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"wine mingeld with myrrh" of Mark 15, 23, viz. cheap acid wine mingled with bitter myrrh. Such a drink was given to persons about to be executed, in order to stupify them. See Lightfoot Hor. Heb. on Matth. 27, 34.

§ 153. Various slight transpositions in the verses are made in this Section, in order to present their parallelism to the eye.-On the four different forms of the title on the cross, see Note on § 15.

§ 154. According to Matthew and Mark, both the malefactors reviled Jesus; while according to Luke, one was penitent. In the former Evangelists, there is here an enallage of number; the plural being put for the singular. This is often done, where the predicate relates strictly to one subject, while yet the writer expresses the idea generally. So Matth. 26, 8 comp. John 12, 4. Matth. 2, 20. 9, 8. Mark 7, 17 comp. Matth. 15, 15. Mark 5, 31 comp. Luke 8, 45. Matth. 24, 1 comp. Mark 13, 1. John 19, 29 comp. Matth. 27, 48. etc.

For the "vinegar" in Luke 23, 36, see note on § 155.

In John 19, 25, the marginal reading of the English version is the proper one, viz. Clopas instead of Cleophas. It is strictly a Greek form of a Hebrew name, which is elsewhere represented by Alpheus.-The Cleopas of Luke 24, 18, is a different name of regular Greek derivation, and belongs to another person.

§ 155. In Matth. 27, 46 Eli is the Hebrew word for my God; and in Mark 15, 34 Eloi is the corresponding Aramæan word for the same.

The "vinegar" in Matth. 22, 48 and the parallel verses, is here the posca or common drink of the Roman soldiers, viz. cheap acid wine mingled with water. In Matthew and Mark the sponge is said to be put upon a reed; in John, upon hyssop. Here probably a stalk or stem of hyssop is to be understood; the cross not being of any great height. The particular plant designated by the hyssop of the Hebrews, has not yet been fully ascertained by botanists. It probably included not only the modern hyssop of the shops, but also other aromatic plants, as mint, wild marjoram, etc.

§ 156. Matth. 27, 55. 56, etc. refers to a later point of time than John 19, 25 sq. Mary and the other women had now retired to a distance from the scene of suffering.

§ 157. On the phrase: "that sabbath-day was an high day," John 19, 31, see Introd. Note, p. 203.

It was according to custom among the Jews, that the bodies of persons publicly executed should be taken down and buried before sunset. Thus Josephus, B. J. 4. 5. 2: "So great care did the Jews take respecting sepulture, that even the bodies of those condemned to be crucified they took down and buried before Bunset."

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PART IX.

OUR LORD'S RESURRECTION, HIS SUBSEQUENT APPEARANCES, AND

HIS ASCENSION.

§§ 159-173.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

A FULL discussion upon this part of the Gospel History, embracing a review of the main difficulties in the way of harmonizing the accounts of the four Evangelists, was published by the author of these Notes, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for Feb. 1845, p. 162 sq. To this the student is referred for a more complete examination of the subject.

It is no doubt true, that more of these apparent difficulties are found in this short portion of the Gospels, than in almost all the rest. This has its cause in the circumstance, that each of the sacred writers here follows an eclectic method, and records only what appertained to his own particular purpose or experience. Thus many of the minor and connecting facts have not been preserved; and the data are therefore wanting to make out a full and complete harmony of all the accounts, without an occasional resort to something of hypothesis. Had we all the facts, we may well rest assured, that this part of the sacred history would at once prove to be as exact, as consistent, and as complete, as any and every other portion of the Word of God.

The general results of the investigations upon which we are now entering, may be presented in the following summary view of the events and circumstances connected with our Lord's resurrection and ascension, in the order of their occurrence.

The resurrection took place at or before early dawn on the first day of the week; when there was an earthquake, and an angel descended and rolled away the stone from the sepulchre and sat upon it; so that the keepers became as dead men from terror. At early dawn, the same morning, the women who had attended on Jesus, viz. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome, and others, went out with spices to the sepulchre in order further to embalm the Lord's body. They inquire among themselves, who should remove for them the stone which closed the sepulchre. On their arrival they find the stone already rolled away. The Lord had risen. The women knowing nothing of all that had taken place, were amazed; they enter the tomb, and find not the body of the Lord, and are greatly perplexed. At this time Mary Magdalene, impressed with the idea that the body had been stolen away, leaves the sepulchre and the other women, and runs to the city to tell Peter and John.

