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Joh_19:38-39. Μετὰ ταῦτα ] Joh_19:32-34. The request of Joseph of Arimathaea (see on Mat_27:57), that he might take away ( ᾄρῃ ) the corpse, does not conflict with Joh_19:31. For let it be noted that the expression in Joh_19:31 is passive, not stating the subject who takes away. The Jews, who make the request, presume that it would be the soldiers. Pilate had granted the request in Joh_19:31, and had charged the soldiers with its execution, consequently with the breaking of the legs, and removal. The breaking of the legs they have in fact executed on the two who were crucified with Him, and omit it in the case of Jesus; and as Joseph requests from the procurator that he may take away the body of Jesus, and obtains permission, the order for removal given to the soldiers was now recalled in reference to Jesus, and they had to remove only the other two. It is, however, very conceivable that Joseph had still time, after Joh_19:32; Joh_19:34, for his request, since the soldiers after the crucifragium must certainly first await the complete decease of the shattered bodies, because it was permitted to remove only bodies actually dead from the cross. Thus there is neither here, and in Joh_19:31, a contradiction with Mar_15:44 (Strauss); nor does μετὰ ταῦτα form, as De Wette finds, “a great and hitherto unnoticed difficulty;” nor are we, with Lücke, to understand ᾄρῃ and ἦρε of the fetching away of the bodies (which the soldiers had removed), with which a groundless departure is made from the definition of the sense given in Joh_19:31, and a variation is made in an unauthorized way from Luk_23:56; Mar_15:46.
τὸ πρῶτον ] The first time, Joh_3:2. Comp. Joh_10:40. It does not exactly presuppose a subsequent still more frequent coming (in Joh_7:50 also there is only a retrospective reference to what is related in chap. 3), but may also be said simply with reference to the present public coming to the dead person, so that only the death of Jesus had overcome the previous fear of men on the part of Nicodemus. Myrrh-resin and aloe-wood, these fragrant materials (Psa_45:9) were placed in a pulverized condition between the bandages (Joh_19:40); but the surprising quantity (comp. Joh_12:3) is here explained from the fact that superabundant reverence in its sorrowful excitement does not easily satisfy itself; we may also assume that a portion of the spices was to be designed for the couch of the body in the grave, 2Ch_16:14.