Appendix II. L¾¿Â—Vinegar. [The Dean thought this to be one of his most perfect papers.] When He had reached the place called Golgotha, there were some who offered to the Son of Man ( ´w´¿Å½ “were for giving” Him) a draught of wine drugged with myrrh461 . He would not so much as taste it. Presently, the soldiers gave Him while hanging on the Cross vinegar mingled with gall462 . This He tasted, but declined to drink. At the end of six hours, He cried, “I thirst”: whereupon one of the soldiers ran, filled a sponge with vinegar, and gave Him to drink by offering the sponge up to His mouth secured to the summit of the reed of aspersion: whereby (as St. John significantly remarks) it covered the bunch of ceremonial hyssop which was used for sprinkling the people463 . This time He drank; and exclaimed, “It is finished.” Now, the ancients, and indeed the moderns too, have hopelessly confused this pathetic story by identifying the “vinegar and gall” of St. Matt. xxvii. 34 with the “myrrhed wine” of St. Mark xv. 23; shewing therein a want of critical perception which may reasonably excite astonishment; for “wine” is not “vinegar,” neither is “myrrh” “gall.” And surely, the instinct of humanity which sought to alleviate the torture of crucifixion by administering to our Saviour a preliminary soporific draught, was entirely distinct from the fiendish malice which afterwards with a nauseous potion strove to aggravate the agony of dissolution. Least of all is it reasonable to identify the leisurely act of 461 462 463
üÅÁ¼¹Ã¼s½¿½ ¿6½¿½, Mark xv. 23. L¾¿Â ¼µÄp Ç¿»Æ ¼µ¼¹³¼s½¿½, Matt. xxvii. 34 (= Luke xxiii. 37). »uñ½ÄµÂ ÃÀy³³¿½ D¾¿ÅÂ, º±v QÃÃ}Àó ÀµÁ¹¸s½ÄµÂ, John xix. 29.
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