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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 27:33 - 27:34
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_27:33-34
33And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, 34they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.
Mat_27:33 "Golgotha" This Hebrew word meant " skull." " Calvary" is from the Latin. The term referred to a low, bald hill, not a full skull.
Mat_27:34 "they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall" The Babylonian Talmud says the women of Jerusalem gave this strong drink to condemned prisoners to ease their pain (cf. Mar_15:23, where "gall" means " myrrh"). This was possibly a prophetic reference to Psa_69:21.
▣ "He was unwilling to drink" This has nothing to do with the modern denominational issue of total abstinence (see Special Topic at Mat_26:29). Jesus does later accept the cheap wine of the soldiers (cf. Mat_27:48). He is refusing to take anything to dull either the pain or His senses.