01000
01001
01002
 \\Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ?\\ (\\Barabbn  Isoun ton\\
 \\legomenon Christon;\\). Pilate was catching at straws or seeking
 any loophole to escape condemning a harmless lunatic or exponent
 of a superstitious cult such as he deemed Jesus to be, certainly
 in no political sense a rival of Caesar. The Jews interpreted
 "Christ" for Pilate to be a claim to be King of the Jews in
 opposition to Caesar, "a most unprincipled proceeding" (Bruce).
 So he bethought him of the time-honoured custom at the passover
 of releasing to the people "a prisoner whom they wished" (\\desmion\\
 \\hon thelon\\). No parallel case has been found, but Josephus
 mentions the custom (_Ant_. xx. 9,3). Barabbas was for some
 reason a popular hero, a notable (\\epismon\\), if not notorious,
 prisoner, leader of an insurrection or revolution
 # Mr 15:7
 probably against Rome, and so guilty of the very crime that they
 tried to fasten on Jesus who only claimed to be king in the
 spiritual sense of the spiritual kingdom. So Pilate unwittingly
 pitted against each other two prisoners who represented the
 antagonistic forces of all time. It is an elliptical structure in
 the question, "whom do you wish that I release?" (\\tina thelete\\
 \\apolus;\\), either two questions in one (asyndeton) or the ellipse
 of \\hina\\ before \\apolus\\. See the same idiom in verse
 # 21
 But Pilate's question tested the Jews as well as himself. It
 tests all men today. Some manuscripts add the name Jesus to
 Barabbas and that makes it all the sharper. Jesus Barabbas or
 Jesus Christ?

01003
 \\For envy\\ (\\dia phthonon\\). Pilate was dense about many things, but
 he knew that the Jewish leaders were jealous of the power of
 Jesus with the people. He may have heard of the events of the
 Triumphal Entry and the Temple Teaching. The envy, of course,
 came primarily from the leaders.

01004
 \\His wife\\ (\\h gun autou\\). Poor Pilate was getting more entangled
 every moment as he hesitated to set Jesus free whom he knew to be
 free of any crime against Caesar. Just at the moment when he was
 trying to enlist the people in behalf of Jesus against the
 schemes of the Jewish leaders, his wife sent a message about her
 dream concerning Jesus. She calls Jesus "that righteous man" (\\ti\\
 \\dikaii ekeini\\) and her psychical sufferings increased Pilate's
 superstitious fears. Tradition names her Procla and even calls
 her a Christian which is not probable. But it was enough to
 unnerve the weak Pilate as he sat on the judgment-seat (\\epi tou\\
 \\bmatos\\) up over the pavement.

01005
 \\Persuaded\\ (\\epeisan\\). The chief priests (Sadducees) and elders
 (Pharisees) saw the peril of the situation and took no chances.
 While Pilate wavered in pressing the question, they used all
 their arts to get the people to "ask for themselves" (\\aitsntai\\,
 indirect middle ingressive aorist subjunctive) and to choose
 Barabbas and not Jesus.

01006
01007
 \\What then shall I do unto Jesus which is called Christ?\\ (\\ti oun\\
 \\pois Isoun ton legomenon Christon;\\). They had asked for
 Barabbas under the tutelage of the Sanhedrin, but Pilate pressed
 home the problem of Jesus with the dim hope that they might ask
 for Jesus also. But they had learned their lesson. Some of the
 very people who shouted "Hosannah" on the Sunday morning of the
 Triumphal Entry now shout \\Let him be crucified\\ (\\staurtht\\). The
 tide has now turned against Jesus, the hero of Sunday, now the
 condemned criminal of Friday. Such is popular favour. But all the
 while Pilate is shirking his own fearful responsibility and
 trying to hide his own weakness and injustice behind popular
 clamour and prejudice.

