SEV Biblia, Chapter 27:35
Y despus que le hubieron colgado del madero, repartieron sus vestidos, echando suertes, para que se cumpliese lo que fue dicho por el profeta: Se repartieron mis vestidos, y sobre mi ropa echaron suertes.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 27:35
Verse 35. And they crucified him] Crucifixion properly means the act of nailing or tying to a cross. The cross was made of two beams, either crossing at the top at right angles, like a T, or in the middle of their length, like an X. There was, besides, a piece on the center of the transverse beam, to which the accusation or statement of the crime of the culprit was attached, and a piece of wood which projected from the middle, on which the person sat, as on a sort of saddle; and by which the whole body was supported. Tertullian mentions this particularly: Nobis, says he, tota crux imputatur, cum antenna scilicet sua, et cum illo SEDILLS excessu. Advers. Nationes, lib. ii. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, gives precisely the same description of the cross; and it is worthy of observation that both he and Tertullian flourished before the punishment of the cross had been abolished. The cross on which our Lord suffered was of the former kind; being thus represented in all old monuments, coins, and crosses. St. Jerome compares it to a bird flying, a man swimming, or praying with his arms extended. The punishment of the cross was inflicted among the ancient Hindoos from time immemorial for various species of theft; see Halhead's Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 248, and was common among the Syrians, Egyptians, Persians, Africans, Greeks, and Romans: it is also still in use among the Chinese, who do not nail, but tie the criminal to it. It was probably the Romans who introduced it among the Jews.
Before they became subject to the Romans, they used hanging or gibbeting, but not the cross. This punishment was the most dreadful of all others, both for the shame and pain of it: and so scandalous, that it was inflicted as the last mark of detestation upon the vilest of people. It was the punishment of robbers and murderers, provided they were slaves; but if they were free, it was thought too infamous a punishment for such, let their crimes be what they might.
The body of the criminal was fastened to the upright beam, by nailing or tying the feet to it, and on the transverse piece by nailing, and sometimes tying the hands to it. As the hands and feet are the grand instruments of motion, they are provided with a greater quantity of nerves; and the nerves in those places, especially the hands, are peculiarly sensible. Now, as the nerves are the instruments of all sensation or feeling, wounds in the parts where they abound must be peculiarly painful; especially when inflicted with such rude instruments as large nails, forced through the places by the violence of a hammer; thus tearing asunder the nervous fibrillae, delicate tendons, and small bones of those parts. This punishment will appear dreadful enough, when it is considered that the person was permitted to hang (the whole weight of his body being borne up by his nailed hands and the projecting piece which passed between the thighs) till he perished through agony and lack of food. Some, we are informed, have lived three whole days in this state. It is true that, in some cases, there was a kind of mercy shown to the sufferer, which will appear sufficiently horrid, when it is known that it consisted in breaking the bones of their legs and thighs to pieces with a large hammer, in order to put them the sooner out of pain! Such a coup de grace as this could only spring from those tender mercies of the wicked which God represents as cruelty itself. Some were permitted to hang on the cross till eaten up by birds of prey, which often began to tear them before life was extinct. Horace alludes to this punishment, and from what he says, it seems to have been inflicted on slaves, &c., not on trifling occasions, but for the most horrible crimes.
Si quis eum servum, patinam qui tollere jussus Semesos pisces tepidumque ligurrierit jus, In CRUCE suffigat. HOR. Satyr. l. i. s. 3. v. 80 If a poor slave who takes away your plate, Lick the warm sauce, or half cold fragments eat, Yet should you crucify the wretch! - FRANCIS Non hominem occidi: non pasces in CRUCE corvos.
"I have not committed murder: Then thou shalt not be nailed to the cross, to feed the ravens." HOR. Epist. l. i. s. 16. v. 48.
The anguish occasioned by crucifixion was so intense, that crucio, (a cruce,) among the Romans, was the common word by which they expressed suffering and torment in general.
And parted his garments, casting lots] These were the Roman soldiers, who had crucified him: and it appears from this circumstance, that in those ancient times the spoils of the criminal were claimed by the executioners, as they are to the present day. It appears that they divided a part, and cast lots for the rest: viz. for his seamless coat, John xix. 23, 24.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.] The whole of this quotation should be omitted, as making no part originally of the genuine text of this evangelist. It is omitted by almost every MS. of worth and importance, by almost all the versions, and the most reputable of the primitive fathers, who have written or commented on the place. The words are plainly an interpolation, borrowed from John xix. 24, in which place they will be properly noticed.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 35. And they crucified him , etc.] 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 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 f1683 ; as it was of the Jews to stone and hang persons naked: their canons run thus f1684 ; 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 says, what is the sense of the Rabbins? the Scripture says, thou shalt hang him; him, and not her: and, says R. Eliezer, him, wtwsk alb , 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 ( John 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 ( Psalm 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 Munsters Hebrew Gospel; (see Gill on John 19:24).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 35-44 - It was usual to put shame upon malefactors, by a writing to notify the crime for which they suffered. So they set up one over Christ's head This they designed for his reproach, but God so overruled it, that eve his accusation was to his honour. There were crucified with him at the same time, two robbers. He was, at his death, numbered among the transgressors, that we, at our death, might be numbered among the saints. The taunts and jeers he received are here recorded. The enemie of Christ labour to make others believe that of religion and of the people of God, which they themselves know to be false. The chie priests and scribes, and the elders, upbraid Jesus with being the Kin of Israel. Many people could like the King of Israel well enough, if he would but come down from the cross; if they could but have his kingdo without the tribulation through which they must enter into it. But if no cross, then no Christ, no crown. Those that would reign with him must be willing to suffer with him. Thus our Lord Jesus, havin undertaken to satisfy the justice of God, did it, by submitting to the punishment of the worst of men. And in every minute particular recorde about the sufferings of Christ, we find some prediction in the Prophet or the Psalms fulfilled.
Greek Textus Receptus
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