And there came also Nicodemus, who at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
All Commentaries on John 19:39 Go To John 19
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night. He came first by night, but afterwards to hear Him, and become His disciple. (See S. Augustine in loc.)
Bearing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds" weight. To embalm and bury nobly so great a prophet. He wished not only to pour the ointment over the whole body, but to embalm, and cover it over with it. He probably did not use the whole of it, but only what was necessary. Nicodemus obtained an ample reward for this kind office to Christ, for by His grace he became not only a Christian, but a Confessor.
Lucian, in his epistle De Invent. Corp. S. Stephen [in the appendix to the7th volume of S. Augustine], thus tells the story. "The Jews, learning that he was a Christian, removed him from his office, excommunicated and banished him. Then I, Gamaliel, brought him into my own place, fed and clothed him, and buried him honourably near to S. Stephen" [see also S. Augustine, Serm316-324]. In the martyrology he is enrolled with S. Stephen among the saints.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it with linen cloths (now preserved at Turin), as the manner of the Jews is to bury. See on Matthew 26:59.
This mode of burial the early Christians imitated, who incurred lavish expense in their burial and embalming. See Tertullian in Apolog.; Prudentius in Hymno de Exequiis; Nyssen, Orat. in fun. Meletti; Nazianzen, Epist. xviii.
The Christians adopted this practice from the Jews, the Jews from the Egyptians. See S. Augustine, Serm. cxx. de diversis [nunc. ccclxi. § 12].
