15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief16 priests answered, We have no king but Cesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. 17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place 18 of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and 19 Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE 20 KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city and 21 it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief-priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the 22 Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, 23 What I have written, I have written. Then the soldiers, explained on the supposition, that the two evangelists used different methods of computing time; or that the terms are indefinite, meaning, as expressed here, about those hours, before the one and after the other. But the truth probably is, that third was the original word in John, as it is found in several old versions and manuscripts; but that sixth crept in by an error in transcribing, and obtained a footing in most copies. Such is the judgment of Griesbach, Bloomfield, Kenrick, and Norton. - Behold your King-Shall I crucify your King? Pilate appears to have taken a petty satisfaction, after being compelled to act against his conscience, in taunting the Jews by calling Jesus their King, and thus taking a species of revenge for the triumph they had gained over him. 17. And he bearing his cross, &c. Compare Mat. xxvii. 32, and note. "By the dark stillness brooding in the sky, Holiest of sufferers! round thy path of woe, And by the weight of mortal agony Laid on thy drooping form and pale meek My heart was awed; the burden of thy pain "I looked once more, and, as the virtue spread Forth from thy robe of old, so fell a ray Of victory from thy mien; and round thy head, The halo, melting spirit-like away, Seemed of the very soul's bright rising born, To glorify all sorrow, shame, and scorn." 21, 22. The priests were apprehensive, that the inscription would produce a wrong impression upon the people at large, and convey the general idea, that Pilate had crucified the veritable King of the Jews. What I have written, I have written, i. e. it shall stand as it is. Pilate would not suffer himself to be dictaHe exhibited the ted to any more. natural feelings of one who is indignant, that he has been overreached and made the tool of others. 23, 24. These hardened Roman soldiers, accustomed to see and to cause the most dreadful scenes of human suffering, thoroughly brutalized by their occupation, sit down with cool indifference at the very foot of the cross, and cast lots for the clothes of the crucified! How true to nature and reality! how unlikely to be invented!-The coat was without seam. The tunic, or inner gar when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said 24 therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his moth- 25 er's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing 26 by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy Son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And 27 from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, 28 that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there 29 ment, was woven whole; a thing neither impossible nor improbable. -They parted my raiment, &c. Ps. xxii. 18. This passage is quoted by way of illustration. The words of the ancient Psalmist were made good in the present incident. 25-27. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother. History has recorded no event more thrilling than this; none more heroic in the female sex. Ye mothers, who bend over the dying pillows of your children, think of Mary at the foot of the cross, and be strengthened, be comforted.-Mary the wife of Cleophas. Or Clopas, or Alpheus, for they are all the same name in meaning. Mat. x. 3; Mark xv. 40. We learn by a comparison of passages, that this Mary was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It was not unusual among the Jews for two sisters to bear the same name. Woman, behold thy son, &c. The disciple, here meant, was John. As remarked by Furness, in the original, the utterance of Jesus appears to be broken and ejaculatory, indicating the physical condition of the speaker- a condition of mortal agony: "Woman! behold! thy son!" and when he spoke to John: "Behold! thy mother!" The received version expresses more deliberation and formality, than is justified by the circumstances of the case. "Parched with thirst, and almost in the pains of death, he was able to utter himself only briefly, and at intervals, and to signify his affectionate wishes with regard to his mother, by a word or two, which he accompanied possibly by a look, or an inclination of the head, or some slight movement, such as his confined and agonizing posture allowed, relying upon the quick-conceiving affections of his mother and John, to make out his meaning. How profound must have been the sensibility of that heart, whose, filial love the distracting pangs of a most terrible death could not quench!" Jesus had no fortune, no gift of affection to bequeath to his friends at death; his greatest treasure on earth was his mother, and he gave her to his best beloved disciple. 28-30. All things, &c. Sensible, that the objects of his mission were effected. I thirst. Ps. lxix. 21 The Psalmist is referred to by way was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with 30 vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a high day,) besought Pilate that their legs 32 might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other 33 which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, 34 and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith 35 came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it, bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, 36 that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the of illustration. The torture would naturally make him intensely thirsty. -Hyssop. The sponge was raised to his mouth on a stalk of hyssop.It is finished. Meaning less, perhaps, the work in which he had been engaged, than the dreadful suffering under which he had lingered six hours. When nature could endure no more, the spent system sank into the insensibility of death. Our Lord was crucified on Friday, and hence, as is supposed, the common superstition connected with that day. 66 31. Should not remain upon the cross. Deut. xxi. 23. As if it were a sin to leave the body of that blameless being on the cross one day, whom it had been no sin, but rather an act of the greatest virtue, to murder the day before." Mat. xxvii. 