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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 27:32

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And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

32. a man of Cyrene, Simon by name ] (1) “coming out of the country” (Mark and Luke), (2) the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark).

(1) This has been thought to imply that Simon was returning from work, and hence that it cannot have been the actual day of the Feast. Simon was probably coming into the city for the Paschal sacrifice, the hour for which was close at hand. (2) Rufus is probably the Christian named Rom 16:13, who would be known to St Mark’s readers. May not Simon have been one of those “Men of Cyrene” who preached the Word to Greeks when others preached to the Jews only? (Act 11:20.) (3) The inference that he was already an adherent of Christ is quite uncertain.

Cyrene ] A city in north-eastern Africa, famous for the beauty of its position. A large colony of Jews had settled there, as in other African and Egyptian cities, to avoid the oppression of the Syrian kings.

compelled ] See note ch. Mat 5:41, where the same word is used, and the custom referred to of which this is an instance.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Mat 27:32

Him they compelled to bear His cross.

–

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.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

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.

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 Ahabs 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.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

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, Le 24:14, “bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp”.”

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, Le 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 Nu 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 Am 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 Ac 2:10, as this man was a Jew, as his name shows; and besides, there was a synagogue of the Cyrenian Jews at Jerusalem, Ac 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, Ac 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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Compelled (). This word of Persian origin was used in Mt 5:41, which see. There are numerous papyri examples of Ptolemaic date and it survives in modern Greek vernacular. So the soldiers treat Simon of Cyrene (a town of Libya) as a Persian courier () and impress him into service, probably because Jesus was showing signs of physical weakness in bearing his own Cross as the victims had to do, and not as a mere jest on Simon. “Gethsemane, betrayal, the ordeal of the past sleepless night, scourging, have made the flesh weak” (Bruce). Yes, and the burden of sin of the world that was breaking his heart.

His cross ( ). Jesus had used the term cross about himself (16:24). It was a familiar enough picture under Roman rule. Jesus had long foreseen and foretold this horrible form of death for himself (Matt 20:19; Matt 23:24; Matt 26:2). He had heard the cry of the mob to Pilate that he be crucified (27:22) and Pilate’s surrender (27:26) and he was on the way to the Cross (27:31). There were various kinds of crosses and we do not know precisely the shape of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified, though probably the one usually presented is correct. Usually the victim was nailed (hands and feet) to the cross before it was raised and it was not very high. The crucifixion was done by the soldiers (27:35) in charge and two robbers were crucified on each side of Jesus, three crosses standing in a row (27:38).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Compelled to go [] . See on Mt 5:41. Rev., has impressed in margin.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

32. They found a man, a Cyrenian. This circumstance points out the extreme cruelty both of the Jewish nation and of the soldiers. There is no reason to doubt that it was then the custom for malefactors to carry their own crosses to the place of punishment, but as the only persons who were crucified were robbers, who were men of great bodily strength, they were able to bear such a burden. It was otherwise with Christ, so that the very weakness of his body plainly showed that it was a lamb that was sacrificed. Perhaps, too, in consequence of having been mangled by scourging, and broken down by many acts of outrage, he bent under the weight of the cross. Now the Evangelists relate that the soldiers constrained a man who was a peasant, and of mean rank, to carry the cross; because that punishment was reckoned so detestable, that every person thought himself polluted, if he only happened to put his hand to it. (265) But God ennobles by his heralds the man who was taken from the lowest dregs of the people to perform a mean and infamous office; for it is not a superfluous matter, that the Evangelists not only mention his name, but inform us also about his country and his children. Nor can there be any doubt that God intended, by this preparation, to remind us that we are of no rank or estimation in ourselves, and that it is only from the cross of his Son that we derive eminence and renown.

(265) “ S’il luy fust advenu d’y mettre la main.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

ON THE WAY TO GOLGOTHA

TEXT: 27:3234

32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross.

33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, The place of a skull, 34 they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

Do you think that Jesus carried His entire cross or merely the crossbeam?

Why do you think the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus cross? Had Simon done something wrong or did Jesus simply need this help?

Do you think they suspected him of being a secret follower of Jesus and intended to make him share His humiliation?

Why was Jesus crucified outside of town?

Why, if Matthew is writing for Jews, did he feel it necessary to translate the term Golgotha, which any of them could have understood without the translation? Did he simply copy from Mark, as some assert?

Why did someone offer Jesus some wine to drink? Was this normal?

Why do you think Jesus refused it?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

So the soldiers took Jesus along, leading Him out to crucify Him. He went out, carrying His own cross. As they were leaving the city, they happened upon a man named Simon. (He was a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus.) He was passing by on his way in from the country. The soldiers seized him and pressed him into service. They made him shoulder the cross to carry it behind Jesus.
Also following Him was a large number of people, including grief-stricken women who were wailing for Him. Jesus, however, turned to them to say, Women of Jerusalem, do not cry for me. Weep, instead, for yourselves and for your children, because, remember, the time is coming when the wail will be, How fortunate are those women who never had any children, never gave birth to babies or nursed them! That will be a time when people will begin to cry to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Hide us. For if people do this when the wood is tender and green, what will happen when it is old and dry?
Two other men, both criminals, were led away to be executed with Him. The soldiers brought Him to the place called Skull-place. (In Aramaic it is called Golgotha.) There He was offered wine drugged with myrrh, but, after tasting it, He refused to drink it.

SUMMARY

Jesus carried His cross to the edge of Jerusalem where it became apparent He could bear it no more. The Romans impressed a Cyrenian, forcing him to carry it out to Calvary. Jesus suffering excited the compassion of women but He refused it as misdirected. On Golgotha He also rejected a compassionate anesthetic. His humiliation was increased through guilt by association, since He was to suffer with two criminals.

NOTES

Shame converted to glory

Mat. 27:32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross. Whether or not condemned men normally shouldered an entire crosseither already assembled or the unjoined beamsor merely the horizontal cross-arm to the place of execution, John described Jesus as going out bearing his own cross (Joh. 19:17; cf. Mat. 27:32; Luk. 23:26), Jesus attempt to bear His own cross gives character to His challenge that we take up our cross and follow Him (Mat. 10:38; Mat. 16:24).

At the edge of Jerusalem, utterly exhausted from His trials and the pain of the scourging, He apparently collapsed under its weight, unable to continue. However, the soldiers duty was to guard the condemned men against escape or liberation. Because they dare not expose themselves to attack by helping him, a substitute is required to carry Jesus cross. Seeing Simon just then coming into town, the soldiers requisitioned his services to carry it, following Jesus to Calvary. (So, the Synoptics.) The impressment of Simons help implies that his strength was needed to bear the cross, not merely the upper crosspiece.
That Simon came from Cyrene, an important north African city, does not decide whether this Jew were a resident of the Jerusalem area to be distinguished from hundreds of other Simons by his city of origin, or one of the millions of Passover pilgrims who arrived from Jewish colonies around the Roman world. (Cf. Act. 2:10; Act. 6:9; Act. 11:20; Act. 13:1; 1Ma. 15:23; 2Ma. 2:23; Ant. XIV, 7, 2; XVI, 6, 1.5; Against Apion, II, 4.) He is later identified as the father of Alexander and Rufus, men apparently well-known to the early Church (Mar. 15:21; Rom. 16:13?) That he was selected out of the crowd for so lowly a service does not prove him a slave, because the Romans would not bother about his social status but judge him on his strength to carry the cross to the place of execution. Impressment or requisition of anyones service for certain limited service was the Roman right. (Cf. Mat. 5:41.)

But that he was coming in from the country does not prove (1) that he were a farmer who had been working in the fields that day, nor, consequently, (2) that the day in question were anything but Friday morning of Passover week, as if travelling were forbidden on regular feast days. To suppose him to be a farmer one must also see him as returning from field work about nine oclock a.m. (Cf. Mar. 15:25.) Perhaps out meditating in the glorious morning air of a country springtime, he was just returning for the hour of prayer at the temple.

The death march was composed of a centurion leading probably 12 soldiers divided into three details responsible for guarding the two malefactors and Jesus (Luk. 23:32). Wending their way through the crowded streets of the city, they encounter a great multitude of the people and of womenprobably not His followerswho, out of well-meaning, motherly sympathy, raised a funeral lament for this popular young man so unjustly condemned to death (Luk. 23:27 ff.). A death wail of the wailing women was customary and would be taken up almost immediately upon death. (Cf. Mat. 9:23; Luk. 8:52. See Mat. 11:17.) Ever grateful, compassionate and self-forgetful, the Lord paused to warn these unbelieving sentimentalists of their own future desperation when at the fall of Jerusalem, their sons would be massacred by wicked men and their own death would be preferable to their fear and wretchedness. (Cf. Mat. 24:19.) Despite the immediate atrocity He Himself must undergo, He could picture His own future as glorious (Heb. 12:2).

The turning-point of world history

Mat. 27:33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, The place of a skull. Marks they brought him (Mar. 15:22 : pherousin autn), suggests that, since Jesus collapse required help in bearing the cross, the soldiers perhaps supported Him, half-carrying Him to Golgotha . . . the place of a skull. Calvary (calvus, bald, scalp calvariae locus) is simply a Latin word that translates the Greek, krnion, (Cf. Latin cranium.) Matthew translates this Aramaic word, not for his Hebrew readers, but for those who read only Greek. (Cf. Mat. 27:46.)

Hebrew law and practice placed executions outside of the camp of Israel or its towns. (Cf. Lev. 24:14-23; Num. 15:35 f.; Jos. 7:24 ff.[?]; 1Ki. 21:13; Act. 7:58.) Further, Jesus, who is to be the sin offering for the world, is also symbolized by offerings taken outside the camp of Israel (Exo. 29:14; Lev. 4:12; Lev. 4:21; Lev. 9:8-11; Lev. 16:10; Lev. 16:21 f., Lev. 16:27; Num. 19:3; Num. 19:9). Thus, also Jesus final torment occurred outside the gate of Jerusalem, yet near the city apparently near a main road (Heb. 13:11 f.; Joh. 19:20; Mat. 27:39). The precise location of this place of a skull has been obscured by the following difficulties:

The macabre name would be derived, not from unclean skulls lying about (which would require the reading: krann gen.pl. tpon), but from some historic or topological reference:

its proximity to a cemetery of which nothing is stated in the text;

its regular use as a place for public executions, which is even less supported;

its shape bore free resemblance to a skull. Luke terms it simply Skull (kranion, not kranou tpos), as if this were sufficient to describe the place.

Its location may well be affected by the history of Jerusalem:

Around 44 A.D. Herod Agrippa initiated an ambitious project of urban expansion that may have enclosed Golgotha within the city about 14 years after Jesus died there (Wars V, 4, 2f.).

In 70 A.D. after a devastating siege, Jerusalem was virtually destroyed and sites around it were altered by the war itself.

After the ill-fated Bar Cochbah uprising, Hadrian rebuilt the already desolated city as Aelia Capitolina, a Roman city constructed on the ruins of the former Jewish capital.

Any site is affected by the location of the northern wall of Jerusalem in 30 A.D., an archeological puzzle not yet definitively settled.

The traditional site is covered by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. A more convincing candidate is a hill north of the Damascus Gate, which has two small caves that give the appearance of eye sockets of a skull without a jaw. Discovered by Otto Thenius, this site was popularized as Gordons Calvary. The quite ancient, apparently unused rock-hewn tomb located in a garden at its base argues favorably for this site, although some date the tomb in the second century. Certainty that this location today resembles its appearance two thousand years ago is, however, lacking. That this tomb was apparently never used nor developed in successive ages is motive to ponder. . . .

Mat. 27:34 they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink. Charitable Jews and Romans both customarily gave condemned men a heavily drugged drink. The former aimed at deadening the pain. The latter were simply facilitating their work of crucifixion: it is easier to handle a drugged man (Pro. 31:6 f.; cf. Plin. 20, 18; Sen. Ep. 83 cited by Farrar, 638).

Matthew says the wine was mixed with gall; Mark has myrrhed wine (esmurnismnon onon) (Mar. 15:23). Wine flavored with myrrh was known in the ancient world (Arndt-Gingrich, 766). Perhaps myrrhed connotes spiced without necessarily specifying myrrh. So, Matthew indicates the particular drug involved as gall. But is gall (chols) anesthetic? The LXX used chol to translate Hebrew words for (1) gall; (2) poison; (3) wormwood. (See Arndt-Gingrich, 891.) However, in addition to bitter, poisonous substances, gall may have associated with it the idea of anesthetic, espcially when the Hebrew word rosh, translated gall, referred, among other things, to poppy (papamer somniferam, I.S.B.E. 1167).

Or vice versa, chol often translated gall, simply points generically or figuratively to any bitter substance (Lam. 3:15; Pro. 5:4; perhaps also Psa. 69:21), and the particular bitter element added to this wine was myrrh.