The other women remain still in the tomb; and immediately two angels appear, who announce unto them that Jesus is risen from the dead, and give them a charge in his name for the Apostles. They go out quickly from the sepulchre, and proceed in haste to the city to make this known to the disciples. On the way Jesus meets them, permits them to embrace his feet, and renews the same charge to the Apostles. The women relate these things to the disciples; but their words seem to them as idle tales, and they believe them not.

Meantime Peter and John had run to the sepulchre, and entering in had found it empty. But the orderly arrangement of the grave-clothes and of the napkin, convinced John that the body had not been removed either by violence or by friends; and the germ of a belief sprung up in his mind, that the Lord had risen. The two returned to the city. Mary Magdalene, who had again followed them to the sepulchre, remained standing and weeping before it; and looking in she saw two angels sitting. Turning around she sees Jesus; who gives to her also a solemn charge for his disciples.

The further sequence of events, consisting chiefly of our Lord's appearances, presents comparatively few difficulties. The various manifestations which the Saviour made of himself to his disciples and others, as recorded by the Evangelists and Paul, may accordingly be arranged and enumerated as follows:

1. To the women returning from the sepulchre. Reported only by Mat

thew. See § 162.

2. To Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre. By John and Mark. § 164.

3. To Peter, perhaps early in the afternoon. By Luke and Paul. § 166.

4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus, towards evening. By Luke and " Mark. § 166.

5. To the Apostles (except Thomas) assembled at evening. By Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. § 167.

N. B. These five appearances all took place at or near Jerusalem, upon the first day of the week, the same day on which the Lord arose. 6. To the Apostles, Thomas being present, eight days afterwards at Jerusa lem. Only by John. § 168.

7. To seven of the Apostles on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias. Only by John. § 169.

8. To the eleven Apostles and to five hundred other Brethren, on a mountain in Galilee. By Matthew and Paul. § 170.

9. To James, probably at Jerusalem. Only by Paul. § 171

10. To the eleven at Jerusalem, immediately before the ascension. By Luke in Acts, and by Paul. § 171.

Then follows the ascension. § 172.

§ 159. The women had rested on the seventh day, according to Luke 23, 56; and the Sabbath being past, Mark relates (v. 1) that they brought spices to anoint the body. This purchase would seem to have been made before the Sabbath; see Luke 23, 56.

The angel had descended and the earthquake had taken place, before the arrival of the women. Our Lord therefore had arisen from the tomb at or before early dawn. See the next Note.-Verses 2-4 of Matthew are here transposed into their natural order. As they stand in Matthew, they should be read as in the pluperfect: "had been" and "had rolled away."

The body of our Lord was laid in the sepulchre before sunset on Friday; and he rose early on the morning of Sunday. He therefore rose on the third day; having lain in the tomb during one whole day and a part of two others; in all not far from thirty six hours. On the expressions: the third day and after three days, see Note on § 49

§ 160. The point of time when the women visited the sepulchre is very defi nitely marked by all four of the Evangelists, by expressions which all go to fix the time at what we call early dawn, or early twilight; after the break of day, but while the light is yet struggling with darkness.

But Mark, in v. 2, has added the phrase: "at the rising of the sun." These words seem, at first, to be directly at variance with the language of the other three Evangelists, and with the "very early" of Mark himself. Yet as Mark, by the expression "very early," has definitely fixed the time in accordance with all the other Evangelists, we cannot suppose that by the subsequent phrase 66 at the rising of the sun," he meant to contradict himself and them. He must therefore have employed this latter expression in a broader and less definite sense, not inconsistent with the other. As the sun is the source of light and day, and his earliest rays produce the contrast between night and dawn, so the term sun-rising might easily come in popular usage, by a metonymy of cause for effect, to be put for all that earlier interval, when his rays still struggling with darkness do yet usher in the day.

