Mat 27:33-37 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 33. Golgotha . This is the Hebrew word signifying the place of a skull, This is the word which in Luke is called Calvary . In the original, there also, it is a skull . The word calvary is a Latin word meaning skull , or place of skulls . It is not known certainly why this name was given to this place. Some have supposed that it was because the mount resembled in shape a human skull. The most probable opinion, however, is that it was a place of execution; that malefactors were beheaded there, or otherwise put to death, and that their bones remained unburied or unburned. Mount Calvary was a small eminence, usually supposed to have been on the northwest of Jerusalem, without the walls of the city, but at a short distance. Jesus was put to death out of the city, because capital punishments were not allowed within the walls. See . This was a law among the Romans, as well as the Jews. He also died there, because the bodies of the beasts slain in sacrifice, as typical of him, were burned without the camp. He also, as the antitype, suffered without the gate, . The place which is shown as Calvary now is within the city, and must also have been within the ancient walls; and there is no reason to suppose that it is the place where the Saviour was put to death.

Matthew 27:33-37

Verse 33. Golgotha. This is the Hebrew word signifying the place of a skull, This is the word which in Luke is called Calvary. In the original, there also, it is a skull. The word calvary is a Latin word meaning skull, or place of skulls. It is not known certainly why this name was given to this place. Some have supposed that it was because the mount resembled in shape a human skull. The most probable opinion, however, is that it was a place of execution; that malefactors were beheaded there, or otherwise put to death, and that their bones remained unburied or unburned. Mount Calvary was a small eminence, usually supposed to have been on the northwest of Jerusalem, without the walls of the city, but at a short distance. Jesus was put to death out of the city, because capital punishments were not allowed within the walls. See Nu 15:35,36, 1Kgs 21:13. This was a law among the Romans, as well as the Jews. He also died there, because the bodies of the beasts slain in sacrifice, as typical of him, were burned without the camp. He also, as the antitype, suffered without the gate, Heb 13:11,12. The place which is shown as Calvary now is within the city, and must also have been within the ancient walls; and there is no reason to suppose that it is the place where the Saviour was put to death. Verse 34. They gave him vinegar, etc. Mark says that "they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh." The two evangelists mean the same thing. Vinegar was made of light wine rendered acid, and was the common drink of the Roman soldiers; and this might be called either vinegar or wine, in common language. Myrrh is a bitter substance, produced in Arabia, but is used often to denote anything bitter. The meaning of the name is bitterness. Mt 2:11. Gall is, properly, a bitter secretion from the liver; but the word is also used to denote anything exceedingly bitter, as wormwood, etc. The drink, therefore, was vinegar or wine, rendered bitter by the infusion of wormwood, or some other very bitter substance. The effect of this, it is said, was to stupify the senses. It was often given to those crucified, to render them insensible to the pains of death. Our Lord knowing this, when he had tasted it, refused to drink, he was unwilling to blunt the pains of dying. The cup which his Father gave him he rather chose to drink, He came to suffer. His sorrows were necessary for the work of the atonement; and he gave himself up to the unmitigated sufferings of the cross. This was presented to him in the early part of his sufferings, or when he was about to be suspended on the cross. Afterward, when he was on the cross, and just before his death, vinegar was offered to him without the myrrh --the vinegar which the soldiers usually drank--and of this he received. See Mt 27:49, Jn 19:28-30. Where Matthew and Mark say that he "would not drink," they refer to a different thing and a different time from John, and there is no contradiction.