They kept trying to give Him the pain-deadener (Mar. 15:23 : edidoun). Jesus refusal of this kindness had nothing to do with its bitter taste, as if the drinks bitterness were intended as an additional cruelty. Although His was not a stoic refusal to shield Himself from pain, some think that He was determined to experience death at its worst to make Himself like His brethren even in this respect (Heb. 2:9; Heb. 2:17). Others think He refused, that His sacrifice might be conscious. More simply, the price for keeping His mind clear until the last was having to endure pain as any other man. Even though the use of a powerful drug can be justified for others facing excruciating pain and natural death, His refusal illustrates what it means to be alert and on guard, so as not to enter into trials unaware of their insidious temptations and unprepared (Mat. 26:41).

When he had tasted it, he would not drink. If He did not want any, why taste it? Did He not know what it was? He simply did not use His miraculous knowledge when a taste would supply Him the information. (Cf. notes on Mat. 21:19.)

Could a Jewish reader see an allusion to Psa. 69:21 in this?

FACT QUESTIONS

Where according to Jewish law must executions occur?

Whom did the soldiers compel to carry Jesus cross?

Where was he coming from at the time?

Explain why he was compelled to bear Jesus cross: (a) what right did the Romans have to do this? (b) what need was there to find someone else to carry the cross? (c) how may this incident be harmonized with Johns Gospel that affirms Jesus carried His own cross?

Define the terms: Golgotha and Calvary. From what language does each word come? For what possible motive(s) was the area called this?

Locate the two more famous sites identified for the crucifixion. Explain why identifying the one true location is uncertain at best.

Explain the purpose of the wine mingled with gall.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(32) They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.There seems at that time to have been a flourishing settlement of Jews in Cyrene, and members of that community appear as prominent in the crowd of the day of Pentecost (Act. 2:10), among the disputants who opposed Stephen (Act. 6:9), and among the active preachers of the Word (Act. 11:20). Why, we ask, out of the whole crowd that was streaming to and fro, on the way to the place of execution, did the multitude seize on him? St. Marks mention of him as the father of Alexander and Rufus (see Note on Mar. 15:21), suggests the thought that his sons were afterwards prominent as members of the Christian community. May we not infer that he was suspected even then of being a secret disciple, and that this led the people to seize on him, and make him a sharer in the humiliation of his Master? He was coming, St. Mark adds, out of the country.

Him they compelled.The word is the technical term for forced service (see Note on Mat. 5:41). The act implied that our Lord was sinking beneath the burden, and that the soldiers began to fear that He might die before they reached the place of execution.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross.’

‘As they came out.’ ‘Out’ is being emphasised. Clearly this is intended to mean ‘out of Jerusalem.’ Jesus, surrounded by His four guards, would already have been trailed through the streets of Jerusalem in a kind of circular tour as a reminder to the people of what happened to rebels, and now He has come out through the gates, and presumably collapses in weakness. Thus a passing civilian is impressed for service in order to carry His crosspiece for Him. The probability is that Simon looked burly enough for the task not to be seen as too difficult for him.

However, the indication behind the words is that those who would bear Jesus’ cross must do so ‘outside Jerusalem’. Later it will be emphasised that Jesus died outside Jerusalem as a ‘bearer of reproach’ because Israel thought that they were thereby expelling Him (Heb 13:12-13), while the type of execution was seen as putting Him under a curse in the eyes of all Jews (Deu 21:23; Gal 3:13). But the point being made here is that the new Israel must be fashioned ‘outside Jerusalem’ with Him. The fact that Simon is named makes clear that he was (or became) a believer, and is therefore here representative of all believers. Matthew is not big on names unless he has some purpose for them. Mark in fact makes it even clearer that his family was a believing one by naming his sons. As the one who bore Jesus’ cross Simon’s name would resound wherever the Gospel went. So here the indication is that those who would join with Simon in bearing the cross of Jesus will also be required to come outside all that Jerusalem stands for. For Jerusalem itself, and all that it means, is rejected and devoted to destruction.

Cyrene was a capital city in Northern Africa and contained a Jewish community, so that Simon may have been visiting from there. But there was a Cyrenian synagogue in Jerusalem (Act 6:9), which could thus easily have been his ‘home’. Furthermore Christian Jews from Cyrene are mentioned in Act 11:20; Act 13:1. Simon was therefore almost certainly an African Jew, possibly dwelling in Jerusalem, who had become, or would become, a believer.

‘Him they compelled (impressed) to go with them.’ The Roman soldiers took advantage of their right to impress anyone who was not a Roman citizen in order that they might make them carry their burdens for one ‘milion’ (compare Mat 5:41). All they had to do was tap the person on the shoulder with a spear. As it was usual for the one who was to be crucified to carry his own cross-piece, the suggestion must be that Jesus was collapsing with exhaustion and suffering, while the soldiers would certainly not deign to carry it themselves. Thus the impressment. All this would be recognised by Matthew’s readers.

‘That he might bear His cross.’ Never was man more privileged. But he was almost certainly taking on himself a lifetime commitment. As a believer he would carry Jesus’ cross from then on. And, as we have seen, it is being made clear here that it was something that could only be done outside the sphere of the Jerusalem hierarchy. There can be little doubt that Matthew intends us to connect these words with Mat 16:24 which they parallel almost word for word. There, of course, it was the disciples’ own cross that was to be borne as he took up the way of suffering and self-denial for Jesus’ sake, but it would soon become recognised that that also involved bearing Jesus’ cross (Rom 6:3-7; Gal 2:20), and that is what Matthew has in mind here. All who ‘bore His cross’ in the future would be declaring their intention to live and die for Christ, whatever the cost. There is here an indication of the oneness of Jesus with His true people. While He alone could bear the sins of the world, His own must join with Him in bearing its tribulations (Mat 20:26-28; Col 1:24). And it began here. God is hereby reminding us that we must share with Him in the fellowship of His suffering (Php 3:10).

Implicit, however, in all this is that Jesus’ was so overburdened by the suffering that He had endured that another had to help in the carrying of His cross because His body had become so weak. Think of it. The Son of God unable to carry a piece of wood. So had God lowered Himself in becoming man (Php 2:5-12), but by it He was indicating that He would constantly call on men to share with Him, not in His sacrifice of Himself, but as partners in His sufferings (Col 1:24).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus Is Put To Death As The King of The Jews (27:32-37).

That Matthew saw the thought of the crucifixion of his Master as hard to bear comes out especially in these few short verses. There is no emphasis on the actual crucifixion. Indeed he passes quickly over the actual act of crucifying Jesus with the words ‘having crucified Him, they –’, and this becomes rather a step towards why He is there. It is because He is ‘the King of the Jews’. This last is both the accusation and His glory. This is what the whole of the Gospel has been leading up to, the suffering and humiliation of the King of the Jews, which was already in a sense foreshadowed in chapter 2. Unlike the remainder of the Gospel to this point his words are here quite noticeably in the form of a sequence, rather than a chiasmus. This would have been very noticeable to his first readers. By this means he prevents the actual act of crucifixion from being central, and ensures that the focus is rather on the stages of the humiliation through which He must go, and it then results in an emphasis on why He suffers. He is suffering because He is the Expected King. The sequence proceeds as follows (note the tenses of the verbs which are expressed literally):

1) Coming out they found a man from Cyrene and compelled him to carry His cross.

2) Having arrived at the place of a Skull they gave Him wine mingled with gall which He would not drink.

3) Having crucified Him they divided His clothes among them, and cast lots.

4) Sitting themselves down, they watched Him there.

5) They set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’

The sequence is quite vivid. Two past participles are sandwiched between two present participles (a kind of chiasmus) in order to bring out that the coming out of Jerusalem is a process, followed by the arrival and crucifying which are specific acts, followed by the sitting and watching Him which is a process. And all of this occurs because He is Jesus, The King of the Jews, the coming Suffering Messiah. We must also see that Matthew expects us to recognise that in the mention of ‘Jesus’ He is being seen as the One Who will save His people from their sins (Mat 1:21).

But while Matthew glides over the actual crucifixion we must not think that he is ignoring what was involved in it for the passage is filled with indications of suffering and death. The phrase ‘carry His cross’ contains within it the idea of deliberately walking into suffering and death (Mat 16:24), the stress on ‘the place of the Skull’ brings home the idea of death and physical corruption (only bare bones will be left), the refusal to drink of the wine is an indication that He will bear His suffering to the full without amelioration, the dividing of His clothes is an indication of the supreme humiliation of His being displayed naked on the cross open to the gaze of all, and also draws attention to the fact that all His worldly possessions are given to others (‘shall be cut off and shall have nothing’ – Dan 9:26), while the watching of Him by the guards both indicates that they gaze on Him in His nakedness (‘they look and stare at me’ – Psa 22:17) and that they watch Him in order to prevent His being delivered from the hands of his executioners. There aim is to ensure that He dies where He is.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mat 27:32. And as they came out, &c. We learn from the other Evangelists, that our blessed Lord had borne his cross agreeable to the custom in executions, at his first setting out. It was not indeed the whole cross which criminals carried, but only that transverse piece of wood to which the arms were fastened, and which was called antennae, or furca, going cross the stipes, or upright beam, which was fixed in the earth; the criminal, from carrying this, was called furcifer. Our blessed Lord, through the fatigue of the preceding night, spent wholly without sleep, the agony that he had undergone in the garden, his having been hurried from place to place, and obliged to stand the whole time of his trial, the want of food, and the loss of blood which he had sustained, was become so faint, that he sunk beneath the burden, and was not able to bear the weight of the cross. The soldiers therefore (for among the Romans the execution of criminals was performed by them) meeting with Simon of Cyrene, a town of Africa abounding with Jews, seized on him, probably bythe instigation of the Jews, and compelled himto carry the cross after Jesus. Simon’s sons, Alexander and Rufus, were two noted men among the first Christians, at the time St. Mark wrote his Gospel. See Mar 15:21. The soldiers, however, did not remove the cross out of compassion to Christ; but from an apprehension of his dying by theexcessive fatigue, and thereby eluding the public punishment to which they were escorting him; or to prevent delay. See Lipsius de Cruce, and Bishop Pearson on the Creed, p. 203

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 27:32 ] because the law required that all executions should take place outside the city . Num 15:35 f.; 1Ki 11:13 ; Act 7:58 ; Lightfoot and Grotius on our passage.

On the question as to whether this Simon of Cyrene , a place in Libya Pentapolitana, thickly peopled with Jews, resided statedly in Jerusalem (Act 6:9 ), or was only there on a visit (Act 2:10 ), see below. It was usual to compel the person who was to be executed to carry his own cross (see on Mat 10:38 , and Keim, p. 397 f.); [34] to this the case of Jesus was no exception, Joh 19:17 . This statement of John does not exclude what is here said with regard to Simon and the cross, nor does it pretend to deny it (Keim), but it simply passes it over in silence, recording merely the main point in question, the fact, namely, that Jesus had to carry His own cross (though there is nothing to prevent the supposition that He may have broken down under the burden before reaching the scene of the crucifixion).

That with such a large crowd following (Luk 23:27 ) they should notwithstanding compel a foreigner who happened to be going toward the city (Mark, Luke) to carry the cross the rest of the way, is a circumstance sufficiently accounted for by the infamy that attached to that odious thing. Possibly Simon was a slave. To suppose that he was one of Jesus’ followers , and that for this reason he had been pressed into the service (Grotius, Kuinoel), is altogether arbitrary, for, according to the text, the determining circumstance lies in the fact that he was . A foreigner coming from Cyrene would not be considered too respectable a person to be employed in such degrading work. That Simon, however, became a Christian, and that perhaps in consequence of his thus carrying the cross and being present at the crucifixion, is a legitimate inference from Mar 15:21 compared with Rom 16:13 .

.] See on Mat 5:41 . ] mentions the object for which this was done.

