Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night. — He is mentioned only by St. John. (Comp. Notes on John 3:1-2; John 7:50.)
A mixture of myrrh and aloes. — For “myrrh,” comp. Note on Matthew 2:11. “Aloes” are not elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament, but they are joined with myrrh in the Messianic Psalms 45:8. The aloe is an Eastern odoriferous wood — to be distinguished from the aloes of commerce — and chips of the better kinds are now said to be worth their weight in gold. The myrrh and aloes were probably pulverised and mixed together, and then placed in the linen in which the body was wrapped.
About an hundred pound weight. — Comp. Notes on John 12:3 et seq. The quantity is clearly much more than could have been placed in the linen which surrounded the body; but the offering was one of love, and part of it may have been placed in the sepulchre. We read of the burial of Asa, that they “laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art” (2 Chronicles 16:14).