01008
 \\Why, what evil hath he done?\\ (\\ti gar kakon epoisen\\;). This was a
 feeble protest by a flickering conscience. Pilate descended to
 that level of arguing with the mob now inflamed with passion for
 the blood of Jesus, a veritable lynching fiasco. But this
 exhibition of weakness made the mob fear refusal by Pilate to
 proceed. So they "kept crying exceedingly" (\\perisss ekrazon\\,
 imperfect tense of repeated action and vehemently) their demand
 for the crucifixion of Jesus. It was like a gladiatorial show
 with all thumbs turned down.

01009
 \\Washed his hands\\ (\\apenipsato tas cheiras\\). As a last resort since
 the hubbub (\\thorubos\\) increased because of his vacillation. The
 verb \\aponipt\\ means to wash off and the middle voice means that
 he washed off his hands for himself as a common symbol of
 cleanliness and added his pious claim with a slap at them. \\I am\\
 \\innocent of the blood of this righteous man\\ (or \\this blood\\); \\see\\
 \\ye to it\\. (\\Athios eimi apo tou haimatos tou dikaiou toutou\\ or
 \\tou haimatos toutou\\ as some manuscripts have it, \\humeis\\
 \\opsesthe\\.) The Jews used this symbol
 # De 21:6; Ps 26:6; 73:13
 Plummer doubts if Pilate said these words with a direct reference
 to his wife's message
 # 26:19
 but I fail to see the ground for that scepticism. The so-called
 _Gospel of Peter_ says that Pilate washed his hands because the
 Jews refused to do so.

01010
 \\His blood be upon us and upon our children\\ (\\to haima autou kai\\
 \\epi ta tekna hmn\\). These solemn words do show a consciousness
 that the Jewish people recognized their guilt and were even proud
 of it. But Pilate could not wash away his own guilt that easily.
 The water did not wash away the blood of Jesus from his hands any
 more than Lady Macbeth could wash away the blood-stains from her
 lily-white hands. One legend tells that in storms on Mt. Pilatus
 in Switzerland his ghost comes out and still washes his hands in
 the storm-clouds. There was guilt enough for Judas, for Caiaphas
 and for all the Sanhedrin both Sadducees and Pharisees, for the
 Jewish people as a whole (\\pas ho laos\\), and for Pilate. At bottom
 the sins of all of us nailed Jesus to the Cross. This language is
 no excuse for race hatred today, but it helps explain the
 sensitiveness between Jew and Christians on this subject. And
 Jews today approach the subject of the Cross with a certain
 amount of prejudice.

01011
 \\Scourged\\ (\\phragellsas\\). The Latin verb _flagellare_. Pilate
 apparently lost interest in Jesus when he discovered that he had
 no friends in the crowd. The religious leaders had been eager to
 get Jesus condemned before many of the Galilean crowd friendly to
 Jesus came into the city. They had apparently succeeded. The
 scourging before the crucifixion was a brutal Roman custom. The
 scourging was part of the capital punishment. Deissmann (_Light
 from the Ancient East_, p. 269) quotes a Florentine papyrus of
 the year 85 A.D. wherein G. Septimius Vegetus, governor of Egypt,
 says of a certain Phibion: "Thou hadst been worthy of scourging
 ... but I will give thee to the people."

01012
 \\Into the palace\\ (\\eis to praitrion\\). In Rome the praetorium was
 the camp of the praetorian (from praetor) guard of soldiers
 # Php 1:13
 but in the provinces it was the palace in which the governor
 resided as in
 # Ac 23:35
 in Caesarea. So here in Jerusalem Pilate ordered Jesus and all
 the band or cohort (\\holn tn speiran\\) of soldiers to be led into
 the palace in front of which the judgment-seat had been placed.
 The Latin _spira_ was anything rolled into a circle like a
 twisted ball of thread. These Latin words are natural here in the
 atmosphere of the court and the military environment. The
 soldiers were gathered together for the sport of seeing the
 scourging. These heathen soldiers would also enjoy showing their
 contempt for the Jews as well as for the condemned man.