(d) "gall" Ps 69:21 Verse 35. And they crucified him. To crucify, means to put to death on a cross. The cross has been described at Mt 27:32. The manner of the crucifixion was as follows: After the criminal had carried the cross, attended with every possible jibe and insult, to the place of execution, a hole was dug in the earth to receive the foot of it. The cross was laid on the ground; the person condemned to suffer was stripped, and was extended on it, and the soldiers fastened the hands and feet either by nails or thongs. After they had fixed the nails deeply in the wood, they elevated the cross with the agonizing sufferer on it; and, in order to fix it more firmly in the earth, they let it fall violently into the hole which they had dug to receive it; This sudden fall must have given to the person that was nailed to it a most violent and convulsive shock, and greatly increased his sufferings. The crucified person was then suffered to hang, commonly, till pain, exhaustion, thirst, and hunger ended his life. Sometimes the sufferings continued for days; and when friendly death terminated the life, the body was often suffered to remain--a loathsome object, putrefying in the sun, or devoured by the birds.

This punishment was deemed the most disgraceful and ignominious that was practised among the Romans. It was the way in which slaves, robbers, and the most notorious and abandoned wretches, were commonly put to death. It was this, among other things, that exposed those who preached the gospel to so much shame and contempt among the Greeks and Romans. They despised everything that was connected with the death of one who had died as a slave and an outlaw.

As it was the most ignominious punishment known, so it was the most painful. The following circumstances make it a death of peculiar pain:

(1.) The position of the arms and the body was unnatural, the arms being extended back and almost immovable. The least motion gave violent pain in the hands and feet, and in the back, which was lacerated with stripes.

(2.) The nails, being driven through the parts of the hands and feet which abound with nerves and tendons, created the most exquisite anguish.

(3.) The exposure of so many wounds to the air brought on a violent inflammation, which greatly increased the poignancy of the suffering.

(4.) The free circulation of the blood was prevented. More blood was carried out in the arteries than could be returned by the veins. The consequence was, that there was a great increase in the veins of the head, producing an intense pressure and violent pain. The same was true of other parts of the body. This intense pressure in the blood vessels was the source of inexpressible misery.

(5.) The pain gradually increased. There was no relaxation, and no rest. There was no prospect but death. The sufferer was commonly able to endure it till the third, and sometimes even to the seventh day. The intense sufferings of the Saviour, however, were sooner terminated. This was caused perhaps, in some measure, by his previous fatigue and exhaustion, but still more by the intense sufferings of His soul, his bearing our griefs, and carrying our sorrows; in making an atonement for the sins of the world. Mk 15:44.

And parted his garments. It was customary to crucify a person naked. The clothes of the sufferer belonged to those who were executioners. John says Jn 19:23 that they divided his garments into four parts, to each soldier a part; but for his coat they cast lots. Jnn 19:23. When Matthew says, therefore, that they parted his garments, casting lots, it is to be understood that they divided one part of them, and for the other part of them they cast lots.

That it might be fulfilled, etc. The words here quoted are found in Ps 22:18. The whole psalm is usually referred to Christ, and is a most striking description of his sufferings and death.

(e) "crucified" Ps 22:16, Mk 15:24, Lk 23:34, Jn 19:24 (f) "spoken by the prophets" Ps 22:18 Verse 36. They watched him there. That is, the four soldiers who had crucified him. They watched him lest his friends should come and release him. Verse 37. And set up over his head. John says Jn 19:19 that Pilate wrote the title, and put it upon the cross. Probably Pilate wrote it, or caused it to be written, and directed the soldiers to set it up. A man is often said to do what he directs others to do. It was customary to set up over the heads of persons crucified, the crime for which they suffered, and the name of the sufferer. The accusation on which Jesus had been condemned by Pilate, was his claiming to be the King of the Jews.

This is Jesus the King of the Jews. The evangelists differ in the account of this title. Mark Mk 15:26 says it was "the King of the Jews." Luke says, Lk 23:38 this is the King of the Jews." John, Jn 19:19, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." But the difficulty may be easily removed. John says, that the title was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. It is not at all improbable that the inscription varied in these languages. One evangelist may have translated it from the Hebrew; another from the Greek; a third from the Latin; and a fourth have translated one of the inscriptions a little differently from another. Besides, the evangelists all agree, in the main point of the inscription, viz., that he was the King of the Jews.