be heard, early in the night, thou shalt deny me. Dr. Thomson ("Land and Book ") says that the barn-door fowls "swarm round every door, share in the food of their possessors, are at home among the children in every room, roost overhead at night, and with their ceaseless crowing are the town-clock and the morning-bell to call up sleepers at early dawn.”

35. Though I should die (xậv déŋ μe áπodaveîv). The A. V. misses the force of dén: "Though it should be necessary for me to die." Wyc., "If it shall behove me to die." Rev., excellently, "Even if I must die."

36. Gethsemane. Meaning oil-press. Beyond the brook Kedron, and distant about three-quarters of a mile from the walls of Jerusalem. Dean Stanley says of the olive-trees there: "In spite of all the doubts that can be raised against their antiquity, the eight aged olive-trees, if only by their manifest difference from all others on the mountain, have always struck the most indifferent observers. They will remain, so long as their already protracted life is spared, the most venerable of their race on the surface of the earth. Their gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be regarded as the most affecting of the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem; the most nearly approaching to the everlasting hills themselves in the force with which they carry us back to the events of the gospel history" ("Sinai and Palestine").

40. What! It is hardly possible to convey the exact force of the Greek o Tws, thus or so. The idea is, "are ye thus unable, or so utterly unable to watch?"

He probably heard the tramp

45. The hour is at hand. and saw the lanterns of Judas and his band.

47. One of the twelve. Repeated in all three evangelists, in the narratives both of the betrayal and of the arrest. By the time Matthew's Gospel was written, the phrase had become a stereotyped designation of the traitor, like he that betrayed him.

A great multitude. The Sanhedrin had neither soldiery nor a regularly-armed band at command. In John xviii. 3, Judas receives a cohort of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. Part of the band would consist of this regularly-armed cohort, and the rest of a crowd armed with cudgels, and embracing some of the servants of conspicuous men in the Sanhedrin.

49. Kissed him (katepíλŋoev). The compound verb has the force of an emphatic, ostentatious salute. Meyer says embraced and kissed. The same word is used of the tender caressing of the Lord's feet by the woman in the Pharisee's house (Luke vii. 38), of the father's embrace of the returned prodigal (Luke xv. 20), and of the farewell of the Ephesian elders to Paul (Acts xx. 37).

50. Wherefore art thou come? (ép' ô πáρei). The interrogation of the A. V. is wrong. The expression is elliptical and condensed. Literally it is, that for which thou art here; and the mind is to supply do or be about. The Lord spurns the traitor's embrace, and says, in effect, "Enough of this hypocritical fawning. Do what you are here to do." So Rev., Do that for which thou art come.

51. The servant (Tòv Soûλov). The article marks the special servant; the body-servant.

(ὠτίον).

Ear (Tiov). A diminutive in form but not in sense; according to a Greek popular usage which expressed parts of the body by diminutives; as pivia, the nostrils; oppáтiov, the eye; σapklov, the body. Peter aimed his blow at the servant's head, but missed.

52. Put up again. Peter was still brandishing his sword.

53. Twelve legions of angels. Compare the story of Elisha at Dothan (2 Kings vi. 17).

55. A thief (ŋoτnv). Better Rev., a robber. See John x. 1, 8; and Luke xxiii. 39-43. It is more than a petty stealer; rather one with associates, who would require an armed band to apprehend him. Hence the propriety of the reference to swords and staves.

I sat (éxadeÇóμnv). The imperfect tense, denoting something habitual. I was accustomed to sit.

63. I adjure thee. I call upon thee to swear. priest put Christ upon oath.

The high

That (iva). In order that; signifying the design with which he adjured the Lord.

64. Thou hast said. An affirmation. You have spoken the truth. What thou hast asked me is the fact. Compare ver. 25.

Nevertheless (Tλ). However. Apart from my affirmation, you shall see for yourself.

66. Guilty of death (evoxos Javáтov). Rev., worthy of death. See on Matt. xxiii. 18. év, in, exw, to hold. The idea is, literally, holden of death; in bonds to death.

67. Buffet (ékoλápioav). With the fist.

Smote with the palms of their hands. All expressed by one word, épátioav, from paπís, a rod, and meaning to smite with rods, not with the palms. The same word is employed. Matt. v. 39. It came to mean generally to strike.

69. A damsel (μía тaidíoкn). Lit., one damsel, because the writer has in mind a second one (ver. 71).

71. Gone out. Through fear of being further questioned.

72. The man. As if he did not know Jesus' name.

74. To curse (Kaтadeμaтičew). A new development of profanity. Hitherto he had merely sworn. Now he adds imprecation; invoking curses on himself if the case be not as he says.

CHAPTER XXVII.

3. Repented himself (μetaμeλndeis). See on Matt. xxi. 29.

What is that to us? They ignore the question of Christ's innocence. As to Judas' sin or conscience, that is his matter. Thou wilt see to that.

5. In the temple. But the best reading is els tòv vaóv, into the sanctuary. He cast the pieces over the barrier of the enclosure which surrounded the sanctuary, or temple proper, and within which only the priests were allowed, and therefore into the sanctuary.

6. It is not lawful. In such cases the Jewish law provided that the money was to be restored to the donor; and if he insisted on giving it, that he should be induced to spend it for something for the public weal. This explains the apparent discrepancy between Matthew's account and that in the book of Acts (i. 18). By a fiction of the law the money was still considered to be Judas', and to have been applied by him to the purchase of the potter's field.

Scarlet (KOKKívηv). From кóккos, cochineal, which grew in several parts of Greece. Garments of this color would seem to have been rare among the orientals. Herodotus relates that the admiration of Darius, then an officer in the army, was excited by the scarlet cloak of a Samian exile, who, on his offering to purchase it, presented it to him, and was afterward richly rewarded when Darius came to the throne (iii. 139).

28. Robe (xlaμúda). The short military cloak which kings and emperors as well as soldiers wore.

32. Compelled to go (yyapevσav). See on Matt. v. 41. Rev. has impressed in margin.

the Hebrew,

33. Golgotha. An Aramaic word, Gulgoltha, Gulgoleth, and translated skull in Judg. ix. 53; 2 Kings ix. 35. The word Calvary comes through the Latin calvaria, meaning skull, and used in the Vulgate. The New Testament narrative does not mention a mount or hill. The place was probably a rounded elevation. The meaning is not, as Tynd., a place of dead men's skulls, but simply skull.

34. Wine (olvov). The older texts read ŏços, vinegar. The compound of wine and gall was intended as a stupefying draught.

36. Watched (Týpovv). Or, to give the force of the imperfect tense, kept watch. This was to prevent the infliction of wanton cruelties, and also to prevent what sometimes happened, the taking down and restoring of the victim.

37. Accusation (airíav). Lit., cause, and so rendered by Wyc. Tynd., cause of his death. The word accusation is compounded with the Latin causa, a cause. It is the cause of his condemnation and suffering.

38. Thieves (norai). Rev., robbers. See on Matt. xxvi. 55.

42. He saved others, etc. The Greek order is, Others he saved; himself he cannot save.

43. If he will have him (ei Jéλei avтóv). Rev., correctly, If he desireth him: i.e., If he likes him. Compare Ps. xviii. (Sept. xvii.) 19; because he delighted in me (9énσé μe), Ps. xli. (Sept. xl.) 11 (τεθέληκάς με).