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Selected Verse: John 19:39 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Joh 19:39 |
King James |
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night--"This remark corresponds to the secrecy of Joseph's discipleship, just noticed, and calls attention to the similarity of their previous character and conduct, and the remarkable change which had now taken place" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
brought . . . myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight--an immense quantity, betokening the greatness of their love, but part of it probably intended as a layer for the spot on which the body was to lie. (See Ch2 16:14) [MEYER]. |
Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Came Nicodemus - came by night
The contrast is marked between his first and his second coming.
Mixture (μίγμα)
Only here in the New Testament. Some authorities read ἕλιγμα, a roll.
Pounds
Roman pounds, of nearly twelve ounces. The large quantity may be explained by the intention of covering the entire body with the preparation, and by the fact that a portion was designed for the couch of the body in the grave. Compare the account of the burial of Asa, Ch2 16:14. "Extraordinary reverence in its sorrowful excitement does not easily satisfy itself" (Meyer). |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Nicodemus - See on Joh 3:1 (note), etc.
Myrrh and aloes - Which drugs were used to preserve bodies from putrefaction. Calmet says that the aloes mentioned here is a liquor which runs from an aromatic tree, and is widely different from that called aloes among us.
Some have objected that a hundred pounds' weight of myrrh and aloes was enough to embalm two hundred dead bodies; and instead of ἑκατον, a hundred, some critics have proposed to read ἑκατερων - a mixture of myrrh and aloes, of about a pound Each. See Bowyer's Conjectures. But it may be observed that great quantities of spices were used for embalming dead bodies, when they intended to show peculiar marks of respect to the deceased. A great quantity was used at the funeral of Aristobulus; and it is said that five hundred servants bearing aromatics attended the funeral of Herod: see Josephus, Ant. b. xv. c. 3, s. 4; and b. xvii. c. 8, s. 3: and fourscore pounds of spices were used at the funeral of R. Gamaliel the elder. See Wetstein in loc. |
14 And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him.
14 And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him.
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: