It is consummated. St John Chapter xix. 28-32

St John Chapter xix : Verses 28-32

Contents

• St John Chapter xix. 28-32 : Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide.

St John Chapter xix. 28-32

I thirst. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

28  Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst.  

29 Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to his mouth.  

30 Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.

31 Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  

32 The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him.

28 Μετὰ τοῦτο ⸀εἰδὼς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ⸂ἤδη πάντα⸃ τετέλεσται ἵνα τελειωθῇ ἡ γραφὴ λέγει· Διψῶ.

28 Postea sciens Jesus quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit : Sitio.  

29 ⸀σκεῦος ἔκειτο ὄξους μεστόν· ⸂σπόγγον οὖν μεστὸν τοῦ⸃ ὄξους ⸀ὑσσώπῳ περιθέντες προσήνεγκαν αὐτοῦ τῷ στόματι.

29 Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumponentes, obtulerunt ori ejus.  

30 ὅτε οὖν ἔλαβεν τὸ ὄξος ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· Τετέλεσται, καὶ κλίνας τὴν κεφαλὴν παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα.

30 Cum ergo accepisset Jesus acetum, dixit : Consummatum est. Et inclinato capite tradidit spiritum.  

31 Οἱ οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι, ⸂ἐπεὶ παρασκευὴ ἦν, ἵνα μὴ μείνῃ ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὰ σώματα ἐν τῷ σαββάτῳ⸃, ἦν γὰρ μεγάλη ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνου τοῦ σαββάτου, ἠρώτησαν τὸν Πιλᾶτον ἵνα κατεαγῶσιν αὐτῶν τὰ σκέλη καὶ ἀρθῶσιν.

31 Judaei ergo (quoniam parasceve erat) ut non remanerent in cruce corpora sabbato (erat enim magnus dies ille sabbati), rogaverunt Pilatum ut frangerentur eorum crura, et tollerentur.  

32 ἦλθον οὖν οἱ στρατιῶται, καὶ τοῦ μὲν πρώτου κατέαξαν τὰ σκέλη καὶ τοῦ ἄλλου τοῦ συσταυρωθέντος αὐτῷ·

32 Venerunt ergo milites : et primi quidem fregerunt crura, et alterius, qui crucifixus est cum eo.

Annotations

    28. Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. After about three hours. It was at the beginning of the crucifixion that He commended His mother to S. John. The scripture was Ps. LXVIII. 22: And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. He said this that He might suffer the further torment of being offered the vinegar. As S. Augustine says, “Ye have not yet done this. Give Me that which ye are yourselves—for ye are full of acidity and bitterness; give Me vinegar, and not wine.”

    Christ thirsted, because He had neither eaten nor drunken since His supper the night before, and He had moreover poured forth all the moisture and blood in His body, by His scourging and crucifixion. And His most bitter pains also caused Him great thirst; for, as S. Cyril says, “Sorrows enkindle the heat within us, dry up our moisture from its very depths, and burn us up with fiery heat.” Hence our jaws are dried up, and are parched with thirst. The words of the Psalmist (xxi.) were fulfilled in Christ’s person. The Chancellor of Louvain, when he was dying forty years ago, said in my presence, that he never fully understood those words, as he did when be was himself suffering from like drought and thirst, and thence learned how great the thirst of Christ was. Mystically, Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls. See Bellarmine on “The seven words of Christ on the cross.” “God thirsteth to be thirsted for,” says Nazianzen in Tetrastichisis, in order that we may insatiably love and desire Him, and say with the Psalmist, “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God.  3 My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” Ps. XLI.2-3.

    30. Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. All the suffering and all the mysteries which the Father decreed from all eternity that I should suffer and carry out, as He ordered from My very birth, and willed, moreover, that the prophets should foretell concerning Me. There remains only the final issue of death, to complete My course of suffering, to expiate thereby the penalty of death, which Adam incurred by sin, and to restore mankind to life. I therefore embrace it, and resign My spirit into the hands of My Father. (Matt. xxvii. 48, seq.)

    Christ spake seven words on the cross, three recorded by S. John, the four others by the other Evangelists.

    31. Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  See Deut. xxi. 22. This was done, in order that they might not pollute and make gloomy this most solemn festival, by the horror of their sufferings, as St. Augustine says. It was necessary therefore that they should die and be buried before sunset, at which time the sabbath began. “That,” as Theophylact says, “the sun might not set on their sufferings.”

    For this was the sabbath within the octave of the Passover, and for this reason a more solemn day than other sabbaths.

    Their legs were to be broken with the strong blows of a mallet or iron bar, to make them die the sooner, from the intensity of the pain, or the loss of blood, or because the vital force resides in the knees and legs. (See Pliny, N. H. xi. 45.)

    But why did they not pierce their hearts with a spear or sword, which would have been an easier and a quicker death? They preferred to break the legs of criminals, in order to increase their sufferings, as even now notorious criminals are put on the rack. Probably the Jews wished to do this to Christ, out of bitter hatred, and Baronius thinks that they pave Him vinegar to keep Him alive for this further torture. But He was already dead, not because He dreaded this further suffering, but on account of the mystery (of which more presently), but also because His strength was worn out by all He had already undergone. (See Lipsius, tie Cruce, ii. 14.)

    These Jews seemed to urge their being taken down from the cross, not so much from any regard for the sabbath, as from dread, shame, and consciousness of guilt. For they saw the sun darkened, the veil of the temple rent, the earthquake, &c., all which condemned their treatment of Christ. And they therefore feared either that God would punish them, or the people rise up against them as the murderers of Christ. They ordered Him therefore to be taken down from His seat of triumph, and to be buried. See F. Lucas.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.