i

h Mark xv. 21; Luke xxiii. 26.

ly and barbarous sport, to which were added spitting upon him, and smiting him on the head with the reed or cane, the evangelists record no word or action of our Lord. He sustained the whole in silence and unresisting submission, and thus fulfilled the words of the prophet, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

Verse 32. And as they came out.-Out of the city; for as in the wilderness offenders were executed without the camp, so at Jerusalem without the walls of the city. There was also a typical allusion in this, to which St. Paul refers, Heb. xiii. 11-13: "For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without THE

GATE.

Let us go forth therefore unto him without THE CAMP, bearing his reproach."

Him they compelled to bear his cross.— It was usual for criminals to bear their own cross. So Plautus: Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci, “Let him carry his cross through the city, and then be fastened to it." Our Saviour bore his own cross for some time; but, probably exhausted by previous ill usage, he appears to have sunk under its weight, so that, meeting Simon a Cyrenian,

i John xix. 17.

coming," says St. Mark, "out of the country," they compelled him to bear his cross,—they pressed him into this service, as the word imports. He was of Cyrene, a city of Lybia, where many Jews were located; but was now probably a resident at Jerusalem, and was returning thence from the country. It is not unlikely that he was singled out at the instigation of the Jews as a favourer of Christ; for St. Mark adds, he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, both celebrated among the first Christians.

Verse 33. Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull.—Golgotha is from the Chaldee bb Golgoltha, which signifies a skull, the last being suppressed for the sake of euphony. It was a hill near Jerusalem, and had its name from the skulls of malefactors who had been executed there. Koinoel asserts that when their bodies were permitted to be buried, the skulls were excepted, and left on the ground; but it is more probable that as the Jews did not bury malefactors in the sepulchres of their fathers, they were interred on the spot, and by digging fresh graves in the place at common executions, skulls would frequently be turned up, and perhaps left on the ground with little respect. The name Calvary is of the same import as Golgotha.

Verse 34. Vinegar to drink mingled with gall.-St. Mark says, "wine mingled with

j

myrrh;" but the word xon designates whatever is bitter, and so might be used of gall or myrrh. The vinegar was the sharp common wine which, from its acidity, was called ogos. This wine was often mixed with certain bitter herbs, to impart to it an intoxicating quality, and was given to criminals before their execution. It was a custom for the honourable women of Jerusalem to prepare wine of this kind, and to give it freely to those about to suffer death, to render them less sensible of pain. We have no intimation that our Lord experienced this attention from this class of females, but some of his friends might thus minister to him; but when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink, resolved to sustain the whole weight of his sufferings, and not to submit to have his senses or reason dulled by any stupifying draught. There may probably be an allusion to this custom in the words of Solomon, Prov. xxxvi. 6: 66 Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish."

Verse 35. And they crucified him.—This was at once the most ignominious and cruel of deaths; and was inflicted as the last mark of detestation upon slaves, robbers, murderers, and the vilest of the people. Hence the emphatic manner in which St. Paul refers to the crucifixion of Christ: "And became obedient unto death,

EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS."

And parted his garments, casting lots. -From John xix. 23, it appears that the garments were divided into "four parts, to every soldier a part; " so that four soldiers were the executioners, under the direction of a centurion. The coat or robe being seamless, woven from the top throughout," and probably peculiar in this respect, remained after this partition; and for this they cast lots, throwing the lots, as was customary, into

66

and upon my

a helmet. In this they unconsciously ac complished a prophecy : They parted my garments among them, vesture did they cast lots," Psalm xxii. 18. Several мss. and versions wanting this quotation, it has been supposed that the words were written in the margin from St. John's Gospel, where they are unquestionably found. Still it may be observed, that it is quite in the manner of St. Matthew to notice, for the conviction of the Jews, the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies respecting the Messiah, and especially those which are expressed in a particular and minute manner. The whole Psalm from which this quotation is made, must be understood of Messiah, or if David was at all intended, it is in a lower sense; and, as in all those prophecies which have a two-fold reference, there are passages which can only apply to the higher and ultimate person or event, so in this Psalm. Our Lord himself appears to give the Psalm a prophetic character relating to himself, by quoting its opening words when suffering on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" This act of the Roman soldiers is another instance of the exact and minute prescience of "the spirit of prophecy." No contrivance of Christ or of his disciples could bring about this correspondence of events to those spoken of him in a prophetic writing which had been in existence for ages. It was fulfilled by the Roman soldiers themselves, to whom the garments of malefactors fell as their perquisites; but was taken quite out of the common course of things, by the circumstance that they cast lots for his "vesture," or robe, which would not have happened but for another circumstance certainly not to be conjectured, not possible to have been foreseen by man, that this robe was without seam, woven from the top

Verse 45. From the sixth hour there was darkness, &c.-This darkness was remarkable, from the time when it occurred, which was the passover, which was always celebrated at full moon, so that it could not be occasioned by an eclipse of the sun, and was therefore preternatural. 2. From its duration, from the sixth to the ninth hour, that is, from twelve at noon, to three in the afternoon, whereas an eclipse never continues more than fifteen minutes. 3. From its extent, over all the land, meaning probably, not over the whole globe, but over Palestine. References to a preternatural darkness overspreading other countries at this time have been made by both ancient and modern commentators; but they are too vague and unsatisfactory to be depended upon; and if any end had been intended to be answered by this extension of the miracle, divine Providence would no doubt have taken care that some more certain record should have been preserved of it. This was the first of the miraculous events which accompanied the crucifixion of our Saviour. The great sacrifice for the sins of the world was now offering; and as on great occasions God had been wont to show his acceptance of sacrifices by some visible token, and preternatural phenomena, so on this the greatest, the most solemn, and most important, the Father testifies from heaven that a more than ordianry death was undergoing, to mark which, the sun itself was darkened, and the face of heaven veiled. There was in this also, doubtless, something designedly and strikingly emblematical. The eternal Light of Light, who had frequently compared himself to the sun, the natural light of the world, was now undergoing temporary obscuration under the deep cloud of his humilia

tion, only to shine forth again in his true splendour at his resurrection from the dead.

Verse 46. Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani, &c. These words are partly Hebrew and partly Chaldee. St. Mark for HA, writes EAw; which Grotius takes to have arisen from the Gospel of St. Mark, the friend of St. Peter, chiefly being used among the Jewish converts in the Babylonish diaoTopa, or dispersion, founded by St. Peter, who had all a language partaking of the Chaldee, and were more used to. The words are from Psalm xxii. 1: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This exclamation has perplexed those who deny the sacrificial character of the death of Christ, as indicating something of complaint and shrinking from suffering, whereas according to their view of his heroic virtue, he doubtless ought to have gone through the whole scene without complaint. Their refuge from this difficulty is to consider these words us used not as a complaint, but as a mere reference to the prophetic psalm in which they stand, didactically to show that the whole was a prophecy of him. This end, however, was answered by making these words the vehicle of uttering what must still be considered as an exclamation wrung from his fainting nature by the extremity of anguish. But this was not bodily anguish; for then the malefactors must be considered as superior to Christ in their patience under torture. It was not repining language, that God had so forsaken him as to leave him in the hands of his enemies. It was a deeper anguish which extorted this mournful cry, than that produced by corporal suffering, which the doctrine of the atonement can alone account for, although it is a mystery which none can explain.