Matthew 27:34

Verse 34. They gave him vinegar - mingled with gall] Perhaps χολη, commonly translated gall, signifies no more than bitters of any kind. It was a common custom to administer a stupefying potion compounded of sour wine, which is the same as vinegar, from the French vinaigre, frankincense, and myrrh, to condemned persons, to help to alleviate their sufferings, or so disturb their intellect that they might not be sensible of them. The rabbins say that they put a grain of frankincense into a cup of strong wine; and they ground this on Pr 31:6: Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, i.e. who is condemned to death. Some person, out of kindness, appears to have administered this to our blessed Lord; but he, as in all other cases, determining to endure the fulness of pain, refused to take what was thus offered to him, choosing to tread the winepress alone. Instead of οξος, vinegar, several excellent MSS. and versions have οινον, wine; but as sour wine is said to have been a general drink of the common people and Roman soldiers, it being the same as vinegar, it is of little consequence which reading is here adopted. This custom of giving stupefying potions to condemned malefactors is alluded to in Pr 31:6: Give strong drink, שקר shekar, inebriating drink, to him who is ready to PERISH, and wine to him who is BITTER of soul - because he is just going to suffer the punishment of death. And thus the rabbins, as we have seen above, understand it. See Lightfoot and Schoettgen.

Michaelis offers an ingenious exposition of this place: "Immediately after Christ was fastened to the cross, they gave him, according to Mt 27:34, vinegar mingled with gall; but, according to Mark, they offered him wine mingled with myrrh. That St. Mark's account is the right one is probable from this circumstance, that Christ refused to drink what was offered him, as appears from both evangelists. Wine mixed with myrrh was given to malefactors at the place of execution, to intoxicate them, and make them less sensible to pain. Christ, therefore, with great propriety, refused the aid of such remedies. But if vinegar was offered him, which was taken merely to assuage thirst, there could be no reason for his rejecting it. Besides, he tasted it before he rejected it; and therefore he must have found it different from that which, if offered to him, he was ready to receive. To solve this difficulty, we must suppose that the words used in the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew were such as agreed with the account given by St. Mark, and at the same time were capable of the construction which was put on them by St. Matthew's Greek translator. Suppose St. Matthew wrote חליא במרירא (chaleea bemireera) which signifies, sweet wine with bitters, or sweet wine and myrrh, as we find it in Mark; and Matthew's translator overlooked the yod י in חליא (chaleea) he took it for חלא (chala) which signifies vinegar; and bitter, he translated by χολη, as it is often used in the Septuagint. Nay, St. Matthew may have written חלא, and have still meant to express sweet wine; if so, the difference only consisted in the points; for the same word which, when pronounced chale, signifies sweet, denotes vinegar, as soon as it is pronounced chala."

With this conjecture Dr. Marsh (Michaelis's translator) is not satisfied; and therefore finds a Chaldee word for οινος wine, which may easily be mistaken for one that denotes οξος vinegar; and likewise a Chaldee word, which signifies σμυρνα, (myrrh,) which may be easily mistaken for one that denotes χολη, (gall.) "Now," says he, "חמר (chamar) or חמרא (chamera) really denotes οινος (wine,) and חמץ (chamets) or חמצא (charnetsa) really denotes οξος (vinegar.) Again, מורא (mura) really signifies σμυρνα (myrrh,) and מררא (murera) really signifies χολη (gall.) If, then, we suppose that the original Chaldee text was חמרא הליט במורא (chamera heleet bemura) wine mingled with myrrh, which is not at all improbable, as it is the reading of the Syriac version, at Mr 15:23, it might easily have been mistaken for חמצא הליט במררא (chametsa haleet bemurera) vinegar mingled with gall." This is a more ingenious conjecture than that of Michaelis. See Marsh's notes to Michaelis, vol. iii., part 2d. p. 127-28. But as that kind of sour wine, which was used by the Roman soldiers and common people, appears to have been termed οινος, and vin aigre is sour wine, it is not difficult to reconcile the two accounts, in what is most material to the facts here recorded.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27:34 Giving Jesus wine mixed with bitter gall was probably intended for ridicule (see Ps 69:21). It was also a sedative—Jesus probably rejected it in order to suffer fully for our sins (see Isa 53:10). • Gall, otherwise known as wormwood, is a bitter narcotic made from the oil of Artemisia (cp. Mark 15:23).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 27:34. Ὄξος, vinegar) St Mark (Mar 15:23) calls it, ἐσμυρνισμένον οἶνον, myrrhed wine: the liquor was of a taste between sweet wine and vinegar (cf. the Gnomon on Mat 27:48), seasoned with myrrh from custom, adulterated with gall from malice.—οὐκ ἤθελε πιεῖν, He would not drink) for that behoved to be deferred to the end of His sufferings; see Joh 19:30. And Jesus wished to retain His senses fully undisturbed, even up to His death.[1194]

