Bible Commentaries
Mark 14

Verse 3

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

[Of spikenard.] What if I should render it, nardin of Balanus? "Nardin consists of mphacium, balaninum, bulrush, nard, amomum, myrrh, balsam," etc. And again, "Myrobalanum is common to the Troglodytes, and to Thebais, and to that part of Arabia which divides Judea from Egypt; a growing ointment, as appears by the very name, whereby also is shown that it is the mast [glans] of a tree."

Balanus; as all know among the Greeks, is glans, mast; or an acorn; so also is pistaca; among the Talmudists. There are prescribed by the Talmudists various remedies for various diseases: among others, this; For a pleurisy (or, as others will have it, a certain disease of the head), take to the quantity of the mast of ammoniac. The Gloss is, the mast of ammoniac is the mast of cedar. The Aruch saith, "the mast of ammoniac is the grain of a fruit, which is called glans."

The word nard; is Hebrew from the word nerad; and the word spikenard is Syriac, from the word pistaca. So that the ointment might be called Balanine ointment; in the composition of which, nard and mast; or myrobalane; were the chief ingredients.

[Poured it on his head.] In Talmudic language, "What are the testimonies, that the woman married is a virgin? If she goes forth to be married with a veil let down over her eyes, yet with her head not veiled. The scattering of nuts is also a testimony. These are in Judea; but what are in Babylon? Rabh saith, If ointment be upon the head of the Rabbins." (The Gloss is, "The women poured ointment upon the heads of the scholars; and anointed them.") "Rabh Papa said to Abai, Does that doctor speak of the aromatic ointment used in bridechambers?" (The Gloss is, "Are the Rabbins such, to be anointed with such ointments?") "He answered, O thou unacquainted with the customs, did not thy mother pour out ointment for you (at thy wedding) upon the heads of the Rabbins? Thus, a certain Rabbin got a wife for his son in the house of Rabbah Bar Ulla; and they said to him, Rabbah Bar Ulla also got a wife in the house of a certain Rabbin for his son, and he poured out ointment upon the head of the Rabbins."

From the tradition produced it may be asked, whether it were customary in Judea to wet the heads of the Rabbins with ointments, in the marriages of virgins, as it was in Babylon? Or, whether it were so customary otherwise to anoint their heads; as that such an anointing at weddings were not so memorable a matter as it was in Babylon? Certainly, in both places, however they anointed men’s heads for health’s sake, it was accounted unfitting for Rabbins to smell of aromatical ointments: "It is indecent (say the Jerusalem Talmudists) for a scholar of the wise men to smell of spices." And you have the judgment of the Babylonians in this very place, when it is inquired among them, and that, as it were, with a certain kind of dissatisfaction, Whether Rabbins be such as that they should be anointed with aromatical ointments, as the more nice sort are wont to be anointed? From this opinion, everywhere received among them, you may more aptly understand, why the other disciples as well as Judas, did bear the lavish of the ointment with some indignation: he; out of wicked covetousness; but they, partly, as not wiling that so precious a thing should be lost, and partly as not liking so nice a custom should be used towards their master, from which the masters of the Jews themselves were so averse. And our Saviour, taking off the envy of what was done, applies this anointing to his burial, both in his intention and in the intention of the woman; that it might not seem to be done out of some delicate niceness.

Verse 5

For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

[More than three hundred pence.] The prices of such precious ointments (as it seems in Pliny) were commonly known. For thus he, "The price of costus is sixteen pounds. The price of spike (nard) is ninety pounds. The leaves have made a difference in the value. From the broadness of them it is called Hadrosphaerum; with greater leaves it is worth X. Xxx," that is, thirty pence. "That with a lesser leaf is called Mesosphaerum, it is sold at X. Lx," sixty pence. "The most esteemed is that called Microsphaerum, having the least leaf, and the price of it is X. Lxxv," seventy-five pence. And elsewhere: "To these the merchants have added that which they call Daphnois, surnamed Isocinnamon, and they make the price of it to be X. ccc" three hundred pence.