01013
 \\A scarlet robe\\ (\\chlamuda kokkinn\\). A kind of short cloak worn by
 soldiers, military officers, magistrates, kings, emperors (2Macc.
 12:35; Josephus, _Ant_. V. 1,10), a soldier's _sagum_ or scarf.
 Carr (_Cambridge Gk. Test._) suggests that it may have been a
 worn-out scarf of Pilate's. The scarlet colour (\\kokkinn\\) was a
 dye derived from the female insect (\\kermes\\) which gathered on the
 \\ilex coccifera\\ found in Palestine. These dried clusters of
 insects look like berries and form the famous dye. The word
 occurs in Plutarch, Epictetus, Herodas, and late papyri besides
 the Septuagint and New Testament. Mark
 # Mr 15:17
 has "purple" (\\porphuran\\). There are various shades of purple and
 scarlet and it is not easy to distinguish these colours or tints.
 The manuscripts vary here between "stripped" (\\ekdusantes\\) and
 "clothed" (\\endusantes\\). He had been stripped for the scourging.
 If "clothed" is correct, the soldiers added the scarlet (purple)
 mantle. Herodotus (iii. 139) relates that Darius richly rewarded
 a Samian exile for a rare scarlet robe which he obtained from
 him. This scarlet mantle on Jesus was mock imitation of the royal
 purple.

01014
 \\A crown of thorns\\ (\\stephanon ex akanthn\\). They wove a crown out
 of thorns which would grow even in the palace grounds. It is
 immaterial whether they were young and tender thorn bushes, as
 probable in the spring, or hard bushes with sharp prongs. The
 soldiers would not care, for they were after ridicule and mockery
 even if it caused pain. It was more like a victor's garland
 (\\stephanon\\) than a royal diadem (\\diadma\\), but it served the
 purpose. So with the reed (\\kalamon\\), a stalk of common cane grass
 which served as sceptre. The soldiers were familiar with the _Ave
 Caesar_ and copy it in their mockery of Jesus: \\Hail, King of the\\
 \\Jews\\ (\\chaire, Basileu tn Ioudain\\). The soldiers added the
 insults used by the Sanhedrin
 # Mt 26:67
 spitting on him and smiting him with the reed. Probably Jesus had
 been unbound already. At any rate the garments of mockery were
 removed before the _via dolorosa_ to the cross (verse
 # 31

01015
01016
01017
 \\Compelled\\ (\\ggareusan\\). 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 (\\aggaros\\)
 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\\ (\\ton stauron autou\\).
 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
 # Mt 20:19; 23:24; 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

01018
 \\Golgotha\\ (\\Golgotha\\). Chaldaic or Aramaic _Gulgatha_, Hebrew
 _Gulgoleth_, place of a skull-shaped mount, not place of skulls.
 Latin Vulgate _Calvariae locus_, hence our Calvary. Tyndale
 misunderstood it as a place of dead men's skulls. Calvary or
 Golgotha is not the traditional place of the Holy Sepulchre in
 Jerusalem, but a place outside of the city, probably what is now
 called Gordon's Calvary, a hill north of the city wall which from
 the Mount of Olives looks like a skull, the rock-hewn tombs
 resembling eyes in one of which Jesus may have been buried.

01019
 \\Wine mingled with gall\\ (\\oinon meta chols memigmenon\\). Late MSS.
 read \\vinegar\\ (\\oxos\\) instead of wine and Mark
 # Mr 15:23
 has myrrh instead of gall. The myrrh gave the sour wine a better
 flavour and like the bitter gall had a narcotic and stupefying
 effect. Both elements may have been in the drink which Jesus
 tasted and refused to drink. Women provided the drink to deaden
 the sense of pain and the soldiers may have added the gall to
 make it disagreeable. Jesus desired to drink to the full the cup
 from his Father's hand
 # Joh 18:11

01020
01021
 \\Watched him there\\ (\\etroun auton ekei\\). Imperfect tense
 descriptive of the task to prevent the possibility of rescue or
 removal of the body. These rough Roman soldiers casting lots over
 the garments of Christ give a picture of comedy at the foot of
 the Cross, the tragedy of the ages.

