151. Judas repents, and hangs himself.

MATTHEW.

CH. XXVII. 3-10.

3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.

7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.

8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;

10 And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."

MARK.

Matth. xxvii. 9, Jeremy.] The passage here quoted is found in the prophecy of Zechariah, and not in Jeremiah. Dr. Lightfoot says, that anciently among the Jews the Old Testament was divided into three parts. The first, beginning with the law, was called The Law. The second, beginning with Psalms, was called The Psalms. The third, beginning with the prophecy of Jeremiah, which anciently stood first, was called Jeremiah, under which name all quotations from the prophets were made. See A. CLARKE, in loc. JENNINGS, Jewish Antiq. pp. 594, 595. Others account for the apparent error in Matthew's quotation, by supposing that he omitted the name of the prophet, as he frequently did in his citations of scripture, and that the name of Jeremiah was inserted by a subsequent copyist. 1 HORNE's Introd. p. 582.

(SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.
K.) Jerusalem.
LUKE.

JOHN.

(SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem.

CH. XXIII. 26-33.

CH. XIX. 16-17.

26 And as they led him away, they

laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian, they took Jesus, and led him away. coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear

it after Jesus.

27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women,

17 And he bearing his cross

Mark xv. 21, and Rufus.] Clement of Alexandria and Jerome both relate that Mark wrote this Gospel at Rome, and we find in Romans xiv. 13, that a disciple named Rufus, of considerable note, resided in that city. Admitting that both Mark and Paul speak of the same person, which is highly probable, as they refer to the same period of time and to a disciple of distinction, there is an evident consciousness of veracity in the Evangelist, in making this reference to Rufus, then living among them, since he could not but have known the particulars of the crucifixion, in which his own father was so intimately concerned. BLUNT's Veracity, &c., sect. i. 14. See also EUSEBIUS, lib. 2, ch. 15.

Matth. xxvii. 37, his accusation.] As to the title itself, the precise wording may have differed in the different languages; and MSS. represent it differently.

But the same verbal exactness is not necessary in historians, whose aim is religious instruction, as in recorders of public inscriptions. It is enough that the Evangelists agree as to the main article, "the King of the Jews," referred to, John xix. 21. That their manner is to regard the sense, rather than the words, appears from many places. Compare Matth. iii. 17, and ix. 11, and xv. 27, and xvi. 6, 9, and xix. 18, and xx. 33, and xxi. 9, and xxvi. 39, 64, 70, and xxviii. 5, 6, with the parallel verses in this Harmony. Compare also John xi. 40, with ver. 23, 25. One of the most solemn and aw

(SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.) Jerusalem.

LUKE.

CH. XXIII. 26-33.

which also bewailed and lamented him.

28 But Jesus turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

29 For behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.b

31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

32 And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.

33 And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary,

JOHN.
CH. XIX. 16-17.

went

forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha.

(SIXTH DAY OF THE WEEK.

CH. XXIII. 33, 34, 38. 33 There they crucified him, and the malefactors; one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

38 And a superscription also was written over him, in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

a Isa. liv. 1.

Jerusalem.

CH. XIX. 18-24.

18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

b Hos. x. 8.

ful of our Lord's discourses is, in some parts, variously expressed. See Matth. xxvi. 28, Mark xiv. 24, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25. Now as each of these writers has, beyond all doubt, faithfully represented the meaning of Christ, we see that it might be truly done in different words, or in a different form of the same words. His sentences also, sometimes admitted a difference of arrangement; for the order in which two sentences, or the several members of the same sentence, are disposed by St. Matthew, is, in several places, inverted by St. Mark. And with regard to his actions, though the most material parts of whatever they were going to relate must command their attention, yet there was no such superior attraction in one specific number and order of

§ 154. The Jews mock at Jesus on the cross. He commends

CH. XXVII. 39-44.

CH. XV. 29-32.

39 And they that passed by, reviled 29 And they that passed by, railed him, wagging their heads, on him, wagging their heads, and say40 And saying, Thou that destroy-ing, Ah, thou that destroyest the temest the temple, and buildest it in ple, and buildest it in three days, three days, save thyself. If thou be 30 Save thyself, and come down the Son of God, come down from the from the cross.

cross.

31 Likewise also the chief priests 41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking, said among themselves with mocking him, with the scribes and the scribes, He saved others; himself elders, said, The cannot save.

a Isa. liii. 12.

secondary circumstances, as could turn their thoughts absolutely and exclusively to them. This is plain from instances to the contrary. One Evangelist is sometimes distinct, while another is concise; and describes what the other passes over. TOWNSON, pp. 60-1.

We may reasonably suppose St. Matthew to have cited the Hebrew, St. John the Greek, and St. Mark the Latin, which was the shortest, and without mixture of foreign words. St. Mark is followed by St. Luke; only that he has brought down "THIS IS" from above, as having a common reference to what stood under it. NEW

COME.