All the Synoptists relate the parting of the garments. The four pieces to be divided would be, the head-gear, the sandals, the girdle, and the tallith or square outer garment with fringes. Delitzsch thus describes the dress of our Lord: "On His head He wore a white sudar, fastened under the chin and hanging down from the shoulders behind. Over the tunic which covered the body to the hands and feet, a blue tallith with the blue and white fringes on the four ends, so thrown over and gathered together that the gray, red-striped undergarment was scarcely noticeable, except when the sandal-shod feet came into view" ("A Day in Capernaum").

Coat (χιτῶνα)

Or tunic. See on Matthew 5:40.

Without seam (ἄῤῥαφος, or ἄραφος)

Only here in the New Testament. From ἀ, not, and ῥάπτω, to sew together. Like the tunic of the High-Priest. Only John records this detail.

Woven (ὑφαντὸς)

Only here in the New Testament.

Clothing, collectively. Rev., garments, for ἱμάτια, is better than raiment, which is collective, while the word is used of the separate pieces of clothing.

Imperfect tense, were standing.

Mary Magdalene

Strictly, the (ἡ) Magdalene. She is introduced abruptly, as well known.

See on John 2:4.

Behold

Canon Westcott remarks upon the four exclamations in this chapter - Behold the man! Behold your King! Behold thy son! Behold thy mother! as a remarkable picture of what Christ is, and what He reveals men to be.

See on John 1:11.

Rev., with stricter rendering of the perfect tense, are finished. Finished corresponds better with it is finished, John 19:30. This sentence may be taken with the preceding one, or with that which follows.

See on Matthew 27:48.

Hyssop

Matthew and Mark have καλάμῳ, a reed. Luke says merely that they offered Him vinegar. The vinegar mingled with gall (Matthew 27:34), or the wine mingled with myrrh (Mark 15:23) was offered to Jesus before his crucifixion as a stupefying draught. The hyssop gives a hint of the height of the cross, as the greatest length of the hyssop reed was not more than three or four feet. The vinegar in this case was offered in order to revive Christ. John does not mention the stupefying draught.

Rev., his spirit. Matthew, ἀφῆκεν dismissed. Mark, ἐξέπνευσεν, breathed forth (his life). So Luke, who adds, "Father, into thy hands I commend (παρατίθεμαι, see on Luke 9:16) my spirit."

The Jews, who had so recently asserted their sole allegiance to Caesar, are now scrupulous about observing the letter of the law.

A detail recorded only by John. This crurifragium, leg-breaking, consisted in striking the legs with a heavy mallet in order to expedite death. It was sometimes inflicted as a punishment upon slaves. Some horrible illustrations are furnished by Suetonius, in his lives of Augustus and Tiberius.

Only here in the New Testament. Properly, the head of a spear. So Herodotus, of the Arabians: "They also had spears (αἰχμὰς) tipped with an antelope's horn sharpened like a spear-point (λόγχης)" (vii., 96). Used also, as here, for the spear itself.

Pierced (ἔνυξεν)

Only here in the New Testament. The question has been raised whether the Evangelist means to describe a gash or a prick. Another verb is rendered pierced in John 19:37, the quotation from Zechariah 12:10, ἐξεκέντησαν, which occurs also at Revelation 1:7, with reference to Christ's crucifixion, and is used in classical Greek of putting out the eyes, or stabbing, and in the Septuagint of Saul's request to his armor-bearer: "Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith" (1 Chronicles 10:4). The verb used here, however, νύσσω, is also used to describe severe and deadly wounds, as in Homer:

"As he sprang

Into his car, Idomeneus, expert

To wield the ponderous javelin, thrust (νύξ) its blade

Through his right shoulder. From the car he fell,

And the dark night of death came over him."

"Iliad," v. 45-47.

It has been suggested that the body was merely pricked with the spear to ascertain if it were yet alive. There seems, on the whole, no reason for departing from the ordinary understanding of the narrative, that the soldier inflicted a deep thrust on the side of Jesus (compare John 20:25, John 20:27); nor is it quite apparent why, as Mr. Field urges, a distinction should be kept up between the two verbs in John 19:34 and John 19:37.

Blood and water

It has been argued very plausibly that this was a natural phenomenon, the result of a rupture of the heart which, it is assumed, was the immediate cause of death, and which was followed by an effusion of blood into the pericardium. This blood, separated into its thicker and more liquid parts, flowed forth when the pericardium was pierced by the spear. I think, however, with Meyer, that John evidently intends to describe the incident as something entirely unexpected and marvelous, and that this explanation better suits the solemn asseveration of John 19:35. That the fact had a symbolic meaning to the Evangelist is evident from 1 John 5:6.

Rev., rendering the perfect tense in both verbs, he that hath seen hath born witness. This can refer only to the writer of this Gospel. Compare 1 John 1:1.

True (ἀληθινὴ)

Genuine, according to the true ideal of what testimony should be. See on John 1:9.

And he (κακεῖνος)

This pronoun is urged by some as a reason for regarding the witness as some other than John, because it is the pronoun of remote reference. But John 9:37 shows clearly that a speaker can use this pronoun of himself; and it is, further, employed in this Gospel to indicate a person "as possessing the quality which is the point in question in an eminent or even exclusive degree" (Godet). See John 1:18; John 5:39.

True (ἀληθῆ)

Literally, true things. As distinguished from false. Thus, by the use of the two words for true, there are brought out, as Westcott remarks, "the two conditions which testimony ought to satisfy; the first, that he who gives it should be competent to speak with authority; and the second, that the account of his experience should be exact."