01022
 \\His accusation\\ (\\tn aitian autou\\). The title (\\titlos\\,
 # Joh 19:19
 or placard of the crime (the inscription, \\he epigraph\\) which was
 carried before the victim or hung around his neck as he walked to
 execution was now placed above (\\ep' an\\) the head of Jesus on the
 projecting piece (\\crux immurus\\). This inscription gave the name
 and home, \\Jesus of Nazareth\\, and the charge on which he was
 convicted, \\the King of the Jews\\ and the identification, \\This is\\.
 The four reports all give the charge and vary in the others. The
 inscription in full was: This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of
 the Jews. The three languages are mentioned only by John
 # Joh 19:20
 Latin for law, Hebrew (Aramaic) for the Jews, Greek for
 everybody. The accusation (charge, cause, \\aitia\\) correctly told
 the facts of the condemnation.

01023
 \\Robbers\\ (\\listai\\). Not thieves (\\kleptai\\) as in Authorized
 Version. See
 # Mt 26:55
 These two robbers were probably members of the band of Barabbas
 on whose cross Jesus now hung.

01024
 \\Wagging their heads\\ (\\kinountes tas kephalas autn\\). Probably in
 mock commiseration. "Jews again appear on the scene, with a
 malice like that shewn in the trial before the Sanhedrin"
 (McNeile). "To us it may seem incredible that even his worst
 enemies could be guilty of anything so brutal as to hurl taunts
 at one suffering the agonies of crucifixion" (Bruce). These
 passers-by (\\paratroumenoi\\) look on Jesus as one now down and
 out. They jeer at the fallen foe.

01025
 \\If thou art the Son of God\\ (\\ei huios ei tou theou\\). More exactly,
 "If thou art a son of God," the very language of the devil to
 Jesus
 # Mt 4:3
 in the early temptations, now hurled at Jesus under the devil's
 prompting as he hung upon the Cross. There is allusion, of
 course, to the claim of Jesus under oath before the Sanhedrin
 "the Son of God" (\\ho huios tou theou\\) and a repetition of the
 misrepresentation of his words about the temple of his body. It
 is a pitiful picture of human depravity and failure in the
 presence of Christ dying for sinners.

01026
 \\The chief priests mocking\\ (\\hoi archiereis empaizontes\\). The
 Sanhedrin in fact, for "the scribes and elders" are included. The
 word for mocking (\\empaizontes, en,\\ and \\paiz\\, from \\pais\\,
 child) means acting like silly children who love to guy one
 another. These grave and reverend seniors had already given vent
 to their glee at the condemnation of Jesus by themselves
 # Mt 26:67

01027
 \\He saved others; himself he cannot save\\ (\\allous essen; heauton\\
 \\ou dunatai ssai\\). The sarcasm is true, though they do not know
 its full significance. If he had saved himself now, he could not
 have saved any one. The paradox is precisely the philosophy of
 life proclaimed by Jesus himself
 # Mt 10:39
 \\Let him now come down\\ (\\katabat nun\\). Now that he is a condemned
 criminal nailed to the Cross with the claim of being "the King of
 Israel" (the Jews) over his head. Their spiteful assertion that
 they would then believe upon Jesus (\\ep' auton\\) is plainly untrue.
 They would have shifted their ground and invented some other
 excuse. When Jesus wrought his greatest miracles, they wanted "a
 sign from heaven." These "pious scoffers" (Bruce) are like many
 today who make factitious and arbitrary demands of Christ whose
 character and power and deity are plain to all whose eyes are not
 blinded by the god of this world. Christ will not give new proofs
 to the blind in heart.

