A great company of people, and of women. — Here, again, we come across a characteristic incident peculiar to St. Luke, and obviously derived from the devout women to whom we have traced so many facts which he alone records. (See Introduction.)Daughters of Jerusalem” were there, as our Lord’s words show — perhaps one of the sisterhoods which were formed in that city for mitigating the sufferings of condemned criminals by narcotic drinks (Deutsch. Remains, p. 38) — and among these may have been Mary and Martha, but Luke 23:49 implies the presence of women from Galilee also. The wailing was loud and bitter, for they, we may believe, had cherished, even more fondly than the disciples, the thought that “the kingdom of God should immediately appear” (Luke 19:11).

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