Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 27:48
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.
48. took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar ] The soldiers’ sour wine ( posca), the reed, or hyssop stalk (John), and the sponge, were kept in readiness to quench the sufferers’ thirst.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
One of them ran – John Joh 19:28 says that this was in consequence of Jesus saying I thirst. One of the effects of crucifixion was excessive thirst.
Took a sponge – A sponge is a well-known porous substance that easily absorbs water. It was used in this case because, Jesus being elevated, it was difficult to convey a cup to his lips.
Filled it with vinegar – This was the common drink of Roman soldiers. It was a light wine, turned sour and mixed with water. John says Joh 19:29 there was a vessel set full of vinegar, probably for the use of the soldiers who watched his crucifixion.
And put it on a reed – John says it was put upon hyssop. The hyssop was a shrub, growing so large sometimes as to be called a tree, 1Ki 4:33. The stalk of this was what Matthew calls a reed. The sponge fastened to this could easily be extended to reach the mouth of Jesus. This vinegar Jesus drank, for it was not intended to stupefy him or blunt his sense of pain, like the wine and myrrh.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 27:48-49
And gave Him to drink.
The relenting crucifier
No ill motive could have prompted this relief of thirst.
I. The relenting crucifier may have wished to conceal his interest in Christ. It is not uncommon for those who are really convinced upon the subject of religion to use arts to conceal their feelings. Or the man may only have acted a prudent part: He concealed his interest for safety, while he gave Him a proof of his compassion.
II. The relenting crucifier may have been A sincere inquirer Learn:
1. Christ on the cross for our sins is reduced to such extremity that the most common act of humanity is grateful to Him.
2. Christ will one day behold each of us in the same need of compassion and help in which we have now contemplated Him. (N. Adams, D. D.)
Mistaken teachers
The cavelling Jewish teachers aptly illustrate the attitude of many modern critics of Christ and Christianity.
1. They are alike mistaken in the nature and meaning of the supernatural in connection with revelation, as, in their views of prophecy, miracles and providence.
2. They are alike mistaken as to the methods of securing truth. Let be, let us see, etc.
3. They are alike mistaken in waiting for other signs, when the most stupendous sign of the centuries is hanging before them.
4. They alike make their greatest mistake in substituting eye for heart, experiment for faith, the intellectual for the spiritual.
Lessons: These mistakes, in all ages, lead to the same results, viz.:
1. To increased blindness of spiritual vision.
2. To an increased opposition to Christ in feeling and desire.
3. To an increased difficulty in coming to the truth as revealed in the gospel.
4. To an increased guilt. Inference: If men would avoid these unhappy outcomes, they must avoid the mistakes leading thereto. (J. M. Allis.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 48. Took a sponge] This being the most convenient way to reach a liquid to his mouth; tied it on a reed, that they might be able to reach his lips with it. This reed, as we learn from St. John, was a stalk of hyssop, which, in that country, must have grown to a considerable magnitude. This appears also to have been done in mercy, to alleviate his sufferings. See Mt 27:34.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge,…. Which was not far from the cross, where a vessel full of vinegar was set, Joh 19:29,
and filled it with vinegar; dipping it into it, it sucked it up. Some of these sponges had leathern handles to them. r
And put it on a reed; a stalk of hyssop; [See comments on Joh 19:29],
and gave him to drink; not to revive his spirits, or hasten his death, as some have thought, but in contempt of him, and to mock him, he having signified that he was athirst.
r Misn. Sabbat, c. 21. sect. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gave him to drink (). Imperfect of conative action,
offered him a drink of vinegar on the sponge on a reed. Others interrupted this kindly man, but Jesus did taste this mild stimulant (Joh 19:30) for he thirsted (Joh 19:28).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Vinegar [] . Sour wine; the posca or ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers.
