The myrrh and the gall

Saint Matthew - Chapter 27

And they gave him to drink... J-J Tissot

[34] Et dederunt ei vinum bibere cum felle mistum. Et cum gustasset, noluit bibere.
And they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall. And when he had tasted, he would not drink.

Saint Mark - Chapter 15

[23] And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh; but he took it not.
Et dabant ei bibere myrrhatum vinum : et non accepit.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

Jesus, then, has been deprived of His garments.  After the toilsome ascent of Calvary His body is doubtless covered with sweat.  Exposed as He now is to the chill air on the summit of the hill and to the drizzling rain which is falling, He shivers with cold.  The "darkness over all the land", which was to mark the hours of His dying anguish, was already heralded by a sinister gloom resulting from the gathering together of masses of cloud.  He turns pale and sinks exhausted on to the Cross laid on the ground ready to receive Him.  Seeing Him so weak His enemies fear that His strength will give way utterly, that He will swoon of faint, and thus retard or even prevent the execution by dying before its accomplishment.  Their desire is that He should be crucified in the full possession of His faculties, and not in an unconscious state.  They want to hear His cries of anguish; they want to gaze on His features all distorted with pain; they long to see His limbs convulsed under the long drawn out torture of the Cross.

They have a ready-prepared cordial at hand and they offer it to Him to drink.  It consists of wine mixed with myrrh, forming a cordial intended to revive the Victim for a time and make Him keenly alive to every pang.  This was not, however, in accordance with the generally received idea of the purpose of the beverages of this kind; in the opinion of the populace they were intended to mitigate the sufferings of those condemned to death, and this thought was suggested by a passage in the book of Proverbs chapter 31, verses 6 and 7: " Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.  Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."

Amongst the Romans, a drink of this kind was called sopor, on account of its power to benumb and in some cases to deaden the senses entirely.  The task of preparing this beverage was reserved to the ladies of the highest rank, and it was no doubt them that Saint Matthew referred in the present instance.  There is, however, a divergence between his account and that of Saint mark.  The latter speaks very distinctly of wine mingled with myrrh, whilst the former says: " they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall." We may perhaps suppose that Saint Matthew heard a bitter drink spoken of, and if so, the beverage might be taken to be composed of vinegar and myrrh, or vinegar and some such substance as bitter apple, which, on account of its extreme bitterness, was called gall by the Jews.  "When Jesus", adds the Evangelist, "had tasted thereof He would not drink"; He needed neither to dull His senses to give Himself courage nor did He want a stimulant to aid Him to rally His forces; His momentary rest had restored to Him or His strength of endurance.  After the first shock was over, His blood flowed freely again, and He gave Himself up to His executioners, who flung Him brutally down upon the Cross.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam