And immediately one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:48 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink. All these were ready at hand, for the drink used to be given to those who were crucified. They did this as soon as Jesus had cried, "I thirst" ( John 19:28), His fifth word on the Cross. The sponge was for Christ to suck out the vinegar, as they could not lift a cup to His lips. The sponge is preserved in St. John"s Lateran. Wine was usually given to those who were crucified, to quench their thirst, and strengthen them to bear their tortures. But the Jews (and, the soldiers to gratify the Jews" hatred to Christ) offered Him vinegar instead ( Psalm 69:22). De Lyra says (quoting Proverbs 31:6) that devout women used to prepare wine flavoured with spices, but that the Jews on this occasion took it away, and put in its stead vinegar mingled with gall.
Now they gave it Him in mockery, to give Him pain by the bitterness of the draught; to increase and not to quench His thirst, this being the property of vinegar. Baronius thinks it was given to keep Him alive, and thus prolong His suffering; Theophylact, Cajetan, and others, that it was to hasten His death. "For vinegar has malignant properties," says Theophylact, "which penetrates into wounds." Thus—
Symbolically: It signifies the malignity which the Jews, and all sinners, exhibit to Christ. So S. Augustine (in John 19:29), "Give that which ye are yourselves." For the Jews were as vinegar, in degenerating from the wine of the Patriarchs and Prophets; having a heart full of iniquity, as a vessel full of vinegar; and full of fraud, like a sponge, with its winding and hollow hiding-places.
But Christ by drinking the vinegar converted it for us into wine, and by so doing gained power to turn our vices into virtues, our weaknesses into glory. "The wine," says S. Hilary, "which turned acid in Adam was the glory or might of immortality. But He drank it, and thus transfused into Himself, and into union with immortality, that which in us was vitiated." And so Remigius, "Vinegar means the Jews who had degenerated from their fathers; the sponge, their hearts full of fraud; the reed, Holy Scripture, which was thus fulfilled."
And put it on a reed. That Isaiah , the stalk of some plant. S. John 19:29 says it was the stalk of the hyssop. For the Cross was not high, so that by stretching out the arms the sponge on a short stalk would easily reach Christ"s mouth. In Palestine the garden hyssop grows higher than in Europe, though on walls it grows low 1 Kings 4:33. Sometimes it runs to18 inches.
Some suspect that for Ïσσώπω is to be read Ïσσω̃, a spear; a mere conjecture. Others think, with S. Augustine, that a sponge full of vinegar was placed on the hyssop, and then both of them on the reed. Others, that a sponge full of hyssop juice and vinegar was placed on the reed. Anyhow, the sponge was placed on the hyssop, whether it was itself the stalk or merely fastened to it.
Hyssop was given, because it is frequently used with wine and vinegar (see Columella, de Re Rust. xii35; and Pliny, N. H. xiv16). It has reviving, and strengthening, and other medicinal properties.
Now the soldiers tied the hyssop round the sponge, that the vinegar should not escape, and that Christ, taking the vinegar and the hyssop, might revive.
It was used for cleansing lepers ( Leviticus 14:49), also in the sin-offering and in the sprinkling of the water of purification ( Numbers 19:2 seq); and was therefore a type of Christ"s Blood, in its purifying, refreshing, and strengthening power. "It is a lowly herb," says S. Augustine on John xix, "cleansing the chest, and signifies the humility of Christ, whereby we are cleansed."