[34] That is to say, the post , the upright beam of the cross, to which the transverse beam was not attached till the scene of the execution was reached, where the instrument of torture was duly put together and then set up with the criminal nailed to it. Hence (because originally meant a, post ) we find Greek authors making use of such expressions as , , , , , comp. ; Latin writers, however, with rather more regard for precision, distinguish between the upright beam which the criminal was called upon to carry , and the crux as it appeared when completed and set up at the place of execution. The upright beam which the cruciarius was compelled to drag after him was called patibulum ; hence we never meet with the phrase crucem ferre , but always patibulum (the upright post) ferre , which patibulum was placed upon the poor criminal’s back, and with his outstretched hands securely tied to it, he had to balance it the best way he could upon his neck and shoulders. It is this distinction between crux and patibulum that enables us adequately to explain the well-known passages of Plautus: “Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci” ( ap. Non. Marcell . 221), and “Dispensis manibus quom patibulum habebis” ( Mil. glor . ii. 4. 7), and similarly with regard to expressions referring to the cross (as completed and set up): in crucem tollere , in crucem agere (Cicero and others), etc.; the comic expression crucisalus (Plaut. Bacch . ii. 3. 128); as also the passage in Tacit. Ann . xiv. 33, where the different modes of punishing by death are enumerated, beginning with those of a general nature and ending with the more specific: “Caedes, patibula (beams for penal purposes generally), ignes, cruces .” From this it is manifest at once that it would be incorrect to suppose, with Keim, that all that Christ had to carry was the cross-beam . Such a view is at variance both with the language of our text: , and with the Latin phrase: patibulum ferre. So much is the patibulum regarded as the main portion of the cross, that in poetry it is sometimes used as equivalent to crux , as in Prudent. Peristeph . ix. 641: “Crux illa nostra est, nos patibulum ascendimus.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

TENTH SECTION
GOLGOTHA: THE CRUCIFIXION. (GOOD FRIDAY.)

Mat 27:32-56

(Mar 15:21-41; Luk 23:26-56; Joh 19:17-30; Isaiah 53Pericopes: 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, ]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, ] 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, ] 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, ].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, ] 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, ],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, ]; 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 [ ]. 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 Zebedees children [the sons of Zebedee].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Survey.The same brevity and sublimity with which Matthew described Christs 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 Christs 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 centurions testimony; the women beholding. The fulfilment of the Old Testament symbols of the Messiahs 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 prpositus, 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. Ptoetmus 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, , 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 trias 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 Simons 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 , 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 (Meyers 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 : . 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. , Heb. 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 place of skulls, but , skull,Luke uses ; 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. 407418; vol. iii. 254263; and Neue Untersuchungen, Halle, 1847); Titus Tobler: Golgotha, St Gallen, 1851, p. 224 ff.58 For the identity areKarl von Raumer: Palstina, p. 355; Scholz: de Golgath 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 Fhrer und Irrfhrer 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 Christs 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 lepers 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 citys inhabitants.
As regards the Via dolorosa, or Via crucis, or the Lords road from the prtorium 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 Braunes statement, that the way was about an hours 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 the LXX. translate , 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, .. .

1. The Cross, : 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 Bhr (consult Tholuck, Die. Glaubwrdigkeit 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 [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 (Peters 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 , 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 Christs 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, Christs 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 . 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, , or the others have expanded the words, they divided His garments, casting lots, according to Matthews 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 authors 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 criminals 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, , or also , .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, .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 governors revenge, that the Jews had overcome him, and humbled Him in his own estimation.Two robbers, .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 22:8as 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 ( ). 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 priestswith 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 Gods servant, Psalms 22. Thus are the statements, and even the prayers, of finished fanaticism usually filled with blasphemies. If He will have him, :if He has pleasure in him, after the Hebrew . 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, , 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 (, Luke). See the authors 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 oclock 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 ( ), when Pilate pronounced sentence. If we adopt Tholucks 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 oclock 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. Marks 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 Nica.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 Christs 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 Gods 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 authors 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: , . Meyer agrees with this interpretation and thinks that, in accordance with the miraculous character of the whole event, must mean here over the whole earth, and not over the whole land (as Erasmus, Maldonatus, Kuinel, 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 Csar. 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, ; 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). , Chald. =Heb. . 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 Matthews 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 (Wolfenbttel 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 Gods grace (Langes 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 Christs 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, .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 (, 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 worlds 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 Eichhorns 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. Meyers 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 Apostles belief regarding the efficacy of Christs 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 . 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 Shunamites 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, , which must be referred to the preceding as well as . 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. Christs death opened their tombs. His resurrection raised them to life again, that He might be the first-born from the dead ( , Col 1:18), and the first-fruits of them that slept ( , 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 Christs majesty in dying, this captain, who, along with the captain in Capernaum (Matthew 8), and the captain Cornelius at Csarea (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 Gods Son [].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 Gods 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 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 authors 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: is mentioned by the Rabbins (Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, i. p. 277); but this must not be confounded with , 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 Zebedees children, i.e., Salome: see Mat 20:20. She it is, undoubtedly, who is meant by the sister of Christs 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 mothers (Marys) 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 ( ,, 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. Lukes 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. Womans 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. ., , …, Mat 27:33-34. 2. , , …, 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 criminalsHe 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 worlds 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 Christs 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 worlds 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 worlds 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 worlds consolations; and He, conscious of a truer comfort, does away with all these unavailing consolations of the old world.
7. The gamblers beneath Christs 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 earths 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 Christs 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 heavens 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 souls 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 Gods 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Messiahs 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 writers knowledge, but truly with the Spirits knowledge, typical of the bitter agonies of Christ (comp. the authors 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 Herzogs Real-Encyklopdie.

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 slaves price; 2. by the Gentiles, executed like a slave.A contemplation of Christs-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. Christs patience; 2. mans guilt: 3. Gods grace.78Christ on Golgotha.The Lords 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, Gods 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 Lords death: 1. The result of the worlds most deadly hate; an unparalleled murder and death. 2. The result of Christs unconquerable love; the all-comprehensive death, in that all died in the One. 3. The result of Gods grace; it was the worlds 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. Christs 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 GolgothaParadise lost and regained, Golgotha present and disappeared; (b) Sinai and Golgothathe law and the gospel; (c) Moriah79 and Golgothathe shadow and the substance; (d) Gethsemane and Golgothathe sufferings of the soul, and the sufferings of the cross; (e) Olivet and Golgothatriumph, 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 Christs 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 Christs 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.Christs 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.Christs 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 worlds hate.Christs last cry, though wordless, was doubtless a cry of triumph.Death was overcome in Christs 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 worlds 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, Gods heroines.The spiritual apparitions at Jerusalem, a spring flower of the resurrection.The earthquake at Christs death a sign of the worlds 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.Luthers 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.Luthers margin: The garments of righteousness do not require to be divided, every one employs them whole and altogether.Hedinger: Christs 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: Christs cruel mocking, the best remedy against the worlds 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 Gods 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.Luthers 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 mans heart is so hard?Christ has deprived death of his power, 2Ti 1:10.The centurion: those who acknowledge Gods 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 Christs 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 Gods 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 Christs 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, Satans greatest triumph, Satans greatest defeat: 1. The cross, expressive symbol of self-denial, of self-sacrificing love; 2. the greatest of Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 worlds 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, Hlfsbuch, 3 Bd., 298; Archological. The Quadragesima, or the forty days of the passion-week, and of Lent, concludes with the Great Week, , 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 ( s. ), dominica palmarum. Among the holy days of this week, the fifth was specially celebrated, , feria quinta pasch, as the commemoration of the last Passover, and the institution of the Lords Supper (dies cn 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, , , dies dominic 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 , or the old German form of kren, to choose, or karo, garo, to prepare, to equip; hence=preparation-week, . The Constit. Apostolic; v. 188, forbid any festivals , , and enjoin the strictest fast, because this was the day of the Lords 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 Gods 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 Gods grace and mercy. 3. A temple of virtue.Theremin:It is finished: 1. Gods 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:Christs 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:Christs 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 Lords gentleness and love; 2. the Lords 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.Drseke:Christs 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 ber die sieben letzen Worte Jesu, 1726; Arndt: Die sieben Worte Christi am Kreuz, 1840; Braune: Das Evangelium von Jesus Christus, p. 425; Brandt: Homilet. Hlfsbuch, 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.. is the prevailing reading. [Other readings are , , In Luk 23:33 the English Version, following the Vulgate, translated the Greek 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: . The reading is better supported than and few MSS. omit Great variety in the readings [In English 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 following B., D., K., L., etc.: this is opposed by A. and others, reading . Meyer holds the first reading to have been introduced from Mar 15:28. [Cod. Sinait. reads likewise , 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 was a wilful alteration to harmonize Matthew with Mark. Tischendorf and Alford adhere to the received reading: , 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, 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 to Dr. Lange puts them in brackets. Comp. his Exeg. Notes.P. S.]

[46]Mat 27:39.[So Cheke, Campbell, and Scrivener render . Lange: schttelten. Norton: nodding, Conant, however, defends wagging as better expressing the contemptuous, scornful motion intended by the Evangelist. P. S.]

[47]Mat 27:42. . Fritzsche and Tischendorf adopt this reading, omitting the preceding , according to B, D., L., etc. The irony is thus stronger. is probably an exegetical addition from Mat 27:40.

[48]Mat 27:42.The reading: , according to Lachmann and his authorities, is stronger [than the text. rec.: ]. The reading: also, is well supported and significant. [Cod. Sinait. reads: 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 , which must be connected with the following 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 , 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: , …, though supported by B., C, L., is here quite out of place, and is an interpolation from Joh 19:34. [The same addition, from to 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 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 calvari locus. Audivi quemdam exposuisse Calvari 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 Calvari, 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 grotus. Dr. Wordsworth allegorizes on Golgotha (from 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 () 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 ( ), still less a skull simply, as in the Hebrew and in the Greek of St. Luke (), but the place of skulls ( ); 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 Herzogs Encyklopdie, 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. Smiths 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 Christs death and burial (Itinraire de Paris 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 Christs 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, , the th being added to connect the Hebrew particle of motion,Goathah. Gesenius derives it from , to low, or moo, as a cow. Hence also the translation of the Targum the heifers pool. The Syriac, on the other hand, has leromto, to the eminence, perhaps reading .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 , 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 Saviours 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. Andrews 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 Mnters 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 ( , 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 writers 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, Archol. p. 145, and Andrews, Life of Christ, p. 538P. 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, erlste Brder; 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 glnset 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: , , . . The same passage is quoted by Julius Africanus, a. d. 222, In Syncellus Chron. 257, Ven. 322, Par.: (in the middle of the month) . Another heathen historian, Thallus, as quoted by Julius Africanus, mentions the same eclipse of the sun: . 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 Saviours 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 ra Dionysiaca as correct, both as to the year and day of Christs 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 Phlegons testimony, who says that this eclipse surpassed all others ever seen ( ), 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 , 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 Johns 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 Meyers 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 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 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 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 Meyers 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: grne 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.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

“And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. (33) And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, (34) They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. (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. (36) And sitting down they watched him there; (37) And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. (38) Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. (39) And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, (40) And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. (41) Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, (42) He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. (43) He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. (44) The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. (45) Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. (46) And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (47) Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. (48) And 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. (49) The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.”

Let us follow Jesus to the cross; and as Jesus suffered without the gate, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood; let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Heb 13:12-13 . The first circumstance which strikes us in the hurrying away the Lord of Life and Glory to his execution, is the taking hold of a man of Cyrene, which they found in the way, whom they compelled to bear his cross. John saith, that Jesus bearing his cross went forth. Joh 19:17 . And Matthew, Mark, and Luke, observe, that this man of Cyrene, Simon by name, they compelled to bear it, And both accounts no doubt are correct. For Jesus fainting beneath the cross, as probably he might, could go no further: and therefore this stranger is compelled to the office. There was no mercy intended to Jesus by this act; for had he died before they arrived at Calvary, as through suffering they feared he might, their triumph in his crucifixion would have been lost.

The views of the cross, in every direction and in every way, are too many to compress within a little compass: and as all the Evangelists call us to take our stand at the foot of the cross, and them behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world; we shall, again and again, find occasion to meditate upon the endless subject. I shall for the present, therefore, request the Reader to take into his observation some of the first and most obvious sights which present themselves to our meditation of Christ crucified, which, while to the Jews it is a stumbling, block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; it is to them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1Co 1:23-24 .

And, First: it is very plain that the death of the cross was a shameful death, The malefactors were naked, who suffered this death. None but slaves could suffer it. No Roman was allowed by the laws to fal1 under it, be his crime what it might. Hence Paul speaking of it saith; He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phi 2:8 . But as Adam had made himself naked by sin, so Christ, in removing the curse, condescends to this shame, and to do away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb 9:26 .

Secondly. The place where this was done, at Golgotha, a place of the unburied sculls of criminals. As if to intimate the very remains of those who died, or rather were put to death, in a spot of such infamy, their carcases might be exposed as dung upon the earth, abhorred both of God and men. Hence the Prophet speaking of one cursed of God, said concerning him, that they should not lament for him, saying, Ah! Lord: or ah! his glory: but he should be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Jer 22:18-19 . When Jesus therefore came to redeem from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; he put himself in every situation into which our nature must everlastingly have fallen, but for his interposition and as the law declared everyone cursed which hanged on a tree; Jesus will take that curse to redeem his people from it. But as the prophecies concerning Christ declared by a strange and seeming contradiction, that though he was cut off out of the land of the living as a malefactor, and for the transgression of the people should be stricken; yet at the same time he should make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death: the Lord over-ruled those wonderful contrarieties, that though Christ was crucified at Golgotha, he should be buried in a garden, yea, and in a new sepulchre, wherein never man had lain. See Gal 3:13 ; Isa 53:8-9 ; Luk 23:50-53 , See Golgotha, Poor Man’s Concordance.

