Matthew 27:35

they crucified him From the fact of the titulusor inscription being placed over the Saviour's head, it is inferred that the cross on which He suffered was such as is usually shewn in pictures, the crux immissa(†) or Latin cross as distinguished from the crux commissa(T) or the crux decussata(×) the form of cross on which St Andrew is said to have suffered. The height was from 9 to 12 feet; at a short distance from the ground a projecting rest supported the sufferer's feet, which, as well as the hands, were nailed to the cross.

According to St Mark (Mark 15:25) the Crucifixion took place at the third hour nine o'clock. St John (John 19:14) says it was about the sixth hour when Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified.

This discrepancy has received no entirely satisfactory solution. It has however been suggested that St John, writing at a later period and in a different part of the world, may have followed a different mode of reckoning time.

parted his garments, casting lots St John describes the division more accurately; they divided His himatia, or outer garments, but cast lots for the seamless chiton, or tunic. The latter is said to have been a dress peculiar to Galilæan peasants.

The Greek of the quotation from Psalms 22:18 (see below) does not convey the same distinction.

They parted my garments among them, &c. Psalms 22:18. The same psalm is quoted Matthew 27:39; Matthew 27:43; Matthew 27:46. It is not a psalm of David, but was probably "composed by one of the exiles during the Babylonish captivity … who would cling to the thought that he suffered not only as an individual, but as one of the chosen of God. But it has more than an individual reference. It looks forward to Christ." Canon Perowne on Psalms 22. The leading MSS. omit this quotation, which has probably been inserted from Mark.