It was the custom to give those about to be crucified a draught of wine containing some strong opiate, which in some degree alleviated the intense suffering of that mode of death. Mark(1) probably refers to this (xv. 23) when he states that, on reaching the place of execution, "they gave him wine [------] mingled with myrrh." The fourth Gospel has nothing of this. Matthew says (xxvii. 34): "They gave him vinegar [------] to drink mingled with gall"(2) [------]. Even if, instead of [------] with the Alexandrian and a majority of MSS., we read [------], "wine," with the Sinaitic, Vatican, and some other ancient codices, this is a curious statement, and is well worthy of a moment's notice as suggestive of the way in which these narratives were written. The conception of a suffering Messiah, it is well known, was more particularly supported, by New Testament writers, by attributing a Messianic character to Ps. xxii., lxix., and Isaiah liii., and throughout the narrative of the Passion we are perpetually referred to these and other Scriptures as finding their fulfilment in the sufferings of Jesus. The first Synoptist found in Ps. lxix. 21 (Sept. lxviii. 21): "They gave me also gall [------] for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar [------] to drink;" and apparently in order to make the supposed fulfilment correspond as closely as possible, he combined the "gall" of the food with the vinegar or wine in strangely literal fashion,(3) very characteristic, however, of 1 We shall, for the sake of brevity, call the Gospels by the names assigned to them in the Canon. 2 There have been many attempts to explain away [------], and to make it mean either a species of Vermuth or any bitter substance (Olahausen, Leidensgeech., 168); but the great mass of critics rightly retain its meaning, "Gall." So Ewald, Meyer, Bleek, Strauss, Weisse, Schenkel, Yolk-mar, Alford, Wordsworth, &c, &c. {412} the whole of the evangelists. Luke, who seems not to have understood the custom known perhaps to Mark, represents (xxiii. 36) the soldiers as mocking Jesus by "offering him vinegar "(l) [------]; he omits the gall, but probably refers to the same Psalm without being so falsely literal as Matthew.