Thirdly. The infamy attending the crucifixion of Christ was increased, in that he was crucified between two thieves; yea, he himself, put in the middle of them, as if the most worthless of the three: thus fulfilling the prophecy of being numbered with the transgressors. Isa 53:12 . All that took place in the great events of Christ’s death, was to fulfil the types and prophecies of him; and therefore this among the many, became most important to be attended to; and yet, but for the Lord’s watching over it, nothing seemed more unlikely to have been accomplished.

Fourthly. The death of the cross was of all deaths the most painful. It was slow and lingering, violent and universally excruciating to the whole body. In the method used, the victim was placed upon the cross while on the ground, and the hands and feet stretched out as far as they might be made to extend, and nailed through the nervous parts to the timber. Then the cross with the wretched victim fastened to it, was raised up in an erect posture, and fixed into a hole prepared for the foot of it in the earth, which of consequence by the sudden jerk given to it could not fail to occasion the most dreadful pains. In this posture the unhappy sufferer remained suspended, the arms keeping up the whole weight of the body, until relieved by death. Sometimes, as in the case of the two thieves crucified with Christ, whether to aggravate their sufferings, or to put them the sooner out of misery, the soldiers brake their bones with blows. But the earlier death of Jesus prevented this last act of the Roman soldiers, we are told; for they brake not his legs: but one of them with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. Hereby leading to a double prophecy: a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith: they shall look on him whom they pierced; Exo 12:46 ; Zec 12:10 ; Joh 19:33-37 .

And here let us pause over the solemn subject; and again look up by faith, and behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! Methinks we may, as we look up and behold that wonderous sight, contemplate Jesus as thus with arms extended, inviting his redeemed to come to him, as his arms are stretched forth to embrace them. And while his arms are thus open to receive, his feet are waiting for their coming. And with his head reclining, he looks down with his eyes of love, as welcoming their approach. And Reader! what a thought is it for every true believer in Christ to cherish, and never to lose sight of: Jesus in all this, hung on the cross not as a private person, but as the public head of his body the Church. For as certain as that you and I, were both in the loins of Adam, when he transgressed in the garden, and were alike implicated in his guilt and punishment; so equally are all the seed of Christ crucified with Christ, and interested in his salvation. For so the charter both of justice and of grace runs: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Isa 45:25 . For the further contemplation of the many wonderful events connected with the subject of Christ crucified, I refer the Reader to the other Evangelists. Mar 15 ; Luk 23 ; Joh 19 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

Ver. 32. They found a man of Cyrene ] A stranger, coming out of the field towards Jerusalem, meets with an unexpected cross, and follows Christ, which occasioned him to inquire into the cause, and got him renown among the saints. In like sort, the faithful Christian (a stranger upon earth) comes out of the field of this world, with his face set toward Sion, and meets with many crosses by the way. But all while he follows Christ, let him inquire into the cause, and the issue shall be glorious.

Him they compelled to bear his cross ] Not so much to ease Christ, who fainted under the burden, as to hasten the execution, and to keep him alive till he came to it. See Trapp on “ Joh 19:17 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

32. ] Previously, Jesus had borne his own cross: Joh 19:17 . So Plutarch, de sera numinis vindicta, , c. ix.

We have no data to ascertain any further particulars about this Simon of Cyrene. The only assumption which we are perhaps justified in making, is that he was afterwards known in the Church as a convert: see note on Mar 15:21 . He was coming from the country , Mark, ibid.; Luk 23:26 . Meyer suggests, to account for the selection of one out of the multitude present, that possibly he was a slave; the indignity of the service to be rendered preventing their taking any other person. On see note at ch. Mat 5:41 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 27:32-38 . Crucifixion (Mar 15:21-27 ; Luk 23:26 ; Luk 23:35-38 ). This part of the story begins with the closing words of Mat 27:31 : “they led Him away to be crucified”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 27:32 . : going out (of the city) according to later Roman custom, and in harmony also with Jewish usage (Num 15:35 , 1Ki 21:23 , Act 7:58 ). . .: a man of Cyrene, in Libya, presumably recognisable as a stranger, with whom liberties might be taken. , compelled; a military requisition. cf. at chap. Mat 5:41 . . . Jesus, carrying His cross according to the custom, has broken down under His burden; Gethsemane, betrayal, the ordeal of the past sleepless night, scourging, have made the flesh weak. No compassion for Him in finding a substitute; the cross must be carried, and the soldiers will not. : see on Mat 27:35 . : Weiss remarks on the double before the name, and in the following interpretation and thinks it a sign that Mt. is copying from Mk. One wonders indeed why Mt., writing for Jews, should explain the word at all. , place of a skull (“Calvariae locus,” Vulg [150] , whence “Calvary” in Lk., A. V [151] ), of skulls rather, say many interpreters; a place of execution, skulls lying all about (Jerome started this view). Recent interpreters (including Schanz) more naturally take the word as pointing to the shape of the hill. The locality is quite uncertain.

[150] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

[151] Authorised Version.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 27:32

32As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.

Mat 27:32 “man of Cyrene named Simon” Cyrene is modern Libya, but the man’s name is Jewish. The fact that he was in Jerusalem at this time says he was a Jew or a proselyte. There was a synagogue in Jerusalem for Cyrenian Jews (cf. Act 6:9). His racial or ethnic background is uncertain, but he was probably a Jew of the Diaspora.

“pressed into service” This is a Persian word used in Mat 5:41. Occupying military forces had the right to command local citizens to perform certain tasks.

“to bear His cross” Whether the cross-bar or the entire cross was carried to Golgotha is uncertain. The shape of the cross may have been a capital “T,” a small “t,” an “X,” or a scaffolding holding several persons.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

him = this [man].

compelled. See note on Mat 5:41.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

32.] Previously, Jesus had borne his own cross: Joh 19:17. So Plutarch, de sera numinis vindicta, , c. ix.

We have no data to ascertain any further particulars about this Simon of Cyrene. The only assumption which we are perhaps justified in making, is that he was afterwards known in the Church as a convert: see note on Mar 15:21. He was coming from the country, Mark, ibid.; Luk 23:26. Meyer suggests, to account for the selection of one out of the multitude present, that possibly he was a slave; the indignity of the service to be rendered preventing their taking any other person. On see note at ch. Mat 5:41.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 27:32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

Perhaps they were afraid that Christ would die from exhaustion; so they compelled Simon to bear his cross. Any one of Christs followers might have wished to have been this man of Cyrene; but we need not envy him, for there is a cross for each of us to carry. Oh! that we were as willing to bear Christs cross as Christ was to bear our sins on his cross! If anything happens to us by way of persecution or ridicule for our Lords sake, and the gospels, let us cheerfully endure it. As knights are made by a stroke from the sovereigns sword, so shall we become princes in Christs realm as he lays his cross on our shoulders.

Mat 27:33-34. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

Golgotha was the common place of execution for malefactors, the Tyburn or Old Bailey of Jerusalem, outside the gate of the city. There was a special symbolical reason for Christs suffering without the gate, and his followers are bidden to go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach (Heb 13:11-13). A stupefying draught was given to the condemned, to take away something of the agony of crucifixion; but our Lord came to suffer, and he would not take anything that would at all impair his faculties. He did not forbid his fellow-sufferers drinking the vinegar mingled with gall (wine mingled with myrrh, Mar 15:23), but he would not drink thereof. Jesus did not refuse this draught because of its bitterness, for he was prepared to drink even to the last dreadful dregs the bitter cup of wrath which was his peoples due.

Mat 27:35. 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.

There is a world of meaning in that short sentence, and they crucified him, driving their bolts of iron through his blessed hands and feet, fastening him to the cross, and lifting him up to hang there upon a gibbet reserved for felons. We can scarcely realize all that the crucifixion meant to our dear Lord; but we can join in Fabers prayer:

Lord Jesus! may we love and weep,

Since thou for us art crucified.

Then was fulfilled all that our Lord had foretold in chapter 20:17-19, except his resurrection, the time for which had not arrived. The criminals clothes were the executioners perquisite. The Roman soldiers who crucified Christ had no thought of fulfilling the Scriptures when they parted his garments, casting lots; yet their action was exactly that which had been foretold in Psa 22:18. The seamless robe would have been spoiled if it had been rent, so the soldiers raffled for the vesture, while they shared the other garments of our Lord. The dice would be almost stained with the blood of Christ, yet the gamblers played on beneath the shadow of his cross. Gambling is the most hardening of all vices. Beware of it in any form! No games of chance should be played by Christians, for the blood of Christ seems to have bespattered them all.

Mat 27:36. And sitting down they watched him there;

Some watched him from curiosity, some to make sure that he really did die, some even delighted their cruel eyes with his sufferings; and there were some, hard by the cross, who wept and bewailed, a sword passing through their own hearts while the Son of man was agonizing even unto death.

Mat 27:37. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

What a marvelous providence it was that moved Pilates pen! The representative of the Roman Emperor was little likely to concede kingship to any man; yet he deliberately wrote, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, and nothing would induce him to alter what he had written. Even on his cross, Christ was proclaimed King, in the sacerdotal Hebrew, the classical Greek, and the common Latin, so that everybody in the crowd could read the inscription. When will the Jews own Jesus as their King? They will do so one day, looking on him whom they pierced. Perhaps they will think more of Christ when Christians think more of them; when our hardness of heart towards them has gone, possibly their hardness of heart towards Christ may also disappear.

Mat 27:38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.

As if to show that they regarded Christ as the worst of the three criminals, they put him between the two thieves, giving him the place of dishonour. Thus was the prophecy fulfilled, He was numbered with the transgressors. The two malefactors deserved to die, as one of them admitted (Luk 23:40-41); but a greater load of guilt vested upon Christ, for he bare the sin of many, and, therefore, he was rightly distinguished as the King of sufferers, who could truly ask: Was ever grief like mine?

Mat 27:39-40. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come down from the cross.

Nothing torments a man when in pain more than mockery. When Jesus Christ most wanted words of pity and looks of kindness, they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads. Perhaps the most painful part of ridicule is to have ones most solemn sayings turned to scorn, as were our Lords words about the temple of his body: Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. He might have saved himself; he might have come down from the cross; but if he had done so, we could never have become the sons of God. It was because he was the Son of God that he did not come down from the cross, but hung there until he had completed the sacrifice for his peoples sin. Christs cross is the Jacobs ladder by which we mount up to heaven. This is the cry of the Socinians today, Come down from the cross. Give up the atoning sacrifice, and we will be Christians. Many are willing to believe in Christ, but not in Christ crucified. They admit that he was a good man and a great teacher; but by rejecting his vicarious atonement, they practically un-Christ the Christ, as these mockers at Golgotha did.

Mat 27:41-43. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, forgetting their high station and rank, joined the ribald crew in mocking Jesus in his death pangs. Every word, was emphatic; every syllable cut and pierced our Lord to the heart. They mocked him as a Saviour; He saved others; himself he cannot save. They mocked him as a King; If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. They mocked him as a believer; He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him. They mocked him as the Son of God; For he said, I am the Son of God. Those who say that Christ was a good man virtually admit his deity, for he claimed to be the Son of God. If he was not what he professed to be, he was an impostor. Notice the testimony that Christs bitterest enemies bore even as they reviled him: He saved others; He is the King of Israel (R.V.); He trusted in God.

Mat 27:44. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

The sharers of his misery, the abjects who were crucified with him, joined in reviling Jesus. Nothing was wanting to fill up his cup of suffering and shame. The conversion of the penitent thief was all the more remarkable because he had but a little while before been amongst the mockers of his Saviour. What a trophy of divine grace he became!

Mat 27:45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

Some have thought that this darkness covered the whole world, and so caused even a heathen to exclaim, Either the world is about to expire, or the God who made the world is in anguish. This darkness was supernatural; it was not an eclipse. The sun could no longer look upon his Maker surrounded by these who mocked him. He covered his face, and traveled on in tenfold night, in very shame that the great Sun of righteousness should himself be in such terrible darkness.

Mat 27:46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

In order that the sacrifice of Christ might be complete, it pleased the Father to forsake his well-beloved Son. Sin was laid on Christ, so God must turn away his face from the Sin-bearer. To be deserted of his God was the climax of Christs grief, the quintessence of his sorrow. See here the distinction between the martyrs and their Lord; in their dying agonies they have been divinely sustained; but Jesus, suffering as the Substitute for sinners, was forsaken of God. The saints who have known what it is to have their Fathers face hidden from them, even for a brief space, can scarcely imagine the suffering that wrung from our Saviour the agonizing cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Mat 27:47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

They knew better, yet they jested at the Saviours prayer. Wickedly, willfully, and scornfully, they turned his death-shriek into ridicule.

