Image: Mosaic depicting a drinking game.
What drink was offered to Jesus on the cross?
I was tutoring my boys in Latin on Monday morning. We usually
read a section of William Stearns Davis' A
Day in Old Rome (Allyn and Bacon, 1925, 1966) in each session. Yesterday’s
reading was on the wine drinking customs of the ancient Romans. I was struck by
this statement:
Common soldiers, slaves, and
plebeians of the lowest classes have a special beverage all their own, namely posca, which is simply vinegar mixed
with enough water to make it palatable. It probably forms a really refreshing
drink, if one can acquire the taste for it (p. 108).
A footnote adds:
Posca was
probably the drink in which the sponge was steeped, that was extended to Jesus
as He hung on the cross.
This then sent me back to the Gospel accounts:
Matthew 27:34 They gave him vinegar
to drink mingled with gall [oxos meta
choles memingmenon]: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
Matthew 27:48 And straightway one of
them ran and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar [spongon, plesas te oxous], and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
Mark 15:23 And they gave him to drink
wine mingled with myrrh [esmyrnismenon
oinon]: but he received it not.
Mark 15:36 And one ran and filled a
spunge, full of vinegar [gemisas spongon
oxouos] , 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 (Mark 15:36).
Luke 23:36 And the soldiers also
mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar [oxos] (Luke 23:36).
John 19:29 Now there was set a vessel
full of vinegar [oxous meton]: and
they filled a spunge with vinegar [plesantes
spongon oxous], and put it upon
hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar [to oxos], he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave
up the ghost.
Notes:
The offering of a vinegar drink (Greek to oxos, perhaps indeed, the posca
mentioned by Davis) to Jesus at his crucifixion is mentioned in all four Gospels.
It is multiply attested.
Matthew and Mark are unique in that they mention two offerings
and in their note of his refusal at the first offering. It is not implausible,
however, to harmonize these with the other accounts.
John notes the offering was just before his final statement, “It
is finished” and death.
Though noting the similarities in the accounts above, it should
also be recognized that each account is unique. The closest parallels are
between Matthew and Mark. Still, even the language of Matthew and Mark differ. Luke’s
is the most minimal. This argues against the idea of literary dependence among
the Gospels and toward independent development based on common tradition.
JTR
No comments:
Post a Comment