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Was the
vinegar given to Jesus on the cross mingled with gall or myrrh?
Matthew 27:34 and Mark 15:23
- Gall (Matthew
27:34) - "they gave Him wine to drink mingled
with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink."
- Myrhh (Mark
15:23) - "And they tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh;
but He did not take it."
Gall
is bile secreted by the liver. Biblically, it is used to denote
bitterness of spirit (Acts 8:23;
Lam. 3:19). Myrrh is an aromatic
gum that grows in Arabia, Abyssinia, and India. It was used to sweeten
the smell and taste of various foods. It was also used in embalming (John
19:39).
According to "Alleged Discrepancies of
the Bible" by Haley, page 28, there were two times that Jesus was
offered the vinegar. "The first time, the wine drugged with bitter
narcotics, the effect of which would be to stupefy him, he did not receive.
Afterward, some drink free from drugs was given him, which he accepted."
In other words, they were of two different times and different things were
offered. Though it is a hopeful explanation, it does not fit the text.
Please take a look at the table where I have put the verses in order from
Matthew and Mark and included the two times Jesus was offered drink.
|
Matthew |
Mark |
|
At the beginning of the crucifixion . .
. |
27:34
- "they gave Him wine to drink mingled
with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to
drink."
(Greek "wine" is "ozos" which is a mixture of sour
wine or vinegar and water.) |
15:23
"And they tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh;
but He did not take it."
(Greek "wine" is "oinos" which means simply, wine.) |
|
. . . several hours
pass . . . |
27:48, "And
immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with
sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink."
(Greek "sour wine" is "ozos", or vinegar as above). |
15:36 "And
someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a
reed, and gave Him a drink."
(Greek "sour wine" is "ozos", or vinegar). |
Possible solutions
Most
probably, both gall and myrrh were added to the vinegar. The text does
not explicitly state this, nor does it exclude the possibility.
Nevertheless, "The ancients used to infuse myrrh into wine to give it a more
agreeable fragrance and flavour."1 This
means that it is quite possible that the vinegar already had myrrh in it, as
would be expected among Roman soldiers, and gall was later added. Each
writer focused on a different aspect.
Furthermore, these verses do not necessitate a
contradiction if we understand a contradiction to be the condition when the
statement of one verse negates the possibility of the other being true.
Technically, the inclusion of both gall and vinegar is very possible.
A second explanation could be that that
Matt. 27:34 and
Mark 15:23 are describing
different events. Textual evidence supporting this would be that
different Greek words are used: "ozos" in Matthew for "wine" while
Mark has the Greek "oinos" as wine. That, combined with different
Greek words "chole" for "gall" in Matthew and "smurna" for "myrrh" in Mark,
may be a clue that these are different events. However, this
explanation, though possible, is not very likely since the context of the
verses strongly suggest that each is a description of the same event.
Third, there may be an unknown copyist error. I
say unknown because I could find no record of any textual variation in
Matthew and Mark regarding these verses in question. This does not
mean that we might not find one in the future which could shed more light on
the issue. However, the weakness with this explanation is that it is
an argument of silence and is not favored.
I conclude that the most likely explanation is the
first one, that both myrrh and gall were present in the vinegar.
__________________
1. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
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