Mat 27:48-49. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

A person in such agony as Jesus was suffering might have mentioned many pangs that he was enduring; but it was necessary for him to say, I thirst, in order that another Scripture might be fulfilled. One of them, more compassionate than his companions, ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, from the vessel probably brought by the soldiers for their own use, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. It always seems to me very remarkable that the spunge, which is the very lowest form of animal life, should have been brought into contact with Christ, who is at the top of all life. In his death the whole circle of creation was completed. As the spunge brought refreshment to the lips of our dying Lord, so may the least of Gods living ones help to refresh him now that he has ascended from the cross to the throne.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 27:32. , a Cyrenian) There was neither Jew nor Roman who was willing to bear the burden of the cross. Men were present at that time from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even in the remotest regions Christ has since found those who would bear His cross.- , to bear) Simon is not said to have borne it unwillingly. Well has Athanasius (Book i. fol. 10, 11) said, in his sermon on the Passion, Simon, a mere man, bore the cross, that all might know that the Lord underwent, not His own death, but that of men.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Where They Crucified Him

Mat 27:32-44

He will not drink what would dull His keen sense of the momentous issues of the Cross. Those taunts were true. None who save themselves can save others. The cry of forsakenness, the midday midnight, the yielded spirit, the rent veil, the opened tombs, the sympathy of nature-all these proved that this was no common death, and were in keeping with everything that Scripture had foretold, 1Pe 1:11.

Our Lord was wrapped in midnight, that He might be our bright and morning star. He became obedient to death, that He might give eternal life. His heel was sorely wounded, that He might break the head of him that had the power of death, and might wear forever at His girdle the keys of death and Hades. Make His soul an offering for thy sin. Hide in the cleft which the soldiers spear opened in His side. He has made peace by the blood of His Cross; we have but to accept and be at rest.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

The King Crucified

Mat 27:32. And as they came out, they found a man of Gyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his cross.

Perhaps they were afraid that Christ would die from exhaustion; so they compelled Simon to bear his cross. Any one of Christ’s followers might have wished to have been this man of Cyrene; but we need not envy him, for there is a cross for each of us to carry. Oh, that we were as willing to bear Christ’s cross as Christ was to bear our sins on his cross! If anything happens to us by way of persecution or ridicule for our Lord’s sake, and the gospel’s, let us cheerfully endure it. As knights are made by a stroke from the sovereign’s sword, so shall we become princes in Christ’s realm as he lays his cross on our shoulders.

Golgotha was the common place of execution for malefactors, the Tyburn or Old Bailey of Jerusalem, outside the gate of the city. There was a special symbolical reason for Christ’s suffering without the gate, and his followers are bidden to “go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb 13:11-13).

A stupefying draught was given to the condemned, to take away something of the agony of crucifixion; but our Lord came to suffer, and he would not take anything that would at all impair his faculties. He did not forbid his fellow-sufferers drinking the vinegar mingled with gall (” wine mingled with myrrh,” Mar 15:23), but he would not drink thereof. Jesus did not refuse this draught because of its bitterness, for he was prepared to drink even to the last dreadful dregs the bitter cup of wrath which was his people’s due.

“Lord Jesus! may we love and weep,

Since thou for us art crucified.”

Then was fulfilled all that our Lord had foretold in Mat 20:17-19, except his resurrection, the time for which had not arrived.

The criminals’ clothes were the executioners’ perquisite. The Roman soldiers who crucified Christ had no thought of fulfilling the Scriptures when they parted his garments, casting lots; yet their action was exactly that which had been foretold in Psa 22:18. The seamless robe would have been spoiled if it had been rent, so the soldiers raffled for the vesture while they shared the other garments of our Lord. The dice would be almost stained with the blood of Christ, yet the gamblers played on beneath the shadow of his cross. Gambling is the most hardening of all vices. Beware of it in any form! No games of chance should be played by Christians, for the blood of Christ seems to have bespattered them all

Mat 27:36. And sitting down they watched him there;

Mat 27:37. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

What a marvellous providence it was that moved Pilate’s pen! The representative of the Roman emperor was little likely to concede kingship to any man; yet he deliberately wrote, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS, and nothing would induce him to alter what he had written. Even on his cross, Christ was proclaimed King, in the sacerdotal Hebrew, the classical Greek, and the common Latin, so that everybody in the crowd could read the inscription.

When will the Jews own Jesus as their King? They will do so one day, looking on him whom they pierced. Perhaps they will think more of Christ when Christians think more of them; when our hardness of heart towards them has gone, possibly their hardness of heart towards Christ may also disappear.

Mat 27:38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.

As if to show that they regarded Christ as the worst of the three criminals, they put him between the two thieves, giving him the place of dishonour. Thus was the prophecy fulfilled, “He was numbered with the transgressors.” The two malefactors deserved to die, as one of them admitted (Luk 23:40-41); but a greater load of guilt rested upon Christ, for “He bare the sin of many,” and therefore he was rightly distinguished as the King of sufferers, who could truly ask,-” Was ever grief like mine?”

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

as: Lev 4:3, Lev 4:12, Lev 4:21, Num 15:35, Num 15:36, 1Ki 21:10, 1Ki 21:13, Act 7:58, Heb 13:11, Heb 13:12

they found: Mat 16:24, Mar 15:21, Luk 23:26

Cyrene: Act 2:10, Act 6:9, Act 11:20, Act 13:1

Reciprocal: Mat 5:41 – compel Mat 10:38 – General Mar 8:34 – take Heb 13:13 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

7:32

Simon did not “bear the cross alone,” but helped Jesus with the burden. See the comments on this subject with the reference cited at chapter 16:24.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 27:32. Came out. From the city. Executions took place outside of the camp, here outside of the holy city. Num 15:35; 1Ki 21:13; Act 7:56. This may have been the Roman custom also. As Pilate had no lictors, soldiers led our Lord forth; a centurion (Mat 27:54) as usual headed the company. A herald generally went before the condemned person, but the Evangelists do not mention this.

A man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Mark (Mar 15:21): who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus; Luke: coming out of the country. Probably a Jew who had come to attend the Passover, as many of them lived in Cyrene (in African Libya), frequently coming to Jerusalem (comp. Act 2:10; Act 6:9). Some think he was chosen, because he was an African; others: because he was a slave, as one of this class would be considered fit for such a service; others: because he was a disciple; others still: because meeting the procession, he showed some sympathy for Jesus. The last is the likeliest supposition. As his sons were known in the early. Church, he probably became a Christian; but we know nothing more of him. Simon Peter was not there; Simon of Cyrene took his place.

Him they compelled, or impressed (comp. chap. Mat 5:41), etc. Jesus at first bore His own cross (Joh 19:17), as was customary. The phrase coming out of the country suggests that Simon met the procession after the greater part of the way to Golgotha had been passed. Tradition says, that our Lord sunk to the ground beneath the load, but the more exact expression of Luke (that he might bear it after Jesus ) shows that the after part of the cross alone, which usually dragged upon the ground, was put upon Simon. Those who bear the cross after Jesus carry the lightest end. Another incident on the way is mentioned by Luke (Luk 23:27-31).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

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.

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.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 27:32-44. The Crucifixion (Mar 15:21-32*, Luk 23:26-43).Mt. still follows Mk. clearly, the chief alterations being (a) gall (Mat 27:34) for myrrh (this is due to Psa 69:21, and turns a kindly act into a cruel one); (b) Mat 27:36; (c) the addition of if thou art the SOD of God (Mat 27:40); (d) Mat 27:43, from Psa 22:8 and Wis 2:18.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 32

Simon; very probably known as a friend of Jesus. At first, Jesus himself bore the cross. (John 19:17.) Why they compelled this stranger to relieve him does not appear,–unless we suppose that Jesus was so exhausted with his sufferings, that he could bear the heavy burden no farther.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

[Pseudo-]Athanasius, “The Lord both bear His own Cross, and again Simon bare it also. He bare it first as a trophy against the devil, and of His own will, for He went without any compulsion to His death. But afterwards the man Simon bare it, to make it known to all that the Lord died not as His own due, but as that of all mankind.” S. Ambrose (in Luke 23), “He first lifted up the trophy of His Cross, and afterwards handed it to His martyrs to do the like. For it was meet that He should first lift up His own trophy as victor, and that afterwards Christ should bear it in man, and man in Christ.”

Origen, “It was not only meet that He should take up His Cross Himself, but that we also should bear it, and thus perform a compulsory but salutary service” (see Mat 10:38). It was the heresy of Basilides and Marcion, that Christ, having dazzled the eyes of the Jews, disappeared from their sight and left Simon behind, who was crucified in His stead. This, too, is the error of the Mahometans.

Here comes in, from Luk 23:31, our Lord’s meeting the women on His way to Calvary, and telling them not to weep for Him; “for if they do these things in the green tree,” &c. For He Himself was a green tree, ever flourishing with the branches and fruits of grace, and thus unsuited for the fire of God’s vengeance. But the Jews were a dry tree, void of grace and barren of good works, and thus most fitted for the fire of His wrath. One of these women, Berenice or Veronica, offered Christ a napkin to wipe His face, and received it back from Him with His features marked on it (see Marianus, Scotus, Baronius, and others). The napkin is said to be preserved at Rome.

Ver. 33. And they came unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. “Calvary” is the bare skull of a man; Golgotha means the same; so called from its roundness; from the root “gal” or “gabal,” to roll about. Some suppose that S. Matthew wrote in Greek and himself explained the Hebrew; others that the explanation was given by the Greek translator of the original Hebrew.

But why was the place so called? Some say because Adam was there buried, and redeemed, too, by Christ on the same spot by the Blood of the Cross, and restored to the life of grace. See note on Eph. v. 14, and the Fathers there quoted. For there was a tradition that Noah took the bones of Adam into the ark, and after the deluge gave the skull, and Juda with it, to Shem, his favourite son. Such respect did the ancients pay to their dead from believing in the immortality of the soul. “Christ,” says S. Ambrose (in Luke xxiii.), “was crucified in Golgotha because it was fitting that the first-fruits of our life should rest in the very spot from which our death had come.” Others give a more literal and obvious reason, that it was because criminals were there beheaded. Baronius and others reject this view, on the ground that beheading was not a Jewish practice. But it is certain that after the Roman conquest criminals were beheaded, as John the Baptist by Herod Antipas and S. James by Herod Agrippa. Besides this, there were lying about on that spot the skulls of those who had died in various other ways.

Mystically: Gretser says, “It was prophetically called Golgotha, because Christ our Lord, our true Head, there died.”

It was Christ’s own will to be crucified in a dishonourable place like this, in order to expiate our infamous and execrable sins. He thus converted it into one of honour and adoration, for Christians in Calvary reverence and adore Christ crucified. For Christ, as Sedulius says,-

“With glory all our sufferings hath arrayed,

And sanctified the torments He endured.”

So, too, Seneca (Cons. ad Helvidiam) says that Socrates entered the prison to take away the ignominy from the place.

Bede (de Locis Sanctis, cap. ii.) observes, from S. Jerome and S. Augustine (Serm. lxxi. de temp.), that Abraham offered up his son on this very mountain. For Mount Moriah and Calvary are close together, and they look like one mountain parted into two ridges or hills.

The Apostle (Heb. 13. xi seq.) gives four reasons for Christ being crucified outside Jerusalem, and thence concludes, “Let us go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” It was chiefly to signify that the virtues of His Cross were to be transferred from the Jews to all nations, that “the Cross of Christ might be the altar, not of the temple, but of the world” (S. Leo, Serm. ix. de Pass.).

Ver. 34. And they gave Him wine (Arab. and A. V., vinegar) to drink mingled with gall. This was while the Cross was being made ready, and Christ was resting for a while. Wine used to be given to condemned criminals to quench their thirst, and to strengthen them also to endure their sufferings, as it is said (Pro 31:6), “Give strong drink unto those that are ready to perish, and wine to those in bitterness of heart.” But the Jews, with untold barbarity, made this wine bitter with gall, partly to insult and partly to give Him pain. Whence Christ complains, “They gave Me gall to eat” (Tertullian, Lib. x. contra Judos, reads “to drink”); for the gall was Christ’s food, the wine His drink. Euthymius thinks that bits of dried gall were steeped in vinegar, so that the vinegar was in the place of wine, and the bits of gall instead of the morsel of bread which is thrown into the wine, that those who are faint might drink first and eat afterwards.