[1194] Mat 27:35. σταυρώσαντες, having crucified) Christ, in order to be a blessing to us, was made a curse. Who is there would have dared to assert this, had not the Apostle declared it? Gal 3:13. Let the passages also. Gen 3:6, Joh 3:14, 1Pe 2:24, be well weighed.—Harm., p. 563.—διεμερισαντο τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, they parted His garments) When the very poorest man dies, he has at least some covering on his body: Jesus had none. Not even are His garments given up to His friends and relatives, but to the soldiers.—Harm., p. 564.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_27:34 The Jews were in the habit of giving the criminal a stupefying drink before nailing him to the cross. Sanhedr. vi. See Wetstein, ad Marc. xv. 23; Doughtaeus, Anal. II. p. 42. This drink consisted of wine (see the critical remarks) mixed with gall, according to Matthew; with myrrh, according to Mark. χολή admits of no other meaning than that of gall, and on no account must it be made to bear the sense of myrrh or wormwood[36] (Beza, Grotius, Paulus, Langen, Steinmeyer, Keim). The tradition about the gall, which unquestionably belongs to a later period, originated in the LXX. rendering of Psa_68:23; people wished to make out that there was maltreatment in the very drink that was offered.

ΓΕΥΣΆΜΕΝΟς] According to Matthew, then, Jesus rejected the potion because the taste of gall made it undrinkable. A later view than that embodied in Mar_15:23, from which passage it would appear that Jesus does not even taste the drink, but declines it altogether, because He has no desire to be stupefied before death.

[36] No doubt the LXX. translate לַעֲנָה, wormwood, by χολή (Pro_5:4; Lam_3:15); but in those passages they took it as meaning literal gall, just as in the case of Psa_69:22, which regulates the sense of our present passage, they also understood gall to be meant, although the word in the original is רֹאשׁ (poison). Comp. Jer_8:14; Deu_29:17. A usage so entirely foreign to the Greek tongue certainly cannot be justified on the ground of one or two passages, like these from the Septuagint. Had bitter spiced wine (Steinmeyer) been what Matthew intended, he would have had no more difficulty in expressing this than Mark himself. But the idea he wished to convey was that of wine along with gall, in fact mixed with it, and this idea he expresses as plain as words can speak it. Comp. Barnab. 7 : σταυρωθεὶς ἐποτίζετο ὂξει καὶ χκολῇ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 27:34 . οἶνον μετὰ χολῆς μ ., wine mingled with gall. Mk. has ἐσμυρνισμένον οἶν ., wine drugged with myrrh, a drink given by a merciful custom before execution to deaden the sense of pain. The wine would be the sour wine or posca used by Roman soldiers. In Mk. Jesus declines the drink, apparently without tasting, desiring to suffer with clear mind. In Mt. He tastes ( γευσάμενος ) and then declines, apparently because unpalatable, suggesting a different motive in the offerers, not mercy but cruelty; maltreatment in the very drink offered. To this view of the proceeding is ascribed the μετὰ χολῆς of Mt.’s text, not without the joint influence of Psa 69:22 (Meyer and Weiss). Harmonists strive to reconcile the two accounts by taking χολή as signifying in Hellenistic usage any bitter liquid ( quamvis amaritiem , Elsner), and therefore among other things myrrh. Pro 5:4 , Lament. Mat 3:15 (Sept [152] ), in which χολή stands for wormwood, לַעֲנָה , are eited in proof of this. Against the idea that Mt’s text has been altered from Mk.’s under the influence of Psa 69:22 , is the retention of οἶνος ( ὄξος in Ps. and in T. R.) and the absence of any reference to the passage in the usual style “that it might be fulfilled,” etc.

