(49) All his acquaintance.--This is the only passage in which the word is used. St. Luke apparently employs it as intermediate between the spectators and the avowed disciples. Such may have been Simon, or Lazarus, of Bethany, or the rulers who believed yet did hot confess, or the owners of the ass and of the colt, or the proprietor of the house in which the Passover had been eaten.

The women that had followed him from Galilee.--St. Luke does not name them as St. Matthew and St. Mark do, probably because in Luke 8:2-3, he had already given the names of the most prominent among them.

Verse 49. - Stood afar off. Disciples open and secret, friends and acquaintances among the Jerusalem citizens and Galihaean pil-trims (with the exception of the little group of which Mary and John were the centre till the dying Lord bade them leave him), all alike lacked courage and devotion, all feared to stand by their Master and Friend at that awful season. He trod the winepress alone (see Isaiah 63:3). None possessed the heroic faith which through the sombre cloud of seeming failure could see the true glory of the Sun of Righteousness, which so soon was to arise and shine.

23:44-49 We have here the death of Christ magnified by the wonders that attended it, and his death explained by the words with which he breathed out his soul. He was willing to offer himself. Let us seek to glorify God by true repentance and conversion; by protesting against those who crucify the Saviour; by a sober, righteous, and godly life; and by employing our talents in the service of Him who died for us and rose again.And all his acquaintance,.... That were related to him in a natural, or in a spiritual sense, or both, as his own mother, and beloved disciple John, who were both present, John 19:26 or those that were known unto him, and familiar with him, who attended on his ministry, and often conversed, and were intimately acquainted with him:

and the women that followed him from Galilee; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Joses, and Salome the mother of Zebedee's children:

stood afar off; from the cross:

beholding these things; with wonder, as well as looking upon their dear suffering Lord, with aching hearts, and flowing eyes.