Gave him to drink [] . The imperfect tense implies was in the act of giving, or about to give. At this point the Jews standing near interposed, saying Let be [] ! “Stop! Do not give him the drink. Let us see if Elijah will come to his aid.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
48. And immediately one ran. As Christ had once refused to drink, it may be conjectured with probability, that it was repeatedly offered to him for the sake of annoyance; though it is also not improbable that the vinegar was held out to him in a cup before he was raised aloft, and that a sponge was afterwards applied to his mouth, while he was hanging on the cross.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(48) Took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar.The vinegar was the sour wine, or wine and water, which was the common drink of the Roman soldiers. and which they at an earlier stage, and as in derision (Luk. 23:36), had offered to the Sufferer. The sponge had probably served instead of a cork to the jar in which the soldiers had brought the drink that was to sustain them in their long days work. Some one, whether soldier or Jew we know not, heard, not only the cry, Eli, Eli, . . . but the faint I thirst, which St. John records as coming from the fevered lips (Joh. 19:28), and prompted by a rough pity, stretched out a cane, or stalk of hyssop (Joh. 19:29), with the sponge that had been dipped in the wine upon it, and bore it to the parched lips of the Sufferer. It was not now refused (Joh. 19:30).
And gave him to drink.The Greek verb is in the imperfect tense, as implying that while he was doing this, the others tried to interrupt him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
48. One of them ran In consequence of our Lord having said, “I thirst.” Thrice was our Lord offered a draught. First, before he was nailed to the cross, a drugged cup was presented him to assuage pain. Next, (Luk 23:36, the sour wine is offered in insult. And now it is given in kindness to assuage his thirst. Took a sponge To absorb the liquid. Put it on a reed The reed was used to reach to the elevation of his mouth. It was a hyssop stalk.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mat 27:48. One of themtook a sponge, &c. We have before observed, that vinegar, or a small sharp wine and water,a mixture which was called posca,was the common drink of the Roman soldiers. Possibly, therefore, this vinegar was set here for their use, or for that of the crucified persons, whose torture would naturally make them thirsty. See Joh 19:28-29 where we are told that they put the sponge upon hyssop, that is to say, a stalk of hyssop, called by the other Evangelists , which signifies not only a reed or cane, but the stalk of any plant: for that this hyssop was a shrub, appears from 1Ki 4:33 where it is reckoned among the trees. They did this office to Jesus, not so much perhaps from pity, as to preserve him alive, in hopes of seeing the miracle of Elijah’s descent from heaven.See the next verse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 27:48 f. A touch of sympathy on the part of some one who had been moved by the painful cry of Jesus, and who would fain relieve Him by reaching Him a cordial. What a contrast to this in Mat 27:49 ! According to Joh 19:28 , Jesus expressly intimated that He was thirsty. Mar 15:36 makes it appear that the person who reached the drink to Jesus was also one of those who were mocking Him, a discrepancy which we should make no attempt to reconcile, and in which we can have no difficulty in detecting traces of a more corrupt tradition. Luke omits this incident altogether, though in Mat 23:36 he states that by way of mocking our Lord the soldiers offered Him the posca just before the darkness came on. Strauss takes advantage of these discrepancies so as to make it appear that they are but different applications of the prediction contained in Psa 69 , without, however, disputing the fact that drink had been given to Jesus on two different occasions.
] poscae , sour wine, the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers. Comp. Mat 27:34 and Wetstein thereon.
] stop! don’t give him anything to drink ! we want to see whether Elias whom he is invoking as his deliverer will come to his help, which help you would render unnecessary by giving him drink.
,] placed first for sake of emphasis: whether he is coming, does not fail coming !
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
48 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.