II. It is not easy to reduce this sum of three hundred pence to its proper sense; partly because a penny was two-fold, a silver penny, and a gold one: partly because there was a double value and estimation of money, namely, that of Jerusalem and that of Tyre, as we observed before. Let these be silver (which we believe), which are of much less value than gold: and let them be Jerusalem pence (which we also believe), which are cheaper than the Tyrian; yet they plainly speak the great wealth of Magdalene, who poured out an ointment of such a value, when before she had spent some such other.

Which brings to my mind those things which are spoken by the Masters concerning the box of spices; which the husband was bound to give the wife according to the proportion of her dowry: "But this is not spoken, saith Rabh Ishai, but of Jerusalem people. There is an example of a daughter of Nicodemus Ben Gorion, to whom the wise men appointed four hundred crowns of gold for a chest of spices for one day. She said to them, ’I wish you may so appoint for their daughters’; and they answered after her, ’Amen.’ " The Gloss is, "The husband was to give to his wife ten zuzees for every manah; which she brought with her to buy spices, with which she used to wash herself," etc. Behold! a most wealthy woman of Jerusalem, daughter of Nicodemus, in the contract and instrument of whose marriage was written, "A thousand thousand gold pence out of the house of her father, besides those she had out of the house of her father-in-law": whom yet you have in the same story reduced to that extreme poverty, that she picked up barley-corns for her food out of the cattle’s dung.

Verse 7

For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

[For ye have the poor with you always.] "Samuel saith, ’There is no difference between this world and the days of the Messias,’ unless in regard of the affliction of the heathen kingdoms; as it is said, ’A poor man shall not be wanting out of the midst of the earth,’ " Deuteronomy 15:11. Observe a Jew confessing, that there shall be poor men even in the days of the Messias: which how it agrees with their received opinion of the pompous kingdom of the Messias, let him look to it. "R. Solomon and Aben Ezra write, ’If thou shalt obey the words of the Lord, there shall not be a poor man in thee: but thou wilt not obey; therefore a poor man shall never be wanting.’ " Upon this received reason of the thing, confess also, O Samuel, that there shall be disobedient persons in the days of the Messias; which, indeed, when the true Messias came, proved too, too true, in thy nation.

Verse 12

And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?

[And the first day of unleavened bread.] So Matthew 26:17; Luke 22:7. And now let them tell me, who think that Christ indeed kept his Passover the fourteenth day, but the Jews not before the fifteenth, because this year their Passover was transferred unto the fifteenth day by reason of the following sabbath: let them tell me, I say, whether the evangelists speak according to the day prescribed by Moses, or according to the day prescribed by the masters of the traditions, and used by the nation. If according to Moses, then the fifteenth day was the first of unleavened bread; Exodus 12:15; Exodus 12:18: but if according to the manner of the nation, then it was the fourteenth. And whether the evangelists speak according to this custom, let us inquire briefly.

Sometime, indeed, the whole seven days’ feast was transferred to another month; and that not only from that law, Numbers_9, but from other causes also: concerning which see the places quoted in the margin [Hieros. In Maasar Sheni, folio 56.3. Maimonides In Kiddush. Hodesh. cap. 4.]. But when the time appointed for the feast occurred, the lamb was always slain on the fourteenth day.

