JOHN 19:29 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.”
A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth — The posca (sour wine, cheap soldiers' drink) offered on hyssop (hyssos) recalls both Psalm 69:21 and the Passover hyssop of Exodus 12:22, the branch that spread lamb's blood on doorposts. The hyssop becomes instrument of both comfort and fulfillment. The soldiers' action—whether mocking or merciful—provides the condemned relief.
Church Fathers on John 19:29
After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished; i.e. knowing the prophecy in the Psalms, And when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink, said, I thirst: As if to say, you have not done all give me yourselves: for the Jews were themselves vinegar having degenerated from the wine of the Patriarchs and the Prophets. Now there was a vessel full of vinegar: they had drunk from the wickedness of the world, as from a full vessel, and their heart was deceitful,…
They were not softened at all by what they saw, but were the more enraged, and gave Him the cup to drink, as they did to criminals, i.e. with a hyssop.
Some say that the hyssop is put here for reed, its leaves being like a reed.
Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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