:33; Mar 15:22; Luk 23:33; Joh 19:17
(2) the offer of the stupefying drink refused Mat 27:34; Mar 15:23
(3) Jesus is crucified between two thieves Mat 27:35-38; Mar 15:24-28; Luk 23:33-38; Joh 19:18-24
(4) He utters the first cry from the cross, "Father, forgive," etc. Luk 23:34.
(5) The soldiers part His garments Mat 27:35; Mar 15:24; Luk 23:34; Joh 19:23
(6) The Jews mock Jesus Mat 27:39-44; Mar 15:29-32; Luk 23:35-38
(7) The thieves rail on Him, but one repents and believes Mat 27:44; Mar 15:32; Luk 23:39-43.
(8) The second cry from the cross, "To-day shalt thou be with me," etc. Luk 23:43.
(9) The third cry, "Woman, behold thy son" Joh 19:26; Joh 19:27.
(10) The darkness Mat 27:45; Mar 15:33; Luk 23:44.
(11) The fourth cry, "My God," etc. Mat 27:46; Mat 27:47; Mar 15:34-36
(12) The fifth cry, "I thirst" Joh 19:28.
(13) The sixth cry, "It is finished" Joh 19:30.
(14) The seventh cry, "Father, into thy hands," etc. Luk 23:46.
(15) Our Lord dismisses his spirit Mat 27:50; Mar 15:37; Luk 23:46; Joh 19:30. (See Scofield "Mat 26:57")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v31 The Crucifixion and Death.
The Crucifixion and Death.
v. 31. And after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
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v. 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear His cross.
v. 33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
v. 34. they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall; and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink.
v. 35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots.
v. 36. And sitting down they watched Him there;
v. 37. and set up over His head His accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
The cruel mockery finally began to pall upon the soldiers; they proceeded to carry out the sentence. Taking off the mantle, they clothed Him once more in His own clothes, and led Him away to crucify Him. The very simplicity of the narrative enhances its effect a hundredfold, besides being internal evidence for the truth of Scriptures. Matthew relates only some of the chief incidents of the day. Just beyond the gates of the city the procession came upon one Simon of Cyrene, a town in African Libya, where many Jews were living. This man they pressed into service, Jesus having proved too weak to carry His cross; for the bearing of the cross was a part of the criminal’s punishment. Thus they all came to a place called Golgotha, or the place of the skull, undoubtedly named so from its shape, which resembled that of the upper human skull. It was outside the walls of the city, Heb 13:12. Here, in accordance with the prophecy, Psa 69:21, they gave Him vinegar or sour wine to drink, mixed with gall, a potion which was supposed to stupefy the senses and deaden the sense of pain; a Jewish custom. But Jesus refused the draught; He wanted to endure all His sufferings with full consciousness, also the pains which attended the act of crucifying. Crucifixion was a punishment of criminals. And among these Christ was reckoned; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, Isa 53:5. After the crucifying had been performed, the soldiers amused themselves by gambling for the garments of Jesus, probably in this manner that they first put up the several pieces and cast lots according to the value, each one thus getting a part. The coat they then made a separate stake, since it could not be divided, Joh 19:23-24. Thus again a prophetic word was fulfilled, Psa 22:18, and the mocking soldiers unconsciously performed the will of God. They then settled down to their duty of watching their crucified charges, in order that no one might meddle with them, especially not for the purpose of taking any one of them down. They also affixed, at Pilate’s command, a sign to the head of the cross, giving the reason for the sentence: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews; written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew-Aramaic. Thus did Pilate give vent to the bitterness of his heart, for he felt the sting of his defeat at the hands of the Jews. Thus did the soldiers enjoy their final jest at the expense of Jesus and of the nation to which He belonged. And, unconsciously, but none the less truly, they uttered therewith a comforting bit of Gospel-truth, for Jesus of Nazareth is the promised King of the Jews, the Messiah of the world.
The form of execution by means of crucifying had been introduced into Judea by the Romans when this country became a province of the Roman Empire. The Jews had made use of a post or upright pole for hanging, called the cursed tree, Gal 3:13; Deu 21:23, but the Romans employed some form of a cross-beam, and nailed the body to the cross thus formed by driving nails through the hands and feet. Since there was rarely more than a small strip beneath the feet to support the weight of the body, the pains attending crucifixion must have been the most unbearable torture, a slow straining of muscles and sinews, a gradual wrenching apart of ligaments and joints, to which was usually added the fever caused by the open wounds, Psa 22:14-17. By Roman custom the crucified criminal was compelled to die in this excruciating agony, after which his flesh was given to the birds or to wild animals. According to Jewish custom, due partly to reasons of humanity, partly to demands of Levitical purity, the bodies must be taken down and buried. By a combination of the two customs, the practice of breaking the legs, to hasten death, and of giving the mercy-stroke of piercing the body, with a lance, was introduced.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv32, 35 As they came out
As they came out
This means Jesus and the soldiers came out of the city. AT: "As they came out of Jerusalem" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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they found a man
"the soldiers saw a man"
whom they forced to go with them so that he might carry his cross
"whom the soldiers forced to go with them so that he could carry Jesus' cross"
place called Golgotha
This can be stated in active form. AT: "place that people called Golgotha" (See: Active or Passive)
him wine to drink mixed with gall
This can be stated in active form. AT: "him wine, which they had mixed with gall" (See: Active or Passive)
gall
the bitter, yellow liquid that bodies use in digestion
translationWords
Cyrene
cross
Golgotha
skull
wine
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv32, 34, 35, 37 27:32-44 Ironically, the taunts and ridicule of the crowd…
27:32-44 Ironically, the taunts and ridicule of the crowd express the truth about Jesus: He is the Son of God and King of Israel, the Messiah.
27:32 Normally, the victim carried his own cross. Only the crossbeam was carried; the vertical pole would be waiting at the crucifixion site. Simon might have been forced because Jesus was weak from the effects of scourging. The act of enlisting Simon might also have been a further mockery. Jesus was treated as one who deserved a servant even though he was being marched to his death.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.