I. Let us begin with a story where an occasion occurs not very unlike that for which they of whom we speak think the Passover this year was transferred; namely, because of the following sabbath. The story is this: "After the death of Shemaiah and Abtalion, the sons of Betira obtained the chief place. Hillel went up from Babylon to inquire concerning three doubts. When he was now at Jerusalem, and the fourteenth day of the first month fell out on the sabbath [observe that], it appeared not to the sons of Betira, whether the Passover drove off the sabbath or no. Which when Hillel had determined in many words, and had added, moreover, that he had learned this from Shemaiah and Abtalion, they laid down their authority, and made Hillel president. When they had chosen him president, he derided them, saying, ’What need have you of this Babylonian? Did you not serve the two chief men of the world, Shemaiah and Abtalion, who sat among you?’ " These things which are already said make enough to our purpose, but, with the reader’s leave, let us add the whole story: "While he thus scoffed at them, he forgot a tradition. For they said, ’What is to be done with the people if they bring not their knives?’ He answered, ’I have heard this tradition, but I have forgot. But let them alone; for although they are not prophets, they are prophets’ sons.’ Presently every one whose passover was a lamb stuck his knife into the fleece of it; and whose passover was a kid, hung his knife upon the horns of it."

And now let the impartial reader judge between the reason which is given for the transferring the Passover this year unto the fifteenth day, namely, because of the sabbath following, that they might not be forced to abstain from servile work for two days together; and the reason for which it might with good reason be transferred that year concerning which the story is. The fourteenth day fell on a sabbath; a scruple ariseth, whether the sabbath gives way to the Passover, or the Passover to the sabbath. The very chief men of the Sanhedrim, and the oracles of traditions, are not able to resolve the business. A great article of religion is transacting; and what is here to be done! O ye sons of Betira, transfer but the Passover unto the next day, and the knot is untied. Certainly if this had been either usual or lawful, they had provided that the affairs of religion, and their authority and fame, should not have stuck in this strait. But that was not to be suffered.

II. Let us add a tradition which you may justly wonder at: "Five things, if they come in uncleanness, are not eaten in uncleanness: the sheaf of firstfruits, the two loaves, the shewbread, the peace offerings of the congregation, and the goats of the new moons. But the Passover which comes in uncleanness is eaten in uncleanness; because it comes not originally unless to be eaten."

Upon which tradition thus Maimonides: "The Lord saith, ’And there were some that were unclean by the carcase of a man,’ Numbers 9:6; and he determines of them, that they be put off from the Passover of the first month to the Passover of the second. And the tradition is, that it was thus determined, because they were few. But if the whole congregation should have been unclean, or if the greatest part of it should have been unclean, yet they offer the Passover, though they are unclean. Therefore they say, ’Particular men are put off to the second Passover, but the whole congregation is not put off to the second Passover.’ In like manner all the oblations of the congregation, they offer them in uncleanness if the most are unclean; which we learn also from the Passover. For the Lord saith of the Passover, [Numbers 9:2] that it is to be offered in its set time [note that]; and saith also of the oblations of the congregation, Ye shall do this to the Lord in your set times, and to them all he prescribes a set time. Every thing, therefore, to which a time is set, is also offered in uncleanness, if so be very many of the congregation, or very many of the priests, be unclean."

"We find that the congregation makes their Passover in uncleanness, in that time when most of them are unclean. And if known uncleanness be thus dispensed with, much more doubted uncleanness." But what need is there of such dispensation? Could ye not put off the Passover, O ye fathers of the Sanhedrim, for one or two days, that the people might be purified? By no means: for the Passover is to be offered in its set time; the fourteenth day, without any dispensation. For,

III. Thus the canons of that church concerning that day: in the light of the fourteenth day, they seek for leaven by candlelight. The Gloss is; "In the night, to which the day following is the fourteenth day." And go to all the commentators, and they will teach, that this was done upon the going out of the thirteenth day. And Maimonides; "From the words of the scribes, they look for and rid away leaven in the beginning of the night of the fourteenth day, and that by the light of the candle. For in the night time all are within their houses, and a candle is most proper for such a search. Therefore, they do not appoint employments in the end of the thirteenth day, nor doth a wise man begin to recite his phylacteries in that time, lest thereby, by reason of their length, he be hindered from seeking for leaven in its season." And the same author elsewhere; "It is forbidden to eat leaven on the fourteenth day from noon and onwards, viz. from the beginning of the seventh hour. Our wise men also forbade eating it from the beginning of the sixth hour. Nay, the fifth hour they eat not leaven, lest perhaps the day be cloudy, and so a mistake arise about the time. Behold, you learn that it is lawful to eat leaven on the fourteenth day, to the end of the fourth hour; but in the fifth hour it is not to be used." The same author elsewhere writes thus; "The passover was not to be killed but in the court, where the other sacrifices were killed. And it was to be killed on the fourteenth day afternoon, after the daily sacrifice."

