Matthew 27:47-49 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Some said, This man calleth for Elias These must have been some of the strangers, of whom there was always a great concourse at the passover, who did not understand the dialect then spoken in Jerusalem. And one of them ran, &c. Jesus knowing that he had now accomplished every thing required by God of the Messiah, and foretold by the prophets, excepting that circumstance of his sufferings, which was predicted Psalms 69:21, In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink, in order to give occasion to the accomplishment of this like wise, he said aloud, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, (John 19:28.) And one took a sponge and filled it with vinegar It is well known, that vinegar and water (which mixture was called posca) was the common drink of the Roman soldiers, for which purpose they usually carried vinegar with them in vessels when on duty. Perhaps, therefore, this vinegar was set here for their use, or for that of the crucified persons, whose torture would naturally make them thirsty. And put it on a reed They put the sponge, as John tells us, upon hyssop, that is, a stalk of hyssop, called by the other evangelists καλαμος, which signifies not only a reed, but the stalk of any plant. For that hyssop was a shrub, appears from 1 Kings 4:33, where it is reckoned among the trees. This office they performed to Jesus, not so much from pity, as to preserve him alive, in the hopes of seeing the miracle of Elijah's descent from heaven, as appears from the next verse.