[152] Septuagint.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ found no comfort anywhere, that in him we might be filled with all comfort.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(34) Vinegar to drink mingled with gall.—In Mar_15:23, “wine mingled with myrrh.” The animal secretion known as “gall” is clearly out of the question, and the meaning of the word is determined by its use in the Greek version of the Old Testament, where it stands for the “wormwood” of Pro_5:4, for the poisonous herb joined with “wormwood” in Deu_29:18. It was clearly something at once nauseous and narcotic, given by the merciful to dull the pain of execution, and mixed with the sour wine of the country and with myrrh to make it drinkable. It may have been hemlock, or even poppy-juice, but there are no materials for deciding. It is probable that the offer came from the more pitiful of the women mentioned by St. Luke (Luk_23:27) as following our Lord and lamenting. Such acts were among the received “works of mercy” of the time and place. The “tasting” implied a recognition of the kindly purpose of the act, but a recognition only. In the refusal to do more than taste we trace the resolute purpose to drink the cup which His Father had given Him to the last drop, and not to dull either the sense of suffering nor the clearness of His communion with His Father with the slumberous potion. The same draught was, we may believe, offered to the two criminals who were crucified with Him.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. vinegar … mingled with gall] “Wine mingled with myrrh” (Mark). Vinegar = “sour wine” (vinaigre), or posca, such as was ordinarily drunk by the Roman soldiers. The potion was a stupefying draught given to criminals to deaden the sense of pain. “Some of the wealthy ladies of Jerusalem charged themselves with this office of mercy.” (Lightfoot, ad loc.) Jesus refuses this alleviation of His sufferings.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they crucified him,.... That is, the soldiers: they laid the cross upon the ground, and stretched Christ upon it; they extended his two arms as far as they could, to the transverse part of it, and nailed his hands unto it: his two feet they fixed by each other on a basis, in the body of the cross, through which they also drove nails; and then raising it up, fixed it in the earth, and left him hanging on it till he expired. This death was not only painful and cruel, but exceedingly shameful and ignominious: it was what was inflicted on the meanest of persons, as servants, whose form Christ had taken; and upon the worst of men, as murderers, cut-throats, thieves, and the vilest of men (r) among whom Christ was now numbered:

and parted his garments, casting lots: for they stripped him of his clothes before they fixed him to the cross, and crucified him naked, as was the custom of the Romans (s); as it was of the Jews to stone and hang persons naked: their canons run thus (t),

"when he is four cubits off of the place of stoning, they strip off his garments; a man they cover before, a woman both behind and before; the words of Judah: but the wise men say, a man is stoned naked, and a woman is not stoned naked: a man, they hang him with his face to the people; a woman, with her face to the tree. R. Eliezer, and the wise men say, a man is hanged, but a woman is not hanged.

On which the Gemara (u) says,

"what is the sense of the Rabbins? the Scripture says, "thou shalt hang him"; him, and not her: and, says R. Eliezer, him, , "without his clothes".

So our Lord was crucified; his clothes were a perquisite of the soldiers; there were four of them, as we learn from Joh 19:23, and they parted them into four parts, and then cast lots whose each part should be; or rather, they divided his garments into four parts, and each took his part; but his vesture, or coat, being seamless, and woven from top to bottom, they did not choose to tear it into pieces, but cast lots for it, who should have it:

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, by David, in Psa 22:18,

they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. All this, Beza says, is not in any of the ancient copies; nor is it in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, but stands in the Vulgate Latin, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel,

See Gill on Joh 19:24.

(r) Lipsius de Cruce, l. 1. c. 12. & 13. (s) Lipsius de Cruce, l. 2. c. 7. (t) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 3, 4. (u) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 46. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