This was different from the draught given to Christ on the Cross, this being of wine, the latter of vinegar. The Greek writers here mention “vinegar,” but it was probably only a sour kind of wine. On the first occasion Christ says, “They gave Me gall to eat;” on the second, “They gave Me vinegar to drink.” S. Mark terms it “wine mingled with myrrh,” myrrh and gall having been mixed together, or because the myrrh, from being bitter, was called gall. So say all the Fathers and commentators, except Baronius, who considered that the wine was flavoured with myrrh and other spices. But the Jews would not have allowed this to be given to Christ. Baronius seems afterwards (vol. x. ad fin.) to have changed his opinion.

And when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink. Either as offended at the Jews for offering so nauseous a draught, or as wishing to suffer greater thirst on the Cross, and thus set us an example of self-mortification.

Palamon is said to have refused to taste some wild herbs which his disciple Pachomius had, for his Easter repast, flavoured with oil, saying, “My Lord had vinegar to drink, and shall I taste oil?”

Ver. 35. But after they had crucified Him (see Vulg.). S. Matthew here studies brevity (as usual), and partly shrinks with horror from the crucifixion, not speaking of it as an actual occurrence, but only by the way. It is a doctrine of the faith that Christ was nailed, not merely tied, to the Cross. (See John xx. 25, and Ps. xxii. 16.) But it is possible that ropes were used as well, so says S. Hilary (Lib. x. de Trin.). The ropes are to be seen in the Church of Santa Croce at Rome. Nonnus, in his paraphrase of S. John, says that Christ’s hands were fastened to the Cross with an iron band as well as by nails. The Cross, he says, was first raised up, and then a huge nail driven through both feet, laid one over the other. Some writers speak of a support for the feet to rest on, or a space hollowed out for the heels; and questions, too, are raised as to the number of the nails, whether three or four (or, as S. Bernard suggests, six), and the direction in which they were driven so as to cause the greatest torture.

The anguish of the crucifixion was very great; because the tenderest parts of the body were pierced by the nails, and the whole weight hung from the hands. The pain was lasting Christ hanging on the Cross for three hours. Mystically, the words spoken of Jerusalem (Lam 1:12) are applicable to Christ. Very great pain, too, was caused by the racking and stretching out of His limbs. S. Catharine of Sienna said she had practically experienced this when she had been made by Christ a partaker of all His sufferings. His bones were able to be counted when He was thus stretched out. It is in the Hebrew, “I will tell all My bones,” that is, I am able to do so. But the Vulgate has it, “they counted,” since Christ, while suffering such torture, was not able to count them Himself.

He was crucified with the crown of thorns, and between two robbers, as though He were the chief of them; and naked too, after the Roman custom. Some suppose that He was entirely naked, though others consider that this would have been too unseemly before a crowd of both sexes. This, then, was the greatest shame and pain to One who was so pre-eminently modest and chaste. S. Ambrose (in Luke xxiii.) says, “Naked He ascends the Cross. I behold Him naked. Let him who is preparing to conquer the world ascend in like manner, not seeking worldly supports. Adam, who sought to get clothing, was a conquered person. But He who laid aside His garments, and went up on the Cross just as nature had made Him, was a conqueror.” “Adam,” said Tauler (Excerc. Vit. Christi, cap. xxxiii.), “hasted to clothe himself because he had lost his innocence, but Christ was stripped naked because He had preserved His innocence, and needed no other covering.” S. Francis, wishing to follow Christ’s example, threw himself, when dying, naked on the ground. See notes on S. Mat 5:3.

S. Flavia, a noble virgin and martyr, when she was exposed naked at the command of the tyrant Manucha, to make her deny Christ, said, “I am ready to endure not merely the stripping of my body, but also the fire and the sword, for Him who was willing to suffer all this for me” (see Acta S. Placidi, art. 5).

It is generally thought that Christ was nailed to the Cross when lying on the ground, as was the case with those who carried their own cross. S. Anselm, S. Laur. Justiniani, and others hold this view; S. Bonaventura, Lipsius, and others, the contrary, which is supported by the text (Son 7: 8), “I will go up to the palm-tree,” on which passage see the notes. But it is quite an open question.

But why was Christ crucified rather than put to death in any other way? The obvious reason was, that the Jews wished to inflict on Him a most ignominious death, and thus bring discredit on His name and followers. They wished Him also to bear the punishment which was due to Barabbas, whom they preferred before Him. But on God’s part the reason was to save by the foolishness of the Cross those that believed (see 1Co 2:23).

Besides which, victims of old time were lifted up as offerings, and afterwards burnt. And so, too, Christ, who offered Himself as a burnt-offering for our sins, was raised up on the Cross, and burnt and consumed there, not so much with pain as with love for men; just as the paschal lamb was stretched on the spit in the form of a cross, and then roasted.

There were various moral causes on the part of Christ and of men. 1st. That as Adam and Eve sinned by stretching forth their hands to the forbidden tree, so Christ might atone for their sin by stretching forth His hands to the wood of the Cross (so Augustine in Append. Serm. de Diversis iv.). Whence the Church sings, “By a tree we were made slaves, and by the holy cross have we been set free” (in the Office for Sept. 14); and “that life might spring from that from which death arose, and that he who conquered by the tree might be conquered by the tree.” And S. Greg. Naz. (in Orat. de Sepsio), “We are by the tree of disgrace brought back to the tree of life which we had lost.” And S. Ambrose (in Luke 4), “Death by the tree, life by the cross.” Nay, Christ Himself says, “I raised thee up under the apple-tree; there was thy mother defiled, there was she defiled that bare thee.” The Cross, again, is the remedy and expiation of the concupiscence which came from Adam’s sin, itself the fount and origin of all sins. Christ therefore teaches us by the pattern of His Cross continually to crucify and mortify our evil affections, if we wish to avoid sin and save our souls (S. Ath. de Incarn. Verbi).

2d. That by hanging between Heaven and earth He might reconcile those in Heaven and those on earth. So S. Ambrose (in Luc. xxiii.), “That He might conquer not for Himself only, but for all, He extended His arms on the Cross to draw all things to Himself, to free from the bands of death, raise aloft by the balances of faith, and associate with things in Heaven the things that before were earthly.” So too [Arnoldus apud] Cyprian, “I see Thee victorious over sufferings, with uplifted hands triumphing over Amalek, bearing up into the heavens the standard of Thy victory, and raising up for those below a ladder of ascent to the Father.”

Hence S. Jerome teaches that Christ on the Cross embraces the four quarters of the world with its four arms. In its very shape does it not resemble the four quarters? The east shines from the top, at the right is the north, the south on the left, the west firmly planted beneath His feet. Whence the Apostle says, “that we may know the height and breadth, and length and depth.” Birds fly in the form of a cross; we swim or pray in the same form. The yards of a ship resemble a cross. And S. Greg. Naz. says (Carm. de Virg.),-

“For stretching forth to earth’s remotest bounds

His sacred limbs, He brought the human race

From every clime, and gathering them in one,

He placed them in the very arms of God.”

As Christ said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth,” &c.

S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verbi) says, “If He came to bear our sins and curse, how could He have done so but by takinog on Himself an execrable death? But the Cross is that very death, as it is written, ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree'” (Deu 21:25; Gal 3:13).

Besides this, all kinds of suffering concur in the Cross, and Christ embraced them all in His own, to set the martyrs an example of every kind of endurance. For the Cross wounds the hands and feet as a sword, it stretches out the body as a rack, lacerates it as a hoof, mangles it as a beast, burns and tortures it as a flame, and kills the whole man, as it were, with a slow fire. He experienced, then, the torments of all the Martyrs, and brought them before Himself, and was evil-entreated for their sakes, that He might obtain for all of them the power of over-coming them. As the blessed Laurence Justiniani says (de Triumph. Christi Agone, cap. xix.), “He was stoned in S. Stephen, burnt in S. Laurence, and bore the special sufferings of each several Martyr.”

S. Augustine says further (Serm. lxix. de Diversis), “He refused to be stoned, or smitten with the sword, because we cannot always carry about stones or swords to defend ourselves. But He chose the Cross, which is made with a slight motion of the hand, and we are protected thereby against the craft of the enemy.” As S. Paul says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse,” &c. (Gal 3:13).

S. Anselm (in Phil. ii.) says, “He chose the worst kind of death, that He might overcome all death.” As S. Augustine says (in Ps. cxl.), “That His disciples should not only not fear death itself, but not even this kind of death.” And (de Ag. Christi, cap. xi.), “Fear not insults, and crosses, and death, for if they really were hurtful to men, the man whom the Son of God took upon Him would not have suffered them” (see S. Thomas, Par. iii. Qust. 48, art. 4).

S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verb.) says, “The Lord came to cast down the devil, to purify the air, and to make for us a way to Heaven.” It was therefore requisite for Him to be crucified in the air (see S. Chrysost. de Cruce). S. Thomas (par. iii. Qust. 46, art. 4) gives many other reasons. Lastly, S. Basil (Hom. de Humil.) says, “The devil was crucified in Him whom he hoped to crucify, and was put to death in Him whom he had hoped to destroy.” And S. Leo (Serm. x. de Pass.), “The nails of Christ pierced the devil with continuous wounds, and the suffering of His holy limbs was the destruction of the powers of the enemy.”

Moreover, in the Cross that ancient reading of Ps. xcvi. was made good, “God hath reigned from the tree;” for, as S. Ambrose says (in Luke xxiii.), “though He was on the Cross, yet He shone above the cross with royal majesty.” And as S. Augustine says, “He subdued the world not by the sword, but by the tree” (Serm. 21, Ben.). The Cross was the triumphal car of Christ, in which He triumphed over the devil, sin, death, and hell. S. Ambrose accordingly calls it “the chariot of the Conqueror, and the triumphal Cross.”

The Cross is said to have been made of the cypress, cedar, palm, and olive:-

“Cedar the trunk, tall cypress holds His frame,

Palm clasps His hands, and olive boasts His name.”

(Dr. LITTLEDALE’S Version in Son 7:8.)

For Christ was on the Cross exalted as a cedar, beauteous as the leafy cypress, poured forth the oil of grace as the olive, triumphed over death as the victorious palm. So says [Arnold. apud] S. Cyprian, “Thou hast gone up unto the palm tree, because the wood of thy Cross foretold Thy triumph over the devil, Thy victory over principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses,” &c.

In short, God willed the Cross to be the price of our redemption, a book of heavenly wisdom, a mirror of every virtue and perfection. The book, I say, of the wisdom of God; for in the sufferings of the Cross Christ set forth His supreme love for man, for whom He was so cruelly and ignominiously crucified; the heinousness of mortal sin, which could not be atoned for in any other way; the awfulness of hell-torments (for if God punished so heavily the sins of others in Christ His Son, how will He not punish in hell-fire the personal guilt of sinners themselves?); the value of each single soul, for which so great a price has been paid; the care which should be had for the salvation of souls, lest the Blood of Christ should be shed for them in vain; the great happiness in store for the blessed, as having been purchased by Christ on the Cross. Rightly, therefore, S. Augustine says (Tract. cxix. in S. John), “The tree on which were fastened the limbs of the sufferer was the seat also of the Master and Teacher.”

It is also the mirror of all virtue and perfection, for Christ on the Cross exhibited humility, poverty, patience, fortitude, constancy, mortification, charity, and all other virtues in their highest perfection. Look on Him, therefore, 0 Christian, and live “according to the pattern showed thee in the Mount ” (Exod. 25:40). This, too, is the teaching of the Apostle (Eph 3:17), “That ye being rooted and grounded in love,” &c. And accordingly the Martyrs strengthened themselves to bear all their sufferings by meditating on the Cross of Christ. As, e.g., S. Felicitas, S. Ignatius (whose saying it was, “Jesus, My Love, is crucified”), the Brothers Marcus and Marcellinus (who said that “they were never so glad at a feast as in enduring this for Christ’s sake; we have now begun to be fixed in the love of the Cross, may He permit us to suffer as long as we are clothed in this corruptible body”): and, among others, the Martyrs of Japan. S. Francis, too, counted himself happy in receiving the Stigmata, and being thus conformed to Christ crucified. Those in “religion” should also rejoice, as having been crucified with Christ by their three vows, which are, as it were, three nails they have taken to bear for Christ’s sake (see Pintutius apud Cassian, lib. iv. de Instit. Renunc. cap. 34, &c.). In a word, how holy, tender, and true was that couplet of S. Francis de Sales-

“Or love or madness slew Thee, Saviour mine:

Ours was the madness, Lord; the love was Thine!”

But, next, on what day was Christ crucified? I answer, on March 25, the day of His conception, on which day S. Dismas, the penitent thief, is commemorated. So say, too, S. Augustine (de Civ. lib. xviii. ad fin.), S. Chrysostom, Tertullian, S. Thomas, and others, whom Suarez follows (par. iii. disp. xl. sect. 5, ad fin.). This was the completion of His thirty-fourth year, the day, too of the sacrifice of Isaac, and the passage of the Red Sea (both eminent types of Christ on the Cross), and of the victory of Michael the Archangel. Hence it is inferred that the world and the angels were created on the same day, and that they began from the very first to war with each other.

