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Joh_19:29-30. Ἔκειτο ] as in Joh_2:6. The vessel was in readiness for the purpose of quenching the thirst of those crucified (who had always to suffer much therefrom), with sponge and stalk of hyssop, which were to serve for handing it up.
ὄξους ] vinegar, i.e. small sour wine (from the skins of grapes already pressed), which served as a drink for labourers and soldiers; Wetstein on Mat_27:34; Hermann, Privatalterth. § 26. 10. Of the bitter stupifying drink, which Jesus had disdained to receive (Mat_27:34-35; Mar_15:23-24), John says nothing. On the drink tendered to him, Luk_23:36, see in loc.
The subject of σπόγγον , κ . τ . λ . is not named; yet there can be no doubt about who are meant, the soldiers.
ὑσσώπῷ ] More exactly than in Mat_27:48, and since the hyssop grows stalks from 1 to 1½ feet high (Bochart, Hieroz. I. 2. 50; Celsius, Hierobot I. p. 407 f.), such an one was fully sufficient to reach to the mouth of Jesus on the not lofty (Salmasius, de cruce, p. 284) cross.[249]
αὐτοῦ τῷ στόματι ] to His mouth. That the stalk was precisely of hyssop, is accidental; as hyssop of scorning, in opposition to the hyssop of reconciliation, Psalms 51. (Hengstenberg), it is not to be thought of, since the tender of the drink in the present passage is certainly not an act of scorn. Moreover, it is precisely such non-essential special statements as these which have flowed from the most vivid recollection of an eye-witness.
τετέλεσται ] Quite as in Joh_19:28, to be referred to the work of Jesus. Comp. Joh_17:4. It is by Him brought to completion with this act of the last death-suffering. Further, Bengel aptly remarks: “hoc verbum in corde Jesu erat, Joh_19:28, nunc ore profertur.”
παρέδ . τὸ πν .] He gave over (to God) His spirit, characteristic designation of dying, in conformity with that which dying was in Jesus’ case. It is the actual surrender of His self-conscious Ego on the decease of the body; the verbal surrender, Luk_23:46,[250] appears, since John has, instead of it, the simply grand concluding word τετέλεσται , to belong to the enlarging representations of tradition, but, after the bowing of the head, would be no longer suitable, and hence must be assumed as taking place after τετέλεσται .
Note further, that the εἶναι εἰς τ . κόλπον τοῦ πατρός meant in Joh_1:18 did not now take place, but first by means of the ascension (Joh_20:17).
[249] Least of all with a dogmatic background, although Steinmeyer assumes that διψῶ is a request to His enemies, and thereby illustrates the love, which completed the act of atonement. This request, he thinks, only the dying Mediator could have made.
[250] Of the seven words on the cross, only Mat_27:46, according to Schenkel’s too rash conclusion, is to be considered as altogether beyond doubt. Mark also has only this one (Mar_15:34), Luke has three (Luk_23:34; Luk_23:43; Luk_23:46), and John likewise three (Joh_19:26-28; Joh_19:30).