01028
 \\Let him deliver him now\\ (\\rhusasth nun\\). They add the word "now"
 to
 # Ps 21; 22:8
 That is the point of the sneer at Christ's claim to be God's son
 thrown in his teeth again and at the willingness and power of God
 to help his "son." The verb \\thel\\ here may mean \\love\\ as in the
 Septuagint
 # Ps 18:20; 41:12
 or "cares for" (Moffatt), "gin he cares ocht for him" (_Braid
 Scots_).

01029
 \\The robbers also\\ (\\kai hoi listai\\). Probably "even the robbers"
 (Weymouth) who felt a momentary superiority to Jesus thus
 maligned by all. So the inchoative imperfect \\neidizon\\ means
 "began to reproach him."

01030
 \\From the sixth hour\\ (\\apo hekts hras\\). Curiously enough McNeile
 takes this to mean the trial before Pilate
 # Joh 18:14
 But clearly John uses Roman time, writing at the close of the
 century when Jewish time was no longer in vogue. It was six
 o'clock in the morning Roman time when the trial occurred before
 Pilate. The crucifixion began at the third hour
 # Mr 15:25
 Jewish time or nine A.M. The darkness began at noon, the sixth
 hour Jewish time and lasted till 3 P.M. Roman time, the ninth
 hour Jewish time
 # Mr 15:33; Mt 27:45; Lu 23:44
 The dense darkness for three hours could not be an eclipse of the
 sun and Luke
 # Lu 23:45
 does not so say, only "the sun's light failing." Darkness
 sometimes precedes earthquakes and one came at this time or dense
 masses of clouds may have obscured the sun's light. One need not
 be disturbed if nature showed its sympathy with the tragedy of
 the dying of the Creator on the Cross
 # Ro 8:22
 groaning and travailing until now.

01031
 \\My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?\\ (\\Thee mou, thee mou,\\
 \\hina ti me egkatelipes;\\). Matthew first transliterates the
 Aramaic, according to the Vatican manuscript (B), the words used
 by Jesus: _Eli, eli, lema sabachthanei_; Some of the MSS. give
 the transliteration of these words from
 # Ps 22:1
 in the Hebrew (_Eli, Eli, lama Zaphthanei_). This is the only one
 of the seven sayings of Christ on the Cross given by Mark and
 Matthew. The other six occur in Luke and John. This is the only
 sentence of any length in Aramaic preserved in Matthew, though he
 has Aramaic words like amen, corban, mammon, pascha, raca, Satan,
 Golgotha. The so-called Gospel of Peter preserves this saying in
 a Docetic (Cerinthian) form: "My power, my power, thou hast
 forsaken me!" The Cerinthian Gnostics held that the _aeon_ Christ
 came on the man Jesus at his baptism and left him here on the
 Cross so that only the man Jesus died. Nothing from Jesus so well
 illustrates the depth of his suffering of soul as he felt himself
 regarded as sin though sinless
 # 2Co 5:21
 # Joh 3:16
 comes to our relief here as we see the Son of God bearing the sin
 of the world. This cry of desolation comes at the close of the
 three hours of darkness.

01032
01033
 \\Gave him to drink\\ (\\epotizen\\). 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

01034
 \\Whether Elijah cometh to save him\\ (\\ei erchetai Eleias ssn\\
 \\auton\\). The excuse had a pious sound as they misunderstood the
 words of Jesus in his outcry of soul anguish. We have here one of
 the rare instances (\\ssn\\) of the future participle to express
 purpose in the N.T. though a common Greek idiom. Some ancient
 MSS. add here what is genuine in
 # Joh 19:34
 but what makes complete wreck of the context for in verse
 # 50
 Jesus cried with a loud voice and was not yet dead in verse
 # 49
 It was a crass mechanical copying by some scribe from
 # Joh 19:34
 See full discussion in my _Introduction to the Textual Criticism
 of the N.T._