The hour was mid-day. “The sixth hour,” says S. John (Joh 19:14), i.e., from sunrise. S. Mark says “the third hour” (Mar 15:25), meaning the end of the third and the beginning of the sixth; for these hours with the Jews and Romans contained three of ours. S. Mark clearly means this when he says (ver. 33), “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land.” Theophylact speaks of the fitness of this: “Man was created on the sixth day, and on the sixth hour he ate of the tree. At the same hour that the Lord created man, did He heal him after his fall. On the sixth day, and on the sixth hour, was Christ nailed to the Cross.” Bede, among the Latins, takes the same view. “At the very hour when Adam brought death into the world did the second Adam by His dying destroy death.”

Many suppose that Adam was created on the same day of the year, and ate the forbidden fruit at the same hour, when Christ expiated his sin on the Cross. Tertullian (lib. i. contra Marcion) gives it in verse- “‘Twas on the day and place where Adam fell,

As years rolled on the mighty athlete came

And battle gave, where stood th’ accursed tree;

Stretched forth His hands, sought pain, despising praise,

And triumphed over death.”

Procopius says (in Gen. iii.), “It was at the same hour in which Adam ate of the tree.”

But, observe, He was crucified with His back to Jerusalem, as though He were its enemy, and unworthy to look on it; but in truth, as being about to reject the Jews, and choose the Gentiles. He thus looked on the west (Rome and Italy). Christians accordingly, by Apostolic usage, pray towards the east, as if looking at Christ crucified; and as the Crucifix in a Church looks west-ward, so must they who look towards and adore it necessarily look eastward. (See S. J. Damasc. de Fide, iv. 13; S. Jerome, &c.) Jeremiah prophesied this (Jer 18:17), “I will show them the back,” &c.; and David (Psa 66:7), “His eyes look upon the Gentiles.”

S. Bridget speaks of the details of the Crucifixion as revealed to her by Christ (Rev 7:15) and by the Blessed Virgin (Rev 1:10).

To conclude, Lactantius (iv. 26) says, “Since he who is hung upon a cross is raised high above all about him, the Cross was chosen to signify that He would be raised so high that all nations would flock together to acknowledge and adore Him,” &c. He, therefore, stretched forth His hands, and compassed the world, to show that from the rising to the setting sun a mighty people from all languages and tribes would come under His wings, and receive on their brows that noblest of all signs. On other points relating to the Cross, its various forms, its oracular answers, &c., see Gretser, i. 29 seq.; S. Thomas, par. iii. Q. 46; and Suarez in loc. On the Moral Cross, i.e., the patient, resolute, and firm endurance of all tribulations, see Gretser, lib. iv. de Cruce.

Tropologically: S. Chrysostom (Hom. de Cruce) thus recounts its praises: “It is the hope of Christians, the resurrection of the dead, the leader of the blind, the way to those in despair. It is the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the restrainer of the rich, the destruction of the proud. It is the punishment of evil-livers, the triumph over evil spirits, the victory over the devil. It is the guide of the young, the support of the destitute, the pilot to those at sea, the harbour of those in peril, the bulwark of the besieged, the father of orphans, the defender of widows, the counsellor of the righteous, the rest of the troubled, the guardian of the young, the head of men, the closing act of the old.” And so on at great length. See, too, S. Ephr. de Cruce; and S. J. Damasc. iv. 12.

Seven holy affections (especially) should be excited by meditating on Christ crucified,-compassion, compunction, gratitude, imitation, hope, admiration, love and charity.

Here comes in from S. Luk 33:34 our Lord’s first word on the Cross, “Father, forgive them,” &c. He forgets entirely the pains and injuries He had received, and, kindled with the glow of charity, prayed for their forgiveness. And He was “heard for His reverence” (Heb 5:7). For many repented at S. Peter’s preaching, and were converted to Christ at Pentecost. He Himself taught us to pray for our persecutors, to do good to those who do us wrong, and to overcome evil with good. S. Stephen, too, imitated His example (Act 7:59). “They know not what they do.” They know not I am the Christ the Son of God, for else they would not dare to commit this monstrous sacrilege, the murder of God. They know not that I am the Saviour of the world, and that I am dying for their salvation. “So does the gentleness and tenderness of Christ triumph over the cruelty and malice of the Jews” (de Passione apud S. Cyprian).

The flint is the emblem of the love of our enemies, and has this motto, “Fire comes from flint, but not without a blow.” The flint is popularly called a “living stone” from the living fire within. The flint, then, here is Christ, the corner-stone. For He poured forth on the Cross the latent fire of His Godhead and His boundless charity. But yet not without a blow, for it was while smitten by His persecutors that He prayed for them so ardently. He had Himself said before, “I came to send fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?” (Luk 13:49). Let the Christian, then, imitate Christ, and make himself a flint, which is full of fire itself, and ignites others; and when he is wrongfully smitten, let him shoot forth sparks of Divine love, as Christ did against His smiters.

They parted His garments, casting lots. S. John relates this more fully (Joh 19:23). S. Cyril observes on this, “They claim the garments as being theirs by the law of inheritance, as the reward for their services.” S. Chrysostom says also, “This was generally done in the case of mean and utterly destitute criminals.” And again, “They part those garments wherewith miracles were wrought. But at that time they wrought none since Christ did not display His unspeakable power.” It was a great affront and distress to Christ to see His garments insolently torn by the soldiers before His very eyes, and divided by casting lots. But He doubtless wished to die and suffer for us in the utmost poverty, in nakedness and disgrace, and to lay aside not merely His garments, but also His body and His life; that so His ignominy might clothe and hide the ignominy both of our and Adam’s nakedness, and restore to us thereby the garments of immortality; “that He might clothe us with immortality and life” ([Pseudo-] Athanasius, de Cruce).

Tropologically: He would teach us to strip off the superfluities of this world.

Now, here observe Christ had a coat without seam. It was a kind of under-garment, worn next to the body, says Euthymius. And he adds, approvingly, that it was woven for Him (as ancient writers held) when a child by the Blessed Virgin. If so, it appears to have grown with His growth, like the garments of the Hebrews in the wilderness. It is religiously preserved, and is to be seen at Treves.

Symbolically: [Pseudo-]Athanasius says, This coat was without seam, “that the Jews might believe who and whence He was who ware it; that He was the Word, who came not from earth,but from Heaven; that He was the inseparable Word of the Father; and that when made man He had a body fashioned of the Virgin alone by the grace of the Spirit.” And again, “This was not their doing, but that of the Saviour as He hung on the Cross. He spoiled principalities, and led the devil captive, and terrified the soldiers so that they rent not the coat, but that as long as it remained it might be a standing testimony against the Jews. For the veil was rent, but not the coat, no not even by the soldiers, but remained entire. For the Gospel ever remains entire when the shadows pass away.” The soldiers rent Christ’s other garments, and divided them into four parts for the four soldiers who crucified Him, and they again cast lots what each should take. It is supposed He had three garments, the stainless coat, another one over it like a soutane, and the upper coat, which covered the whole body.

Symbolically: [Pseudo-]Athanasius says, “They divided His garments into four parts, because He wore them for the sins of the four quarters of the world. And when the Baptist saw Him clothed therein, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.'”‘

Ver. 36. And sitting down they watched Him there. They watched Him lest His disciples should take Him away, or lest He should miraculously descend. But in the Divine counsels it was for another purpose, which they knew not. For, as S. Jerome says, “The watchfulness of the soldiers and of the priests was for our benefit, as manifesting more fully the power of His resurrection.” For they saw Him dying on the Cross, and after He had been seen again alive, would be obliged to confess that He had risen by Divine power.

Ver. 37. And set up over His head His case (causam) written (Syr. the occasion of His death), This is the King of the Jews. They put up a board inscribed with the reason of His crucifixion, that He had set up to be a King. And, consequently, the chief priests suggested that Pilate should not write, “The King of the Jews, but that He said, I am the King of the Jews” (Joh 19:21). Pilate refused, for he and the Jews meant the same thing. But God guided his hand, and he wrote, in another and truer sense, “This is the King of the Jews,” i.e., the Messiah or Christ. This inscription, then, conferred on Christ the highest honour, for it set forth not only His innocence, but also His dignity, that He was indeed the very Christ, the Redeemer of the world. It therefore convicts and condemns the Jews as His murderers, since it was they who compelled Pilate to crucify Him. Pilate, then, by this very title reproaches them with it, avenges himself on them for their obstinate importunity, and holds them up to general infamy. For he knew well that Jesus was the Messiah, the desire and expectation of all people. Hence Origen says, “This title adorns the head of Jesus as a crown.” And Bede, dwelling on the words “over His head,” says, “Though He was in the weakness of a man suffering for us on the Cross, yet did He shine forth with regal majesty above the Cross.” For it was made known that He was even now beginning to “reign from the tree.” Pilate accordingly refused to alter the title. And by this is signified, mystically, that while the Jews remained in their obstinate unbelief, Gentiles, such as Pilate, would acknowledge and worship Him as their King and Saviour.

Observe, 1. A title, declaring the cause of their death, used to be placed over the head of malefactors. It is hence inferred that the cross was not T-shaped, but with an upper limb to carry the title.

2. No one Evangelist fully sets out the title; but on comparing them all, it is concluded to have been, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

This title still exists in the Church of S. Croce at Rome, though much mutilated. Bosius (de Cruce Triumph. i. 11) gives an exact copy of it as it was when he wrote.

Ver. 38. Then were there crucified (with the like spikes and nails, says Nonnus, on Joh 19:19) two thieves, one on the right hand and another on the left. The cross was the punishment of such criminals, and Christ, as placed between them, seemed to be their chief and leader, exactly as the Jews wished, in order to dishonour Him. But God overthrew and turned back on them all their artifices. For, as S. Chrysostom says, “The devil wished to hide the matter, but could not.” For though three were crucified, Jesus only was the distinguished one, to show that all proceeded from His power; for the miracles which took place were attributed to no one but Jesus. Thus were the devices of the devil frustrated, and recoiled on his own head; for even of these two one was saved. Thus, then, so far from marring the glory of the Cross, he greatly increased it. For it was as great a matter for the thief to be converted on the Cross, and to enter Paradise, as for the rocks to be rent.

Symbolically: Christ between the thieves represents the last judgment, with the elect on his right hand and the wicked on His left. So S. Ambrose (in Luke 23.); and S. Augustine (Tract. xxxi. in S. John) says, “The Cross, mark it well, was a judgment seat, for the judge, being between them, he who believed was set free, the other was condemned, signifying the judgment of the quick and dead.”

Ver. 39. And they that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads. All their revilings and insults were blasphemies, as being against the Son of God. “They blasphemed the Holy One of Israel,” Isa 1:4, and Psa 22:8. This was a greater torment even than the crucifixion. Whence it is said (Ecclus. vii. 11), “Laugh not at a man in the bitterness of his soul.” And Christ complains (Psa 59:26), “They persecute Him whom Thou hast smitten, and added to the pain of My wounds;” and (Ps. xxii. 13), “They gaped upon Me,” &c., so great was their cruelty.

Ver. 40. And saying, Ah! Thou that destroyest the temple of God. The word “Ah!” is a term of reproach. Shame on Thee for boasting! Thou canst destroy the temple of God and build it up in three days! Show that Thou canst do it by setting Thyself free from the cross. If Thou canst not do this small matter, how canst Thou do that greater work on the temple, that vast building?

Ver. 41. Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said. These were more fierce than the people against Christ, for they jest at His miracles, as though wrought not by the power of God, but by Beelzebub; or certainly as not real, but imaginary. For had they been wrought by God, He would certainly have delivered Him from the Cross. But His not doing it was a sign that He was an impostor. “For they wished Him to die as a boastful and arrogant deceiver,” says S. Chrysostom, “and to be reviled in the sight of all men,” that they might thus utterly stamp out His name and sect, so that no one might afterwards follow his teaching reverence and preach Him as the Messiah.

If Thou be the King of Israel. The King of the Jews, that is, the Messiah. “What is the connection here?” says S. Bernard (Serm. i. in Pasch.); “that He should descend from the Cross, if He be the King of Israel, and not rather go up on it? Hast thou, then, so entirely forgotten, 0 Jew, that ‘the Lord hath reigned from the tree,’ as to say, ‘He is not King, because He remains on it.’ Nay, rather, because He is the King of Israel let Him not abandon the royal title, let Him not lay down the rod of empire, for His government is upon His shoulder. If Pilate hath written what he hath written, shall not Christ complete that which He hath begun?” He goes on to say, “This is clearly the craft of the serpent, the invention of spiritual wickedness. The evil one knew His zeal for the salvation of that people, and therefore most maliciously did he teach these blasphemers to say, ‘Let Him descend, and we will believe,’ as though there were now no obstacle to His descending, since He so earnestly desired that they should believe. But He, as knowing all hearts, is not moved by their worthless profession. For their malicious suggestion tended not only to their unbelief, but to our own utter loss of faith in Him. For if we read, ‘Perfect are all the works of God’ (Deu 32:14), how could we even believe in Him as God if He had left the work of salvation unfinished?” He adds a further reason, “To give him no opportunity of stealing from us our perseverance, which alone is crowned; and that preachers should not be silenced when they exhort the feeble-minded not to abandon their post. For this would be the sure result if they were able to reply that Christ had abandoned His.