Ver. 48. And filled it with vinegar ] Sorrow is dry, we say. This man of sorrows, more to fulfil the Scriptures than for his own satisfaction, though extreme dry no doubt (for now was the Paschal Lamb roasting in the fire of his Father’s wrath), he saith, I thirst, and had vinegar to drink, that we might drink of the water of life, and be sweetly inebriated in that torrent of pleasure that runs at God’s right hand for evermore, Psa 16:11 . See Trapp on “ Joh 19:29 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
48. ] This was on account of the words ‘I thirst,’ uttered by our Lord: see Joh 19:28 . Mark’s account is somewhat different; there the same person gives the vinegar and utters the scoff which follows. This is quite intelligible contempt mingled with pity would doubtless find a type among the bystanders. There is no need for assuming that the soldiers offering vinegar in Luk 23:36 , is the same incident as this. Since then, the bodily state of the Redeemer had greatly changed; and what was then offered in mockery, might well be now asked for in the agony of death, and received when presented. I would not however absolutely deny that Luke may be giving a less precise detail; and may represent this incident by his Luk 23:36 . The is the posca , sour wine, or vinegar and water, the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers. On the other particulars, see notes on John.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:48 . , one of the bystanders, not one of the , with some human pity, acting under the impression, how got not indicated, that the sufferer was afflicted with thirst. , sour wine, posca , the drink of Roman soldiers, with sponge and reed at hand, for use on such occasions.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
vinegar. Greek. oxos. See notes on Mat 27:34.
gave = was offering.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
48.] This was on account of the words I thirst, uttered by our Lord: see Joh 19:28. Marks account is somewhat different; there the same person gives the vinegar and utters the scoff which follows. This is quite intelligible-contempt mingled with pity would doubtless find a type among the bystanders. There is no need for assuming that the soldiers offering vinegar in Luk 23:36, is the same incident as this. Since then, the bodily state of the Redeemer had greatly changed; and what was then offered in mockery, might well be now asked for in the agony of death, and received when presented. I would not however absolutely deny that Luke may be giving a less precise detail; and may represent this incident by his Luk 23:36. The is the posca, sour wine, or vinegar and water, the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers. On the other particulars, see notes on John.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 27:48. , with vinegar) The soldiers were accustomed to drink vinegar[1209] themselves, as Gataker remarks, Posthumous Miscellanies, ch. 4.
[1209] Vinegar, mixed with water, and drunk by the soldiers, was called posca (pusca, Veg. Vet. ii. 48). Pl. Mil. iii. 2. 23: Plin. xxvii. 4, 12, Th. PO of potus; comp. esca.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
and filled: Mat 27:34, Psa 69:21, Luk 23:36, Joh 19:29, Joh 19:30
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:48
In Joh 19:28-29 where this part of the event is recorded, Jesus is reported to have said he was thirsty.. Thus in our present verse we are told that a person standing near offered him a drink of vinega (sour wine), serving it with a sponge on .a reed. That was the most convenient way either of serving or receiving it under the circumstances. This was done merely to quench his dying thirst and not as an opiate since it did not have the gall mixed with it which he had refused (verse 34).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 27:48. Straightway one of them. This was occasioned by our Lords cry: I thirst (Joh 19:28), but all occurred in quick succession.
Took a sponge. It would be impossible to use a cup.
Vinegar. The sour wine (without the myrrh) used by the soldiers, and placed there in a vessel for their refreshment. The soldiers had offered Him drink (Luk 23:36) hours earlier, so that this was probably not one of them.
A reed. Hyssop according to John. This was to reach it to Him. The head of one crucified would be about two feet above that of one standing on the ground.
Gave him to drink. He drank (Joh 19:30), and this reception of refreshment from one who still mocked is a token that His love vanquishes the worlds hate.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Evidently one of the soldiers took another opportunity to mock Jesus further (cf. Mat 27:34). The Greek word translated "sour wine" or "wine vinegar" is oxos and means "vinegar." It probably describes the wine that the soldiers strengthened with vinegar and drank themselves. By giving this to Jesus they really lengthened His sufferings. It was a profession of compassion to offer Jesus the drink, but it did Him no favor (cf. Psa 69:21). "But" (Gr. de) in the NASB in Mat 27:49 is too strong a translation. "Leave Him alone now" gives the sense better. The soldiers wanted to see what the result of Jesus’ drinking the vinegar would be. With false piety the soldiers sarcastically said they would wait to see if Elijah would come to rescue Jesus.