§ 150. Pilate again seeks to release Jesus. MATTHEW. ᎷᎪᎡᏦ . § 151. Judas repents, and hangs himself. CH. XXVII. 3-10. 3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, John xix. 14, sixth hour.] The apparent contradiction between John and Mark, (ch. xv. 25,) who mentions the third hour, is reconciled by Dr. Campbell, in a critical note (SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem. LUKE. JOHN. CH. XIX. 4-16. have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. 8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; 9 And went again into the judgmenthall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not, that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. 12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cesar. 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat, in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! 15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cesar. 16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. (SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem. upon the force of the expressions in the original, which he interprets as equivalent to saying, in the one case, that it was past three, and in the other, that it was towards six. See CAMPBELL, in loc. § 151. Judas repents, and hangs himself. MATTHEW. CH. XXVII. 3-10. 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. 9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; 10 And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.* MARK. Matt. xxvii. 9, Jeremy.] The passage here quoted is found in the prophecy of Zechariah, and not in Jeremiah. Dr. Lightfoot says, that anciently among the Jews the Old Testament was divided into three parts. The first, beginning with the law, was called The Law. The second, beginning with Psalms, was called The Psalms. The third, beginning with the prophecy of Jeremiah, which anciently stood first, was called Jeremiah, under which name all quotations from the prophets were made. See A. CLARKE, in loc. JENNINGS, Jewish Antiq. pp. 594, 595. Others account for the apparent error in Matthew's quotation, by supposing that he omitted the name of the prophet, as he frequently did in his citations of scripture, and that the name of Jeremiah was inserted by a subsequent copyist. 1 HORNE's Introd. p. 582. (SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem. LUKE. JOHN. (SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem. CH. XXIII. 26-33. CH. XIX. 16-17. 26 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian, they took Jesus, and led him away. coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 17 And he bearing his cross Mark xv. 21, and Rufus.] Clement of Alexaudria and Jerome both relate that Mark wrote this Gospel at Rome, and we find in Romans xiv. 13, that a disciple named Rufus, of considerable note, resided in that city. Admitting that both Mark and Paul speak of the same person, which is highly probable, as they refer to the same period of time and to a disciple of distinction, there is an evident consciousness of veracity in the Evangelist, in making this reference to Rufus, then living among them, since he could not but have known the particulars of the crucifixion, in which his own father was so intimately concerned. BLUNT's Veracity, &c., sect. i. 14. See also EUSEBIUS, lib. 2, ch. 15. Matt. xxvii. 37, his accusation.] As to the title itself, the precise wording may have differed in the different languages; and MSS. represent it differently. But the same verbal exactness is not necessary in historians, whose aim is religious instruction, as in recorders of public inscriptions. It is enough that the Evangelists agree as to the main article, "the King of the Jews," referred to, John xix. 21. That their manner is to regard the sense, rather than the words, appears from many places. Compare Matt. iii. 17, and ix. 11, and xv. 27, and xvi. 6, 9, and xix. 18, and xx. 33, and xxi. 9, and xxvi. 39, 64, 70, and xxviii. 5, 6, with the parallell verses in this Harmony. Compare also John xi. 40, with ver. 23, 25. One of the most solemn and awful of our Lord's discourses is, in some parts, variously expressed. See Matt. xxvi. 28, Mark xiv. 24, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25. Now as each of these writers has, beyond all doubt, faithfully represented the meaning of Christ, we see that it might be truly done in different words, or in a different form of the same words. His sentences also, sometimes admitted a dif |