And now, reader, tell me what day the evangelists call the first day of unleavened bread; and whether it be any thing probable that the Passover was ever transferred unto the fifteenth day? Much less is it probable that Christ this year kept his Passover one day before the Passover of the Jews.

For the Passover was not to be slain but in the court, where the other sacrifices were slain, as we heard just now from Maimonides: and see the rubric of bringing in the lambs into the court, and of slaying them. And then tell me seriously whether it be credible, that the priests in the Temple, against the set decree of the Sanhedrim that year (as the opinion we contradict imports), would kill Christ’s one, only, single lamb; when by that decree it ought not to be killed before tomorrow? When Christ said to his disciples, "Ye know, that after two days is the Passover"; and when he commanded them, "Go ye, and prepare for us the Passover," it is a wonder they did not reply, "True, indeed, Sir, it ought to be after two days; but it is put off this year to a day later, so that now it is after three days; it is impossible therefore that we should obey you now, for the priests will not allow of killing before tomorrow."

We have said enough, I suppose, in this matter. But while I am speaking of the day of the Passover, let me add a few words, although not to the business concerning which we have been treating; and they perhaps not unworthy of our consideration:

"He that mourns washes himself, and eats his Passover in the even. A proselyte, which is made a proselyte on the eve of the Passover, the school of Shammai saith, Let him be baptized, and eat his Passover in the even: the school of Hillel saith, He that separates himself from uncircumcision [that is, from heathens and heathenism] is as if he separated himself from a sepulchre." The Gloss, "And hath need of seven days’ purification." "There were soldiers at Jerusalem; who baptized themselves, and ate their Passovers in the even." A thing certainly to be noted, proselytes the same day made proselytes, and eating the Passover; and that as it seems without circumcision, but admitted only by baptism.

The care of the school of Hillel in this case did not so much repulse a proselyte from eating the Passover, who was made a proselyte and baptized on the day of the Passover; as provided for the future, that such a one in following years should not obtrude himself to eat the Passover in uncleanness. For while he was in heathenism, he contracted not uncleanness from the touch of a sepulchre; but being made a proselyte, he contracted uncleanness by it. These are the words of the Gloss.

[That we prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover.] For the Passovers were prepared by the servants for their masters. "If any say to his servant, ’Go and kill me the passover,’ and he kills a kid, let him eat of it: if he kill a lamb, let him eat of it: if a kid and a lamb, let him eat of the former," etc.

Verse 26

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

[And when they had sung an hymn.] I. "What difference is there between the first Passover and the second?" [that is, the Passover of the first month and of the second, Numbers_9]. "In the first, every one is bound under that law, ’Leaven shall not be seen nor found among you.’ In the second, ’Leaven and unleavened bread may be with a man in his house.’ In the first, he is bound to a hymn when he eats the Passover. In the second, he is not bound to a hymn when he eats it. In both, he is bound to a hymn while he makes or kills. Both are to be eaten roast, and with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, and both drive away the sabbath." The Gemarists ask, "Whence this is, that they are bound to a hymn; while they eat the Passover? R. Jochanan in the name of R. Simeon Ben Josedek saith, The Scripture saith, ’You shall have a song, as in the night when a feast is kept,’ Isaiah 30:29. The night which is set apart for a feast is bound to a hymn; the night which is not set apart for a feast is not bound to a hymn." The Gloss writes thus; "As ye are wont to sing in the night when a feast is kept: but there is no night wherein they are obliged to a song, besides the night when the Passover is eaten."

