JOHN 19:30 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit — The declaration "Tetelestai!" (It is finished!) announces the passion's completion in perfective tense: the work is accomplished, the redemption effected. The bowing of the head (not the Synoptic final cry "My God, my God") suggests peaceful completion rather than agony. The giving up of spirit (literally, "he sent forth the spirit") presents Jesus as actor, not victim: he lays down his life in sovereign act.
Church Fathers on John 19:30
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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