01035
 \\Yielded up his spirit\\ (\\aphken to pneuma\\). The loud cry may have
 been
 # Ps 31:5
 as given in
 # Lu 23:46
 : "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." John
 # Joh 19:30
 gives \\It is finished\\ (\\tetelestai\\), though which was actually last
 is not clear. Jesus did not die from slow exhaustion, but with a
 loud cry. \\He breathed out\\ (\\exepneusen\\,
 # Mr 15:37
 \\sent back his spirit\\
 # Mt 27:50
 \\gave up his spirit\\ (\\paredken to pneuma\\,
 # Joh 19:30
 "He gave up his life because he willed it, when he willed it, and
 as he willed it" (Augustine). Stroud (_Physical Cause of the
 Death of Christ_) considers the loud cry one of the proofs that
 Jesus died of a ruptured heart as a result of bearing the sin of
 the world.

01036
 \\Was rent\\ (\\eschisth\\). Both Mark
 # Mr 15:38
 and Luke
 # Lu 23:45
 mention also this fact. Matthew connects it with the earthquake,
 "the earth did quake" (\\h g eseisth\\). Josephus (_War_ VI. 299)
 tells of a quaking in the temple before the destruction and the
 Talmud tells of a quaking forty years before the destruction of
 the temple. Allen suggests that "a cleavage in the masonry of the
 porch, which rent the outer veil and left the Holy Place open to
 view, would account for the language of the Gospels, of Josephus,
 and of the Talmud." This veil was a most elaborately woven fabric
 of seventy-two twisted plaits of twenty-four threads each and the
 veil was sixty feet long and thirty wide. The rending of the veil
 signified the removal of the separation between God and the
 people (Gould).

01037
 \\The tombs were opened\\ (\\ta mnmeia aneichthsan\\). First aorist
 passive indicative (double augment). The splitting of the rocks
 by the earthquake and the opening of tombs can be due to the
 earthquake. But the raising of the bodies of the dead after the
 resurrection of Jesus which appeared to many in the holy city
 puzzles many today who admit the actual bodily resurrection of
 Jesus. Some would brand all these portents as legends since they
 appear in Matthew alone. Others would say that "after his
 resurrection" should read "after their resurrection," but that
 would make it conflict with Paul's description of Christ as the
 first fruits of them that sleep
 # 1Co 15:20
 Some say that Jesus released these spirits after his descent into
 Hades. So it goes. We come back to miracles connected with the
 birth of Jesus, God's Son coming into the world. If we grant the
 possibility of such manifestations of God's power, there is
 little to disturb one here in the story of the death of God's
 Son.

01038
01039
 \\Truly this was the Son of God\\ (\\alths theou huios n houtos\\).
 There is no article with God or Son in the Greek so that it means
 "God's Son," either "the Son of God" or "a Son of God." There is
 no way to tell. Evidently the centurion (\\hekatontarchos\\ here,
 ruler of a hundred, Latin word _kenturin_ in
 # Mr 15:39
 was deeply moved by the portents which he had witnessed. He had
 heard the several flings at Jesus for claiming to be the Son of
 God and may even have heard of his claim before the Sanhedrin and
 Pilate. How much he meant by his words we do not know, but
 probably he meant more than merely "a righteous man"
 # Lu 23:47
 Petronius is the name given this centurion by tradition. If he
 was won now to trust in Christ, he came as a pagan and, like the
 robber who believed, was saved as Jesus hung upon the Cross. All
 who are ever saved in truth are saved because of the death of
 Jesus on the Cross. So the Cross began to do its work at once.