Ver. 34. They gave him vinegar, &c.] Cold comfort to a dying man; but they did it in derision, q.d. Thou art a King, and must have generous wines. Here’s for thee therefore. {See Trapp on "Joh 19:29"} It were happy if this vinegar given our Saviour might melt our adamantine hearts into sorrow.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They gave him vinegar ... - Mark says that, “they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh.” The two evangelists mean the same thing. Vinegar was made of light wine rendered acid, and was the common drink of the Roman soldiers, and this might be called either vinegar or wine in common language. “Myrrh” is a bitter substance produced in Arabia, but is used often to denote anything bitter. The meaning of the name is “bitterness.” See the notes at Mat 2:11. “Gall” is properly a bitter secretion from the liver, but the word is also used to denote anything exceedingly “bitter,” as wormwood, etc. The drink, therefore, was vinegar or sour wine, rendered “bitter” by the infusion of wormwood or some other very bitter substance. The effect of this, it is said, was to stupefy the senses. It was often given to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to the pains of death. Our Lord, knowing this, when he bad tasted it refused to drink. He was unwilling to blunt the pains of dying. The “cup” which his “Father” gave him he rather chose to drink. He came to suffer. His sorrows were necessary for the work of the atonement, and he gave himself up to the unmitigated sufferings of the cross. This was presented to him in the early part of his sufferings, or when he was about to be suspended on the cross. “Afterward,” when he was on the cross and just before his death, vinegar was offered to him “without the myrrh” - the vinegar which the soldiers usually drank - and of this he drank. See Mat 27:49, and Joh 19:28-30. When Matthew and Mark say that he “would not drink,” they refer to a different thing and a different time from John, and there is no contradiction.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Wine ... mingled with gall.[4] The Protestants from the ordinary Greek copies, translate vinegar; but the other Greek copies have wine, which St. Jerome and St. Hilary follow. And in St. Mark all copies, without exception, have wine mixed with myrrh: perhaps myrrh, from its bitterness, is here called gall. It is also observed that wine, with a mixture of myrrh, was often given to those that were to die a violent death, to comfort them, or stupefy them. Our Saviour tasted it, but would not drink it. He refused not to taste the bitterness, but would not take what might lessen his torments. (Witham) --- St. Mark says, mingled with myrrh; perhaps it was mixed with both, to render it as bitter as possible. (St. Augustine) --- What St. Mark relates, he took it not, is thus explained: the took it not, so as to drink it; which St. Matthew confirms, by saying: and when he had tasted, he would not drink; (St. Augustine,) so as to receive the support and comfort which a strengthening draft might afford.

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Vinum cum felle mixtum. The ordinary Greek copies have, Greek: oxos meta choles; but several copies have, Greek: oinon: and all of them in St. Mark, Greek: esmurnismenon oinon. Lamy says Greek: oxos is also used for made wines.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

34. Vinegar to drink — The fainting prisoner was brought to the place of execution, and the cross was taken from the shoulder of the bearer preparatory to driving the nails into his limbs; and they offer a stupefying potion to him, according to custom, to deaden the sense of pain. Jesus tastes it, as if to accept the insulting mercy; but declines to drink it, as it would obscure the clearness of his faculties. The vinegar mingled with gall is the same as the wine mingled with myrrh, mentioned by Mark; for the wine was so sour as to be truly a vinegar, and the word for gall would stand for anything bitter, as myrrh.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 34-44. The Crucifixion and the mockery. (Mar_15:23-32 Luk 23:32-43Jo Luk_19:18-24)

Vinegar...mingled with gall (colhv). Instead of "vinegar" (oxov) very many manuscripts, followed by Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, and others, read here, as in Mark, "wine" (oinon). Dederunt ei viaum bibere (Vulgate). Doubtless the two words represent the same fluid, a wine of a sharp and acrid taste. The received reading in our text is supposed to be derived from Psa_69:21, "They gave me gall for my meats, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." "Gall" here signifies some bitter ingredient (St. Mark calls it "myrrh"), which was infused in the wine to impart a narcotic quality. It was the custom to offer this draught to criminals about to undergo crucifixion, either as an anodyne or to give them adventitious strength to bear their sufferings. The beverage is said to have been prepared by some benevolent ladies in Jerusalem, and to have been owed to a gloss on Pro_31:6, Pro_31:7, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul; let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." This was not an additional insult offered to Jesus, as some have opined, but a usual act of kindliness. When he had tasted thereof, he would not (ouk hyele) drink. He accepted the kindly offer so far as to put his lips to the cup, but, recognizing its stupefying qualities, he refused to drink it. He willed to endure all the coming pains without mitigation; he would meet all with the powers of mind and body undarkened; he would have his senses and his self-consciousness unimpaired to the end.

Christ refusing an opiate.

The charitable ladies of Jerusalem are said to have provided some stupefying drug for the use of condemned criminals, in order to alleviate the intolerable torments of death by crucifixion. Apparently it was this drug that some people offered to Jesus; but he refused to take it. The taste of it revealed its benumbing influence, and he would not submit to this.