Let Him come down from the cross. Christ, though able to do so, was unwilling to descend when thus taunted, because it was the Father’s command that He should die on the Cross for our redemption. He despised, therefore, their reproaches, to teach us to do the same. So Theophylact (on Mark xv.) observes, “Had He been willing to descend, He would not have ascended at all. But knowing that men were to be saved by this means, He submitted to be crucified.” “He wished not,” said Origen, “to do any unworthy act, because He was jested at, or to do their bidding against reason and due order.” And S. Augustine (Tract. xxxvii. an S. John), ” Because He was teaching patience, He deferred a display of His power. For had He descended, it would seem as though He had given way to their cutting reproaches.” And again, “He deferred the exercise of His power, because He wished not to descend from the Cross, though able to rise from the grave. But yet He manifested His compassion, for while hanging on the Cross He said, ‘Father, forgive them,’ &c.”

Lastly, S. Gregory (Hom. xxi. in Evang.) says, “Had He then come down from the Cross, as yielding to their insults, He would not have exhibited the virtue of patience. But He waited awhile, He endured their reproaches and derision, He maintained His patience, He deferred their astonishment, and though He had refused to descend from the Cross, yet He rose from the tomb. And this, indeed, was a much greater matter; greater, indeed, to destroy death by rising again, than to save life by descending from the Cross.”

And we will believe Him to be the Messiah. They spake falsely, for they who believed Him not when He raised others, would assuredly not have believed Him had He freed Himself from death. They should have said that He had descended in appearance only. S. Jerome calls this promise of theirs a “fraudulent one; for which is greater, to descend when alive from the Cross, or to rise again from the grave? He rose again, and ye believed not, and were He even to descend from the Cross, ye would, in like manner, believe not.” Just as heretics now say, We would believe the saints if they wrought miracles; but when their miracles are adduced, they cavil at them as pretended or imaginary.

Ver. 43. He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him, if He will have Him (Arab., if He loved Him), for He said, I am the Son of God. They used the very words of David (Psa 22:8), thus testifying that they were the very persons who were foretold, and that Jesus was the true Messiah, for the whole Psalm speaks of Him. When a man is in the agony of death, all human hope is gone. Confidence in God alone remains, and of this, His last stay, they try to deprive Him. Thou hast vainly put Thy trust in God. Thou hast said falsely that Thou art the Son of God. If He loved Thee, He would set Thee free. But as He will not, Thou art clearly not His Son, but an odious impostor. Thus do they revile and seek to drive Him to despair, as the devil who assails men in their last agony. But how fallacious was their argument! For God, as specially loving Christ, wished Him to die on the Cross, that He might afterwards glorify Him in His resurrection, and by Him save many souls. Now Christ knew all this. He heeded not their revilings, but fixed all His hope on God, and thereby gained from Him both of these great ends. He poured forth accordingly, after all these insults, fresh acts of confidence in God, teaching us to do the like. “Thou art He that took Me out of My mother’s womb,” &c. (Psa 22:10). And so, too, the Martyrs used to say that God would not deliver them, in order that He might give them a better life, and the crown of martyrdom.

The Wise Man, speaking in their person, foretold all these insults (Wis 2:13), and then added, “Such thoughts had they, and were in error,” &c.

Tropologically: Sinners utter reproaches against Christ when they dishonour Him by their sins. S. Bernard (Rhythm on Passion) makes Him thus tenderly appeal to them:

“‘Tis I who die for thee, to thee who cry,

Thee I exhort on Cross uplifted high;

‘Tis I who bare for thee, and open wide

The cruel spear-wound in My sacred side;

My inward and My outward pains are great,

But sadder far to find thee thus ingrate.”

Zec 13:6 speaks of His being wounded in the house of His friends.

Ver. 44. The thieves also which were crucified with Him uttered against Him the like reproach. The Greek Fathers, and S. Hilary among the Latins, think it probable that both the thieves blasphemed Christ at first, but that one of them afterwards repented. But the Latin Fathers consider that the plural is here, by synecdoche, put for the singular. “Thieves,” i.e., “one of the thieves” (as Luk 23:36, “the soldiers,” meaning one of them); S. Matthew wishing by the word thieves to point out not so much the persons of the thieves, as the condition of those who insulted Christ; all vying in insulting Him, even the thief at His side. S. Luk 23:40 gives the story of the other thief (see Comment. in loc.).

Here comes in the third word on the Cross, “Woman, behold thy Son,” &c. (see Joh 19:26, and the notes thereon).

Ver. 45. But from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth unto the ninth hour. From mid-day, i.e., till 3 P.M., which is usually the brightest part of the day. This darkness was supernatural; as though the sun and the whole heavens were veiled in black, as bewailing the ignominious death of Christ their Lord. So S. Jerome and S. Cyprian (de Bono Patient.); and S. Chrysostom (in Catena), “The creature could not bear the wrong done to its Creator, and the sun withdrew his rays, that he might not see the evil doing of the wicked.”

Again, it took place at full moon. It lasted much longer than an ordinary eclipse; it was total, the light of the moon as well as of the sun being withdrawn, the stars being seen, and so on.

Over the whole earth. Of Juda, say Origen and Maldonatus. Others, more correctly (as S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others), over the whole world. Dionysius, the Areopagite, is said to have exclaimed at the time, “Either the God of Nature (or, as otherwise quoted, ‘an Unknown God’) is steering, or the fabric of the world is being dissolved.” He was afterwards converted by S. Paul’s preaching Christ at Athens as the Unknown God. ‘This, then, was a token of Christ’s Godhead; for when the sun, the eye of the world, was obscured and dying out, it signified that Christ, its God and Lord, the Sun of Righteousness, was dying on the Cross, and that sun and moon and all the elements were bewailing Him in His agony.

Symbolically: This darkness signified the blinding of the Jews. So S. Chrysostom (de Cruce), Darkness is to this very day upon them; but with us night is turned into day. For it is the property of godliness to shine in the darkness; but ungodliness, though in the light, is in darkness still. Night is for believers turned into day, but for unbelievers their very light is darkness. It is said of believers, “Their darkness is no darkness, and their night shall be clear as the day” (Psa 139:11); but for unbelievers even the day is turned into night, for “they shall grope for the wall as the blind” (Isa. lx. 10), “they will walk in mid-day as in the night” (Job 5:14).

Ver. 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? quoting Psa 22:1. “Sabachthani” is Syriac, not Hebrew.

He was indeed continually praying on the Cross, and offering Himself wholly to God for man’s salvation. But as his death was drawing near He recited this Psalm, which throughout speaks of His Passion, to show that He was the very person there spoken of, and that the Jews might thus learn the reason why He refused to descend from the Cross, viz., because the Father had decreed that He should die for the salvation of men; as David had there foretold.

Calvin says impiously that these were the words of Christ in despair, for that He was obliged to experience the full wrath of God which our sins deserve, and even the sufferings of the lost, of which despair is one. But this blasphemy refutes itself. For if he despaired on the Cross, He sinned most grievously. He therefore did not satisfy but rather enflamed, the wrath of God. And how can it be said that Christ ever despaired, when He said shortly afterwards, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit”? Christ therefore does not cry out as being forsaken by the Godhead and hypostatic union of the Word, nor even by the grace and love of God, but only because the Father did not rescue Him from instant death, nor soothe in any way His cruel sufferings, but permitted Him to endure unmitigated tortures. And all this was to show how bitter was His death on the Cross, the rending asunder of His soul and body with such intense pain as to lead Him to pray in His agony and bloody sweat, “Father, if it be possible,” &c. So S. Jerome, S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and other Fathers; nor do & Hilary and S. Ambrose mean anything else in saying, “The man cried aloud when dying at being separated from the Godhead.” For they mean not a severing of essence and of the hypostatical union, but of support and consolation. For the faith teaches us that though the soul of Christ was separated from His body, yet the Godhead remained as before, hypostatically united both to His soul and His body. Besides this, Christ complained of His desertion, because the Godhead withheld Its succour, solely to keep Him still suffering, and to prolong His life for greater endurances; nay, rather to augment His pain when He saw Himself, though in union with Godhead, enduring such atrocious indignities (see S. L. Justiniani, de Triumph. Agone Christi, cap. viii.).

Symbolically: Christ here inquires why He was thus forsaken. What have I done that I should die on this Cross? I am most innocent, the Saint of Saints. He gives His own answer. “Far off from My salvation are the words of My sins” (Psa 22:1), meaning thereby, “The sins of men, whose expiation the Father hath put on Me, these are they which take away My life, and bring Me to the death of the Cross.” But some (see Theophylact) consider that He is here speaking not of His own desertion, but of that of the Jewish people.

Origen thinks He is complaining of the fewness of those who will be saved, and the multitude of the lost, in whom the fruit of His Passion comes to nought. Why forsakest Thou My kinsmen in the flesh, for whom I am dying? Why savest Thou the few and rejectest the many? For in so doing Thou forsakest Myself; for thou makest the fruit of My suffering to perish.

Tropologically: [Arnold apud] Cyprian (de Passione) thinks He spoke thus in order that we should inquire why He was forsaken. “He was forsaken,” he says, “that we should not be forsaken; that we should be set free from our sins and eternal death; to manifest His love to us; to display His righteousness and compassion; to draw our love towards Him; lastly, to set before us an example of patience” The way to Heaven is open, but it is arduous and difficult. He wished to precede us with His wondrous example, that the way might not terrify us, but that the stupendous example of God in suffering might urge us on to say exultingly with S. Paul, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

This, then, His fourth word on the Cross, is a consolation to all who are desolate and afflicted. He consoled in this way S. Peter Martyr when falsely accused. The Saint complained to Christ (he was kneeling before the crucifix) that he had kept silence, and not defended him. Christ replied, “What wrong had I done to be crucified for thee on this Cross? Learn patience from Me, for all thy sufferings cannot equal Mine.” The Saint on this was so strengthened that he wished to endure still further suffering. And therefore Christ at length established his innocence, and turned all his disgrace into glory (see Surius, April 29).

Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary

27:32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they {m} compelled to bear his cross.

(m) They compelled Simon to bear his burdensome cross, by which it appears that Jesus was so poorly handled before that he fainted along the way, and was not able to bear his cross the whole distance: for John writes that he did bear the cross, that is, at the beginning.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The crucifixion and mockery of Jesus 27:32-44 (cf. Mar 15:21-32; Luk 23:26-43; Joh 19:17-27)

"The overenthusiastic attempts to draw out the physical horror of crucifixion which disfigure some Christian preaching (and at least one recent movie [i.e., The Passion of the Christ]) find no echo in the gospels. Perhaps the original readers were too familiar with both the torture and the shame of crucifixion to need any help in envisaging what it really meant. At any rate, the narrative focus in these verses is rather on the surrounding events and the people involved (Simon, the soldiers, the bandits), together with the ironical placard over Jesus’ head which sums up the Roman dismissal of his claims." [Note: Ibid., p. 1064.]

Matthew’s emphasis in his account of Jesus’ crucifixion was on the mocking of the onlookers.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Jesus was able to carry the crossbeam of His cross until He passed through the city gate (cf. Mar 15:21 Joh 19:17). Normally crucifixions took place outside the city wall (cf. Lev 24:14; Num 15:35-36; 1Ki 21:13; Act 7:58). This location symbolized added rejection (cf. Heb 13:13).

Simon’s name was Jewish. He came from the town of Cyrene on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa (cf. Act 2:10; Act 6:9; Act 11:20; Act 13:1). The Roman soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. Perhaps Matthew mentioned this because it is another piece of irony. Jesus was really bearing Simon’s cross by dying in his place. The reader understands this, but at the time things looked completely opposite to onlookers. Another reason Matthew may have mentioned Simon by name is that he may have been well known among the early Christians. Ironically Simon Peter should have been present to help Jesus, in view of his previous boasts (Mat 26:33; Mat 26:35), but a different Simon had to take his place.

The Muslim teaching that Simon took Jesus’ place and died on the cross in His stead evidently rests on the teaching of Basilides, a second century Gnostic heretic. [Note: See Iraneus, Against Heresies 2:24:4; and J. M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. 332.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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