Matthew calls him a rich man; Mark, an honorable counselor, i.e., a member of the Sanhedrim; and Luke, a counselor, good and just.

Besought (ἠρωτησε)

Better, as Rev., asked. See on John 11:22; see on John 16:23. Mark adds that he went in boldly, which is suggestive in view of John's statement of his secret discipleship, a fact which is passed over by the Synoptists.

Gave him leave

According to Roman law. Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century, says: "The bodies of those who are capitally punished cannot be denied to their relatives. At this day, however, the bodies of those who are executed are buried only in case permission is asked and granted; and sometimes permission is not given, especially in the cases of those who are punished for high treason. The bodies of the executed are to be given for burial to any one who asks for them." Avaricious governors sometimes sold this privilege. Cicero, in one of his orations against Verres, has a terribly graphic passage describing such extortions. After dwelling upon the tortures inflicted upon the condemned, he says: "Yet death is the end. It shall not be. Can cruelty go further? A way shall be found. For the bodies of the beheaded shall be thrown to the beasts. If this is grievous to parents, they may buy the liberty of burial" (v., 45). Compare Matthew 14:12; Acts 8:2.

The contrast is marked between his first and his second coming.

Mixture (μίγμα)

Only here in the New Testament. Some authorities read ἕλιγμα, a roll.

Pounds

Roman pounds, of nearly twelve ounces. The large quantity may be explained by the intention of covering the entire body with the preparation, and by the fact that a portion was designed for the couch of the body in the grave. Compare the account of the burial of Asa, 2 Chronicles 16:14. "Extraordinary reverence in its sorrowful excitement does not easily satisfy itself" (Meyer).

Used only by John, if Luke 24:12 is rejected, as by some editors. The Synoptists all have σινδών, linen cloth. See on Mark 14:51. Matthew and Luke have ἐντύλιξεν, rolled or wrapped, and Mark ἐνείλησεν, wound, instead of John's ἔδησαν bound.

With the spices

Spread over the sheet or bandages in which the body was wrapped.

The manner of the Jews

As contrasted with that of the Egyptians, for instance, which is thus described by Herodotus: "They take first a crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the brains through the nostrils, thus getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the rest by rinsing with drugs; next they make a cut along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole contents of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, washing it thoroughly with palm-wine, and again, frequently with an infusion of pounded aromatics. After this they fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia, and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and sew up the opening. Then the body is placed in natrum (subcarbonate of soda) for seventy days, and covered entirely over. After the expiration of that space of time, which must not be exceeded, the body is washed, and wrapped round, from head to foot, with bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over with gum" (ii., 86). Or, possibly, a contrast may be implied with the Roman custom of burning the bodies of the dead. Tacitus says of the Jews: "The bodies of the deceased they choose rather to bury than burn, following in this the Egyptian custom; with whom also they agree in their attention to the dead" ("History," v., 5).

To bury (ἐνταφιάζειν)

Properly, to prepare for burial. See on John 12:7. Compare Septuagint, Genesis 1:2, where the same word is used for embalming the body of Joseph.

Mentioned by John only.

New (καινὸν)

See on Matthew 26:29. John omits the detail of the tomb being hewn in the rock, which is common to all the Synoptists.

The Hebrew idiom, day one of the week. See on Luke 4:31; see on Acts 20:7.

Dark

Matthew says, as it began to dawn; Mark, when the sun was risen; Luke, very early in the morning, or at deep dawn; see on Luke 24:1.

Taken away (ἠρμένον ἐκ)

Lifted out of. All the Synoptists have rolled.

The word for personal affection. In John 13:23; John 21:7, John 21:20, ἠγάπα is used. See on John 5:20.

We know not

The plural indicates that Mary was not alone, though she alone is mentioned as coming to the tomb. She may have preceded the others.

Wrong. The tense is the imperfect; they were coming. Rev., they went toward.

Still the imperfect, they were running. How much the A.V. loses by its persistent ignoring of the force of this tense.

Did outrun (προέδραμε τάχιον)

Literally, ran on in front more quickly. Dante, addressing the spirit of John in Paradise says:

"O holy father, spirit who beholdest

What thou believedst so that thou o'ercamest,

Toward the sepulchre, more youthful feet."

"Paradise," xxiv., 124-126.

See on James 1:25, and compare 1 Peter 1:12. See also Song of Solomon, Sol 2:9 (Sept.). "He looketh forth (παρακύπτων) at the windows."

Seeth (βλέπει)

Simple sight. Compare the intent gaze of Peter (θεωρεῖ), John 20:6, which discovered the napkin, not seen by John.

See on Luke 19:20.

Wrapped together (ἐντετυλιγμένον)

Rev., much better, rolled up. The orderly arrangement of everything in the tomb marks the absence of haste and precipitation in the awakening and rising from the dead.

This word is explained by what follows. He believed (at length) that Jesus was risen; for up to this time (οὐδέπω) he, with his fellow-disciple (plural, ᾔδεισαν) knew not, etc. The singular number, he believed, as Meyer profoundly remarks, "only satisfies the never-to-be-forgotten personal experience of that moment, though it does not exclude the contemporaneous faith of Peter also." On knew (ᾔδεισαν), see on John 2:24.

The passage of scripture. See on John 5:47. The reference may be to Psalm 16:10.

Must

On this necessity attaching in the divine counsel to the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, see Matthew 26:54; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; Luke 17:25; Luke 22:37; Luke 24:7, Luke 24:26, Luke 24:44; John 3:14; John 12:34; Acts 1:16.