I CHRIST WOULD NOT SHRINK FROM HIS ALLOTTED SUFFERING. This scene is strangely contrasted with the scene in Gethsemane but a few hours earlier. In the garden Jesus had besought God, with tears and in agony, that if possible the cup of his Passion and death might pass from him. Now he will not take the cup that brings alleviation to his sufferings. How shall we account for this difference of mental attitude? The answer is that Christ knew that it was God"s will that he should suffer. Before he had only prayed that the cup of his sufferings might pass, if it had been God"s will to release him. But he discovered that it was not God"s will. Then there was not a moment"s hesitation. Christ was human in his shrinking from pain and insult and death. But he was strong and absolutely brave in facing whatever he might have to meet in doing or in bearing the will of God. He was no weak, effeminate sufferer, as pictures of the Correggio school represent him. His courage was perfect. Manly and strong in soul, he faced death and its accompanying torments without flinching, when he saw his way led him through those horrors.

II CHRIST HAD A WORK YET TO FINISH. We are thankful for the anodyne which medical science is now able to apply to great suffering. The chloroform that renders the patient unconscious during a surgical operation, and the morphia that relieves acute pain, are welcomed as gifts of God. Surely it cannot be wrong to employ such things. There is no merit in the mere endurance of pain. But in our Lord"s case there was much more to be considered than the suffering of a painful death. He had a testimony to bear. His words from the cross are among the most precious memorials of his earthly ministry. He could not say, "It is finished!" until he was about to bow his head and give up the ghost. Therefore he felt it necessary to preserve his consciousness to the last. Then his suffering was itself a part of his work. The way in which he endured what was laid upon him entered into the very process of his atoning sacrifice. As our great High Priest, he was made perfect through suffering. (Heb_5:8, Heb_5:9) Would he have been the perfect Christ he was if he had left one drop of the bitter cup? If he had taken the opiate which would have allayed his pains at the expense of his consciousness, would he have made the complete atonement for sin? If it is too much to say "Yes" to these questions, at least we may see that his great and awful work could only have been accomplished by the willing and conscious surrender of himself, and this surrender would have been obscured to our view if he had accepted the offered relief. Thus we see how to the very last he would not care for himself, how he gave himself utterly in suffering and death for the world"s redemption. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They gave him vinegar mingled with gall - Out of derision: which, however nauseous, he received and tasted of. St. Mark mentions also a different mixture which was given him, Wine mingled with myrrh: such as it was customary to give to dying criminals, to make them less sensible of their sufferings: but this our Lord refused to taste, determining to bear the full force of his pains.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

34. They gave him wine to drink mingled with gall. A stupefying drink, intended to lessen suffering. He would not drink. The “tasting” implied a recognition of the kindly purpose of the act, but a recognition only. In the refusal to do more than taste, we trace the resolute purpose to drink the cup which his Father had given him to the last drop.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

34. οἶνον for ὄξος, with the more ancient MSS. A and many uncials have the reading of the textus receptus.

34. οἶνον κ.τ.λ. ‘Wine mingled with myrrh’ (Mark). This was the ‘sour wine,’ or posca, ordinarily drunk by the Roman soldiers. ‘Vinum atque acetum milites nostros solere accipere: uno die vinum, alio die acetum’ (Ulpian, quoted by Wetstein). The potion was a stupefying draught given to criminals to deaden the sense of pain. ‘Some of the wealthy ladies of Jerusalem charged themselves with this office of mercy’ (Lightfoot, ad loc.). Jesus refuses this alleviation of his sufferings.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34.] It was customary to give a stupefying drink to criminals on their way to execution: of which our Lord would not partake, having shewn by tasting it, that he was aware of its purpose.

In Mark’s account it is ἐσμυρνισμένος οἶνος—and though οἶνος and ὄξος might mean the same, ἐσμυρνισμένος and μετὰ χολ. μεμιγ. cannot. We may observe here (and if the remark be applied with caution and reverence, it is a most useful one), how Matt. often adopts in his narrative the very words of prophecy, where one or more of the other Evangelists give the matter of fact detail: see above on ch. 26:15, and compare with this verse, Psa 69:21.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 34. And gave Him to drink wine mixed with gall: and He tasted, and would not drink.] Mk. has: “And they were giving Him drugged wine: and He did not take it.”—ἔδωκαν] aor. for Mk.’s imperf., as often.—οἶνον μετὰ χολῆς μεμιγμένον] for Mk.’s ἐσμυρνισμένον οἶνον, probably with reference to Psa 68:22 ἔδωκαν—χολήν, καὶ—ὄξος, and perhaps to avoid Mk.’s rare σμυρνίζειν.—οἶνον] A N al have ὄξος; ff omits. ὄξος is a further assimilation to the LXX.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wine [οινον] . The older texts read oxov, vinegar. The compound of wine and gall was intended as a stupefying draught.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.