II. That hymn is called by the Rabbins the Hallel; and was from the beginning of PsaIsaiah 30:29, to the end of PsaIsaiah 30:29, which they cut in two parts; and a part of it they repeated in the very middle of the banquet, and they reserved a part to the end.

How far the former portion extended, is disputed between the schools of Shammai and Hillel. That of Shammai saith, Unto the end of PsaIsaiah 30:29. That of Hillel saith, Unto the end of PsaIsaiah 30:29. But these things must not stop us. The hymn which Christ now sang with his disciples after meat was the latter part. In which, as the Masters of the Traditions observe, these five things are mentioned: "The going out of Egypt. The cutting in two of the Red Sea. The delivery of the law. The resurrection of the dead: and the sorrows of the Messias. The going out of Egypt, as it is written, ’When Israel went out of Egypt.’ The cutting in two of the Red Sea, as it is written, ’The sea saw it, and fled.’ The delivery of the law, as it is written, ’The mountains leaped like rams.’ The resurrection of the dead, as it is written, ’I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.’ And the sorrows of the Messias, as it is written, ’Not unto us, Lord, not unto us.’"

[They went out into the mount of Olives.] They were bound by traditional canons to lodge within Jerusalem. "On the first Passover, every one is bound to lodge also on the second Passover he is bound to lodge." The Gloss thus: "He that keeps the Passover is bound to lodge in Jerusalem the first night." But it is disputed, whether it be the same night wherein the lamb is eaten; or the night first following the feast day. See the place: and let not the lion of the tribe of Judah be restrained in those cobwebs [Pesach. folio 95.2.]

Verse 36

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

[Abba, Father.] As it is necessary to distinguish between the Hebrew and Chaldee idiom in the words Abi; and Abba; so you may; I had almost said, you must; distinguish of their sense. For the word Abi; signifies indeed a natural father, but withal a civil father also, an elder, a master, a doctor, a magistrate: but the word Abba; denotes only a natural father, with which we comprehend also an adopting father: yea, it denotes, My father.

Let no man say to his neighbour, ’My father’ is nobler than thy father. "R. Chaija asked Rabh the son of his brother, when he came into the land of Israel, Doth my father live? And he answereth, And doth your mother live? " As if he should have said, You know your mother is dead, so you may know your father is dead. "Solomon said, Observe ye what my father saith?" So in the Targum infinite times.

And we may observe in the Holy Scriptures, wheresoever mention is made of a natural father, the Targumists use the word Abba; but when of a civil father, they use another word: --

I. Of a natural father.

Genesis 22:7; "And he said, ’Abi,’ my father." The Targum reads, "And said, ’Abba,’ my father." Genesis 27:34; "Bless me, even me also ’Abi,’ O my father." The Targum reads, Bless me also, ’Abba,’ my father. Genesis 48:18; Not so, ’Abi,’ my father. Targum, Not so, ’Abba,’ my father. Judges 11:36; ’Abi,’ my father, if thou hast opened thy mouth. Targum, ’Abba,’ my father, if thou hast opened thy mouth. Isaiah 8:4; The Targum reads, before the child shall know to cry ’Abba,’ my father, and my mother. See also the Targum upon Joshua 2:13; and Judges 14:16; and elsewhere very frequently.

II. Of a civil father.

Genesis 4:20;21: He was ’Abi,’ the father of such as dwell in tents. "He was ’Abi,’ the father of such as handle the harp," etc. The Targum reads, He was ’Rabba,’ the prince or the master of them. 1 Samuel 10:12; But who is ’Abihem,’ their father? Targum, Who is their ’Rab,’ master or prince? 2 Kings 2:12; ’Abi, Abi,’ my father, my father. The Targum, Rabbi, Rabbi. 2 Kings 5:13; And they said, ’Abi,’ my father. The Targum, And they said, ’Mari,’ my Lord. 2 Kings 6:21; ’Abi,’ my father, shall I smite them? Targum, ’Rabbi,’ shall I kill; etc.