01040
 \\Many women\\ (\\gunaikes pollai\\). We have come to expect the women
 from Galilee to be faithful, last at the Cross and first at the
 tomb. Luke
 # Lu 23:49
 says that "all his acquaintance" (\\pantes hoi gnstoi auti\\) stood
 at a distance and saw the end. One may hope that the apostles
 were in that sad group. But certainly many women were there. The
 Mother of Jesus had been taken away from the side of the Cross by
 the Beloved Disciple to his own home
 # Joh 19:27
 Matthew names three of the group by name. Mary Magdalene is
 mentioned as a well-known person though not previously named in
 Matthew's Gospel. Certainly she is not the sinful woman of
 # Lu 7
 nor Mary of Bethany. There is another Mary, the mother of James
 and Joseph (Joses) not otherwise known to us. And then there is
 the mother of the sons of Zebedee (James and John), usually
 identified with Salome
 # Mr 15:40
 These noble and faithful women were "beholding from afar" (\\apo\\
 \\makrothen therousai\\). These three women may have drawn nearer to
 the Cross for Mary the Mother of Jesus stood beside the Cross
 (\\para ti stauri\\) with Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene
 # Joh 19:25
 before she left. They had once ministered unto Jesus (\\diakonousai\\
 \\auti\\) and now he is dead. Matthew does not try to picture the
 anguish of heart of these noble women nor does he say as Luke
 # Lu 23:48
 does that "they returned smiting their breasts." He drops the
 curtain on that saddest of all tragedies as the loyal band stood
 and looked at the dead Christ on Golgotha. What hope did life now
 hold for them?

01041
01042
 \\And when even was come\\ (\\opsias de genomens\\). It was the
 Preparation (\\paraskeu\\), the day before the sabbath
 # Mr 15:42; Lu 23:54; Joh 31:42
 \\Paraskeu\\ is the name in modern Greek today for Friday. The Jews
 were anxious that these bodies should be taken down before the
 sabbath began at 6 P.M. The request of Joseph of Arimathea for
 the body of Jesus was a relief to Pilate and to the Jews also. We
 know little about this member of the Sanhedrin save his name
 Joseph, his town Arimathea, that he was rich, a secret disciple,
 and had not agreed to the death of Jesus. Probably he now wished
 that he had made an open profession. But he has courage now when
 others are cowardly and asked for the personal privilege
 (\\itsato\\, middle voice, asked for himself) of placing the body
 of Jesus in his new tomb. Some today identify this tomb with one
 of the rock tombs now visible under Gordon's Calvary. It was a
 mournful privilege and dignity that came to Joseph and Nicodemus
 # Joh 19:39-41
 as they wrapped the body of Jesus in clean linen cloth and with
 proper spices placed it in this fresh (\\kaini\\) tomb in which no
 body had yet been placed. It was cut in the rock (\\elatomsen\\) for
 his own body, but now it was for Jesus. But now (verse
 # 60
 he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed.
 That was for safety. But two women had watched the sad and lonely
 ceremony, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (mother of James and
 Joseph). They were sitting opposite and looking in silence.

01043
01044
01045
01046
01047
01048
 \\Sir, we remember\\ (\\kurie, emnesthmen\\). This was the next day, on
 our Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the day after the Preparation
 # Mt 27:62
 Ingressive aorist indicative, we have just recalled. It is
 objected that the Jewish rulers would know nothing of such a
 prediction, but in
 # Mt 12:40
 he expressly made it to them. Meyer scouts as unhistorical legend
 the whole story that Christ definitely foretold his resurrection
 on the third day. But that is to make legendary much of the
 Gospels and to limit Jesus to a mere man. The problem remains why
 the disciples forgot and the Jewish leaders remembered. But that
 is probably due on the one hand to the overwhelming grief of the
 disciples coupled with the blighting of all their hopes of a
 political Messiah in Jesus, and on the other hand to the keen
 nervous fear of the leaders who dreaded the power of Jesus though
 dead. They wanted to make sure of their victory and prevent any
 possible revival of this pernicious heresy. \\That deceiver\\
 (\\ekeinos ho planos\\) they call him, a vagabond wanderer (\\planos\\)
 with a slur in the use of \\that\\ (\\ekeinos\\), a picturesque sidelight
 on their intense hatred of and fear of Jesus.

01049
 \\The last error\\ (\\h eschat plan\\). The last delusion, imposture
 (Weymouth), fraud (Moffatt). Latin _error_ is used in both
 senses, from _errare_, to go astray. The first fraud was belief
 in the Messiahship of Jesus, the second belief in his
 resurrection.
