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Mat_21:7. They spread their outer garments upon both animals, being uncertain which of them Jesus intended to mount.
The (second) ἐπάνω αὐτῶν must necessarily be referred, with Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Castalio, Beza, Homberg, Fritzsche, Winer, p. 165 [E. T. 219], to the garments, in which case it is clear from Mat_21:5 that Jesus sat upon the foal. Were we to refer αὐτῶν to the animals, the result would be the absurd idea (which Strauss, B. Bauer, Volkmar make use of against Matthew) that Jesus mounted both of them at once, not one after the other (Fritzsche, Fleck), seeing that κ . ἐπεκάθισεν ἐπ . αὐτῶν denotes the instantaneous, finished act which followed the spreading of the garments. To suppose (Ebrard, Olshausen), by way of justifying the reference to the animals, that we have here a loose form of speech, corresponding to the German phrase: he leaps from the horses, and such like, is out of the question, for the simple reason that no such σύλληψις can be assumed in the case of Mat_21:5, all the less so that, from this verse, it would appear that it was the dam on which Jesus rode, with the foal walking by her side.