Hence appears the reason of those words of the apostle, Romans 8:15; Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And Galatians 4:6; "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father." It was one thing to call God Abi, Father; that is, Lord, King, Teacher, Governor; etc.; and another to call him Abba, My Father. The doctrine of adoption, in the proper sense, was altogether unknown to the Jewish schools (though they boasted that the people of Israel alone were adopted by God above all other nations); and yet they called God Father; and our Father; that is, our God, Lord, and King, etc. But "since ye are sons (saith the apostle), ye cry, Abba, O my Father;" in the proper and truly paternal sense.

Thus Christ in this place, however under an unspeakable agony, and compassed about on all sides with anguishments, and with a very cloudy and darksome providence; yet he acknowledges, invokes, and finds God his Father; in a most sweet sense.

We cry, ’Abba,’ Father. Did the saints, invoking God, and calling him Abba; add also Father? Did Christ also use the same addition of the Greek word Father; and did he repeat the word Abba or Abi? Father seems rather here to be added by Mark, and there also by St. Paul, for explication of the word ’Abba’: and this is so much the more probable also, because it is expressed Father; and not O Father; in the vocative.

Verse 51

And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:

[Having a linen cloth cast about his naked body.] It is well rendered by the Vulgar clothed in sindon or fine linen; for to that the words have respect: not that he had some linen loosely and by chance cast about him, but that the garment wherewith he always went clothed, was of sindon; that is, of linen. Let us hearken a little to the Talmudists.

"The Rabbins deliver: Sindon [linen] with fringes; what of them? The school of Shammai absolves, the school of Hillel binds, and the wise men determine according to the school of Hillel. R. Eliezer Ben R. Zadok saith, Whosoever wears hyacinth [purple] in Jerusalem, is among those who make men admire." By hyacinthinum [purple] they understand those fringes that were to put them in mind of the law, Numbers_15. And by sindon, linen; is understood a cloak; or that garment, which, as it serves for clothing the body, so it is doubly serviceable to religion. For, 1. To this garment were the fringes fastened, concerning which mention is made, Numbers 15:38. 2. With this garment they commonly covered their heads when they prayed. Hence that in the Gemarists in the place quoted: "talith; or the cloak whereby the boy covereth his head, and a great part of himself; if any one of elder years goes forth clothed with it in a more immodest manner, he is bound to wear fringes." And elsewhere, "The priests who veil themselves when they go up into the pulpit, with a cloak which is not their own;" etc.

But now it was customary to wear this cloak, in the summer especially, and in Jerusalem for the most part, made of sindon or of linen. And the question between the schools of Shammai and Hillel arose hence, that when the fringes were woolen, and the cloak linen, how would the suspicion of wearing things of different sorts be avoided? R. Zeira loosed his sindon. The Gloss is: "He loosed his fringes from his sindon [that is, from his talith; which was of ’sindon,’ linen], because it was of linen;" etc. "The angel found Rabh Ketina clothed in sindon; and said to him, O Ketina, Ketina, sindon in the summer, and a short cloak in the winter."

You see that word which is spoke by the evangelist, about his naked body; carries an emphasis: for it was most usual to be clothed with sindon for an outer garment. What therefore must we say of this young man? I suppose in the first place, that he was not a disciple of Jesus; but that he now followed, as some curious looker on, to see what this multitude would at last produce. And to such a suspicion they certainly do consent, who think him to have been roused from his bed, and hastily followed the rout with nothing but his shirt on, without any other clothes. I suppose, secondly, St. Mark in the phrase having a sindon cast about him; spake according to the known and vulgar dialect of the nation, clothed with a sindon. For none shall ever persuade me that he would use an idiom, any thing uncouth or strange to the nation; and that when he used the very same phrase in Greek with that Jewish one, he intended not to propound the very same sense. But now you clearly see, they themselves being our teachers, what is the meaning of being clothed with a sindon; with them, namely, to have a talith or cloak made of linen; that garment to which the fringes hung. I suppose, in the last place, that this young man, out of religion, or superstition rather, more than ordinary, had put on his sindon; and nothing but that upon his naked body; neglecting his inner garment (commonly called chaluk ), and indeed neglecting his body. For there were some amongst the Jews that did so macerate their bodies, and afflict them with hunger and cold, even above the severe rule of other sects.