Accordingly, we find such a popular usage existing among the Hebrews and in the Old Testament. Thus in Judg. 9, 33, Zebul, after directing Abimelech to lie in wait with his people in the field during the night, goes on to say: "And it shall be, in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early and set upon the city." Here we have the very same reference to the sun-rising; and yet we cannot for a moment suppose that Abimelech was to wait till the sun actually appeared above the horizon, before he made his onset. So the Psalmist, Ps. 104, 22, speaking of the young lions that by night roar after their prey, proceeds thus: "The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens." But beasts of prey do not wait for the actual appearance of the sun above the horizon ere they shrink away to their lairs; the break of day, the dawning light, is the signal for their retreat. See also Sept. 2 K. 3, 22. 2 Sam 23, 4. In all these passages the language is entirely parallel to that of Mark 16, 2; and they fully illustrate and confirm the principle, that the sun-rising is here used by Mark in a popular sense, as equivalent to the rising of the day, or early dawn.

There was probably something in respect to Mary Magdalene, which gave her a peculiar prominence in these transactions. This may be inferred from the fact, that John mentions Mary Magdalene, and her alone; while the other Evangelists likewise name her first, as if holding the most conspicuous place. -On the different names and number of the women, as narrated by the different Evangelists, see Note on § 57.

Mary Magdalene, amazed at not finding the body of Jesus, and supposing it to have been stolen, leaves the other women, probably in the sepulchre, and returns to the city to tell Peter and John. To them she uses the phrase know not," v. 2, meaning herself and the other women; but afterwards, when she speaks to the angels, it is "I know not," v. 13.

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§ 161. Luke speaks of two angels; Matthew and Mark of only one; see the Note on § 57.-Mark says he was sitting; Luke speaks of them apparently as standing, v. 4. But the Greek word, in its appropriate and acknowledged usage, is to appear suddenly, to be suddenly present, without reference to its etvmology; comp. Luke 2, 9. Acts 12, 7.

In Matthew, the angel addresses the women apparently while still sitting on the stone outside of the sepulchre; in Mark and Luke, on the contrary, the conversation takes place in the sepulchre. But although Matthew does not speak of the women as entering the tomb, yet in v. 8 he describes them as coming out of it; so that of course his account too implies, that the interview took place within the tomb, as narrated by Mark and Luke.

In recording the charge sent by the angels to the Apostles, Matthew and Mark dwell more upon Galilee; and Luke more upon the Lord's previous announcement of his resurrection.

§ 162. It is evident that Mary Magdalene was not with the other women, when Jesus thus met them on their return. Her language to Peter and John forbids the supposition, that she had already seen the Lord; see John 20, 2. See too Biblioth. Sacra, Feb. 1845, p. 171.

§ 163. Mary Magdalene had gone to Peter and John only; who would seem to have lodged by themselves in a different part of the city. The other women went apparently to the rest of the disciples. When therefore it is here said of John, on his entering the sepulchre (v. 8), that "he saw and believed," this is not at variance with v. 9, nor yet with Luke 24, 11. What was it that John thus believed? Not the mere report of Mary Magdalene, that the body had been taken away; for so much he must have known and believed, when he stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. His belief must have been of something more and greater. The grave-clothes lying orderly in their place, and the napkin folded together by itself, made it evident that the tomb had not been rifled, nor the body stolen by violent hands; for these garments and the spices would have been of more value to thieves, than merely a naked corpse; at least, thieves would not have taken the pains thus to fold the garments together. The same circumstances showed also that the body had not been removed by friends; for they would not thus have left the grave-clothes behind. All these considerations excited in the mind of John the germ of a belief, that Jesus was risen from the dead. He believed because he saw ; "for as yet they knew not the Scripture," v. 9. He now began to recall and understand our Lord's repeated declaration, that he was to rise again on the third day; a declaration on which the Jews had already acted in setting a watch. See Matth. 16, 21. 17, 23. Luke 9, 22. 24, 6, 7. etc. Matth 27, 63 sq. In this way, the apparent want of connection (sometimes urged) between verses 8 and 9, disappears.

§ 164. Mary Magdalene now manifestly sees the angels for the first time; and this circumstance also goes to show, that she had previously left the other women at the sepulchre before the angels appeared to them.

A main difficulty occurs here in fixing the order of time, between our Lord's appearance to Mary Magdalene and that to the other women in § 162. This arises from the use of the word first in Mark 16, 9, which seems to imply that this appearance to Mary Magdalene was the first of all: "he appeared first to Mary Magdalene." Yet the whole course of events and circumstances shows conclusively, that Jesus had previously appeared to the other women. We are therefore compelled, and that in accordance with good and ordinary usage, to regard "first" as put here not absolutely, but relatively. That is to say, Mark

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