6; John xviii. 28. Was a high day. Because it occurred during the great festival of the passover. That their legs might be broken. This was one of the refinements of cruelty, practised in the punishment of crucifixion, to consummate the pangs of dying by new and strange thrillings of pain, produced by frac turing the already intensely anguished limbs. 34, 35. Blood and water. Indicating that the heart was pierced; so that Jesus must have died then, if not before: for the water no doubt flowed from the pericardium, —a thin membrane, containing lymph, and surrounding the heart,-which rapidly fills with water when death is slow and painful; while the blood spoken of, came from the heart itself. The mention of the water, therefore, in connexion with the blood, shows the eye-witness, and agrees perfectly with the anatomy of the human frame. His record is true, &c. The reiterated emphasis, which the writer puts upon the fact he has stated, shows that he deemed it of great consequence. It was so, perhaps, for two reasons: 1. as authenticating the reality of Christ's death; 2. as confuting the notions of the Docetæ, or Phantasmists, a sect of that period who believed that the Messiah only came in appearance, and did not really suffer upon the cross. The blood and water marked the tangible, physical body. See Introduction to Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom 37 they pierced. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea (being a disciple of Jesus, 38 but secretly for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came 39 also Nicodemus (which at the first came to Jesus by night) and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in 40 linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a 41 garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the 42 Jews' preparation-day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. John's Gospel, and notes on chap. i.; 1 John v. 8. 36, 37. Abone of him, &c. The Israelites ate the paschal lamb in haste, as if on a journey, and, therefore, broke not its bones. The evangelist quotes the scripture, as illustrativeof the fact that the bones of Jesus were not broken. Ex. xii. 46; Num. ix. 12.-They shall look on him, &c. Zech. xii. 10. Another quotation after the same method of accommodation. 38, 39. The eleven disciples were thrown into such fear and consternation, that they could apparently do nothing; but these other friends of Jesus, emboldened and excited by the outrageous conduct of the Jews, and the death of Jesus, attended by such signs from on high, now come forward and devote to their friend, when dead, that service, which they had withheld from him when living. A hundred pounds' weight. At the funeral of Gamaliel, the elder, a distinguished Jewish rabbin, eighty pounds of spices were used; and when Herod was buried, there was a procession of five hundred ser vants, carrying costly unguents and aromatic substances. The large quantity which Nicodemus brought, and by which he testified his affection, was not, therefore, incredible. 40-42. Compare notes, Mat. xxvii. 59, 60.-A garden. For the place was without the walls of the city. Wherein was never man yet laid. An important statement, showing that Jesus could not be confounded at his resurrection with any one else. The sepulchre was nigh at hand. The time was so short, as the Sabbath was about to commence, that is, at sundown, that the burial was hastily performed, leaving something to do afterwards, Mark xvi. 1; and the body was laid in a tomb near at hand, in order to avoid the delay of carrying it to a distance. Thus, in less than twenty-four hours, Jesus had been betrayed, seized, tried, crucified, and buried -a concentration of mighty events. To all human appearance, his religion perished with him, and the last ray of hope was quenched in the tomb of Joseph. But to the Sun of right CHAPTER XX. Jesus is raised from the Dead, and appears to his Disciples. THE first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken 2 away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, 3 and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went 4 forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, Compare Mat. xxviii., Mark xvi., and Luke xxiv., and the notes there on. The accounts of the resurrection of our Lord by the four evangelists, contain those slight and not irreconcilable differences, which we should naturally expect to find in writers, who drew their information from different sources, and from witnesses that were deeply excited and agitated by a variety of emotions at beholding such an astonishing spectacle. John confines his narrative to what he personally learned from Mary Magdalene, or saw himself. For the order of events, see note on Mat. xxviii. 1-10. 1. The first day of the week. The Jewish Sabbath was the last day of the week, corresponding to our Saturday. The disciples of Christ henceforth observed the first day of the week, as their Sabbath, or day of rest, as the word imports; because Jesus arose on that day from the dead; and they called it, after him, the Lord's day. The term Sunday, or Solis dies, day of the Sun, is derived from pagan antiquity, but has become in a measure sanctified by long Christian usage. Seeth the stone taken away. Or, more correctly, saw that it had been taken away; for she did not herself see it done, as our received version intimates. 2. Runneth. The histories of the resurrection by the evangelists, betray at every clause their fidelity to nature and truth. There is that agitation, that fear, that hope, that joy, which we should expect. There is running hither and thither; the breathless haste of excited, astonished persons, who hurry back and forth almost beside themselves, with a thousand conflicting feelings. The women ran, Mat. xxviii. 8; Mary Magdalene ran; and Peter and John ran, as if in competition with each other, ver. 4. There were tears, and prostrations of reverence, Mat. xxviii. 9, and glad reports carried to the absent, and every mark in nature of the reality of this stupendous fact, that the crucified Jesus had walked forth from the rent tomb a living being, bringing life and immortality to light. "Lift then your voices in triumph on high, For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die." We know not where they have laid him. The supposition was, that the body had been stolen away. 4, 6. The other disciple did outrun |