Bible Strands
John 19:29
A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — At the crucifixion site, unnamed attendants respond to Jesus’s declaration of thirst by preparing and offering a drink. This occurs immediately after Jesus states that all Scripture must be fulfilled, and just before he receives the drink and declares his work complete.
The words — The text notes a σκεῦος (skeuos), a vessel, standing ready, and a σπόγγον (spongon), a sponge, soaked in ὄξος (oxos), sour wine. These concrete items describe the physical means by which the drink was delivered.
The thread — The use of hyssop recalls Numbers 19:18, where clean individuals use hyssop to sprinkle water for purification. The offering of sour wine parallels the mockery recorded in Luke 23:36 and Mark 15:36.
Why it lands — The account requires readers to recognize the deliberate fulfillment of Scripture through ordinary, available means. It demands attention to how physical need and divine purpose intersect in the narrative without offering comfort beyond the stated events.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
Cross-references
- Numbers 19:18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, or a person who has died or been slain.
- Luke 23:36 The soldiers also mocked Him and came up to offer Him sour wine.
- Mark 15:36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”
- Exodus 12:22 Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
- Matthew 27:48 One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.
- Psalms 51:7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
- Matthew 27:34 they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, He refused to drink it.
- 1 Kings 4:33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing in the wall, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.