Mark 15:36

And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:33-41 There was a thick darkness over the land, from noon until three in the afternoon. The Jews were doing their utmost to extinguish the Sun of Righteousness. The darkness signified the cloud which the human soul of Christ was under, when he was making it an offering for sin. He did not complain that his disciples forsook him, but that his Father forsook him. In this especially he was made sin for us. When Paul was to be offered as a sacrifice for the service saints, he could joy and rejoice, Php 2:17; but it is another thing to be offered as a sacrifice for the sin of sinners. At the same instant that Jesus died, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. This spake terror to the unbelieving Jews, and was a sign of the destruction of their church and nation. It speaks comfort to all believing Christians, for it signified the laying open a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The confidence with which Christ had openly addressed God as his Father, and committed his soul into his hands, seems greatly to have affected the centurion. Right views of Christ crucified will reconcile the believer to the thought of death; he longs to behold, love, and praise, as he ought, that Saviour who was wounded and pierced to save him from the wrath to come.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the scripture was fulfilled ... - This passage of Scripture is found in Isaiah 53:12. This does not mean that he "was" a transgressor, but simply that in dying he "had a place" with transgressors. Nor does it mean that God regarded him as a sinner; but that at his death, in popular estimation. or by the sentence of the judge, he was "regarded as" a transgressor, and was treated in the same manner as the others who were put to death for their transgressions. Jesus died, the "just" for the "unjust," and in his death, as well as in his life, he was "holy, harmless, undefiled."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Mr 15:21-37. Crucifixion and Death of the Lord Jesus. ( = Mt 27:32-50; Lu 23:26-46; Joh 19:17-30).

See on [1519]Joh 19:17-30.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 15:21"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar,.... Christ at the same time saying, I thirst; see John 19:28;

and put it on a reed; an hyssop stalk, John 19:29;

and gave him to drink; and so fulfilled a prophecy in Psalm 69:21;

saying, or "they said", as the Syriac version reads it; not he that fetched the sponge, but the others that were with him, and which agrees with Matthew 27:27;

let alone; as forbidding him to go near him, and offer him any thing to drink:

let us see whether Elias will come and take him down; from the cross; See Gill on Matthew 27:49.

Geneva Study Bible

And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 15:36. δραμὼν δὲ: if the wits were heartless mockers, then δὲ will imply that this person who offered the sufferer a sponge saturated with posca (vide Mt.) was a friendly person touched by compassion. For the credit of human nature one is very willing to be convinced of this.—ἐπότιζεν might, like ἐδίδουν (Mark 15:23), be viewed as a conative imperfect = offered Him a drink, but John’s narrative indicates that Jesus accepted the drink (John 19:30).—λέγων refers to the man who brought the drink. In Mt. it is others who speak (Matthew 27:49), and the sense of what was said varies accordingly—ἄφες in Mt. naturally, though not necessarily, means: stop, don’t give Him the drink (vide on Mt.)—ἄφετε in Mk., spoken by the man to the bystanders, means naturally: allow me (to give Him the drink), the idea being that thereby the life of the sufferer would be prolonged, and so as it were give time for Elijah to come (ἴδωμεν εἰ ἔρ. Ἠ.) to work an effectual deliverance by taking Him down from the cross (καθελεῖν α.).—εἰ ἔρ.: εἰ with the present indicative instead of the more usual ἐὰν with subjunctive in a future supposition with probability (vide Burton, M. and T. in N. T., § 251).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

36. full of vinegar] Burning thirst is the most painful aggravation of death by crucifixion, and it was as He uttered the words, “I thirst,” that the soldier ran and filled a sponge with vinegar, or the sour wine-and-water called posca, the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers.

and put it on a reed] i. e. on the short stem of a hyssop-plant (John 19:29).

Let alone] According to St Mark, the man himself cries “Let be;” according to St Matthew, the others cry out thus to him as he offers the drink; according to St John, several filled the sponge with the sour wine. Combining the statements, together we have a natural and accurate picture of the excitement caused by the loud cry.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 36. - There is a slight difference here in the narratives. St. Matthew (Matthew 27:49) says, "And the rest said, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to save him." Here in St. Mark the words are recorded as having been spoken by him alone who offered our Lord the vinegar. According to St. John (John 21:28), the offering of the vinegar followed immediately upon the words of our Lord, "I thirst." This drink was not the stupefying potion given to criminals before their crucifixion, to lull the sense of pain, but the sour wine, the ordinary drink of the soldiers, called posen. The reed was most probably the long stalk of the hyssop plant. Dr. J. Forbes Royle, in an elaborate article on the subject, quoted in Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible' (vol. 1 p. 846), arrives at the conclusion that the hyssop is none other than the caper plant, the Arabic name of which, asuf, bears a strong resemblance to the Hebrew. The plant is the Capparis spinosa of Linnaeus. The apparent difference between the narratives of St. Matthew and St. Mark may be reconciled by weaving in the narrative of St. John with those of the synoptists - the "Let be" of the soldiers in the one case being intended to restrain the individual from offering the wine; and the "Let be" of the individual, corresponding to our "Wait a moment," while he answered our Savior's cry, "I thirst." Mark 15:36

Vincent's Word Studies

Vinegar

See on Matthew 27:48.