And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
And one of the malefactors (see the note at John 19:18 ) which were hanged railed on him. The first two Evangelists say that the thieves did so (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32). Now, if we had no more than this general statement, we should naturally conclude that both of them were meant. But after reading what is here recorded-of one that did so, and the other that rebuked him for doing it-it is to us astonishing that some sensible commentators should think it necessary to take the statement of the first two Evangelists so strictly as to imply that both of them reviled our Lord; and then to infer, without a shadow of ground for it in the text, that some sudden change came over the penitent one, which turned him from an unfeeling railer into a trembling petitioner. Is it conceivable that this penitent thief, after first himself reviling the Saviour, should then, on his views of Christ suddenly changing, have turned upon his fellow-sufferer and fellow-reviler, and rebuked him, not only with dignified sharpness, but in the language of astonishment that he should be capable of such conduct? Besides, there is a deep calmness in all that he utters, extremely unlike what we should expect from one who had been the subject of a mental revolution so sudden and sso total. No, when it is said that "the thieves which were crucified with Him cast the same in His teeth," it is merely what grammarians call an 'indeterminate' plural, denoting no more than the unexpected quarter or class whence, in addition to all others the taunts proceeded. The Evangelists had been telling us that scoffs at the Redeemer proceeded from the passers by, from the ecclesiastics, and from the soldiery; but, as if that had not been enough, they tell us that they proceeded even from the thieves-a mode of speaking which no one would think necessarily meant both of them.
Thus Matthew says, "They say unto Him, We have here but five loaves," etc.; whereas we learn from the Fourth Gospel that it was one only-Andrew, Simon Peter's brother-that said this (Matthew 14:17; John 6:8). And when Mary poured her precious ointment on her Lord's head, Matthew says that "His disciples had indignation at it," and exclaimed against such waste; whereas from the Fourth Gospel we learn that it was the traitor that said this. It was but one of the criminals, then, that, catching up the general derision, "cast the same in His teeth." But his taunt had a turn of its own, a sting which the others had not.
Saying, If thou be ('the') Christ [ ho (G3588 ) Christos (G5547 )], save thyself and us. Jesus, "reviled, reviles not again;" but another voice from the cross shall nobly wipe out this dishonour, and turn it to the unspeakable glory of the divine Redeemer.