Josephus in his own Life writes thus: "I was sixteen years old, and I resolved to make trial of the institution of the three sects among us, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes; for I judged I should be able very well to choose the best of them, if I thoroughly learned them all. Afflicting, therefore, and much tormenting myself, I tried them all. But judging with myself that it was not enough to have tried these sects; and hearing of one Banus, that lived in the wilderness, that he used a garment made of leaves; or the bark of trees; and no food but what grew of its own accord, and often by day and by night washing himself in cold water, I became a follower of him, and for three years abode with him."

And in that place in the Talmudists, which we but now produced, at that very story of Rabh Ketina, wearing a sindon in the winter for his talith; we have these words; "The religious in elder times, when they had wove three wings [of the talith], they joined the purple;" whereof the fringes were made: "but otherwise, they are religious who impose upon themselves things heavier than ordinary." And immediately follows the story of the angel and Ketina, who did so. There were some who heaped up upon themselves burdens and yokes of religion above the common rule, and that this is to be understood by such as laid upon themselves heavier things than ordinary; both the practice of some Jews persuade, and the word itself speaks it, being used by the Gemarists in the same sense elsewhere.

Such, we suppose, was this young man (as Josephus was, when a young man, of whom before), who, when others armed themselves against the cold with a double garment, namely, an inner garment; and a talith or cloak; clothed himself with a single garment, and that of sindon or linen; and under the show of some more austere religion, neglecting the ordinary custom and care of himself.

The thing, taken in the sense which we propound, speaks the furious madness of this most wicked rout so much the more, inasmuch as they spared not a man, and him a young man; bearing most evident marks of a more severe religion.

Verse 56

For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

[Their witness agreed not together.] The traditional canons, in these things, divide testimonies into three parts: --

I. There was a vain testimony; which being heard, there is no more inquiry made from that witness, there is no more use made of him, but he is set aside, as speaking nothing to the business.

II. There was a standing testimony; for let me so turn it here, which, although it proved not the matter without doubt, yet it was not rejected by the judges, but admitted to examination by citation; that is, others being admitted to try to disprove it if they could.

III. There was the testimony of the words of them that agreed or fitted together (this also was a standing evidence ), when the words of two witnesses agreed, and were to the same purpose: an even evidence. Of these, see the tract Sanhedrin; where also discourse is had concerning exact search and examination of the witnesses by inquisition; and scrutiny; and citation; by which curious disquisition if they had examined the witnesses that babbled and barked against Christ, Oh! The unspeakable and infinite innocence of the most blessed Jesus, which envy and madness itself, never so much sworn together against his life, could not have fastened any crime upon!

It is said, Mark 14:55; they sought for witness against Jesus. This is neither equal, O fathers of the Sanhedrim! nor agreeable to your rule: In judgments about the life of any man, they begin first to transact about quitting the party who is tried; and they begin not with those things which make for his condemnation. Whether the Sanhedrim now followed that canon in their scrutiny about Christ’s case, let them look to it: by their whole process it sufficiently appears, whither their disquisition tended. And let it be granted, that they pretended some colour of justice and mercy, and permitted that any one who would, might come forth, and testify something in his behalf; where was any such now to be found? when all his disciples turned their backs upon him, and the Fathers of the Traditions had provided, that whosoever should confess him to be Christ should be struck with the thunder of their excommunication, John 9:22.