The people stood beholding

(ιστηκε). Past perfect active of ιστημ, intransitive and like imperfect. A graphic picture of the dazed multitude, some of whom may have been in the Triumphal Entry on Sunday morning.Scoffed

(εξεμυκτηριζον). Imperfect active, perhaps inchoative, began to turn up (out, εξ) at the dying Christ. The language comes from Psalms 22:7.The Christ of God

(ο Χριστος του θεου). He had claimed to be just this (Luke 22:67; Luke 22:70). The sarcastic sneer (he saved others; let him save others, for himself he cannot save) is in Mark 15:31; Matthew 27:42. Luke alone gives the contemptuous use of ουτος (this fellow) and the fling in "the elect" (ο εκλεκτος). These rulers were having their day at last.

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Old Testament