Luke 23:36
What does Luke 23:36 mean?
A plain-English look at Luke 23:36 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Luke 23:36 means
The soldiers also mock Jesus, approaching Him and offering vinegar, a sour drink. Their gesture is not compassion but derision, mirroring the rulers’ taunts. They treat the King as a plaything, blind to the majesty hidden in suffering. The cheap wine fits the cheapness of their scorn. Yet even this emphasizes that He is enduring all that sinners would pour upon Him—contempt, cruelty, misunderstanding. He absorbs it without retaliation, because His aim is to save. The King’s lowliness here is not failure; it is faithfulness, bearing reproach that He might welcome reproachful people into His kingdom.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar,
KJV
King James Version · 1611And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar,
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949And the men of the army made sport of him, coming to him and giving him bitter wine,
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862And mocking him also were the soldiers, coming near and offering vinegar to him,
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar,
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And the soldiers also made game of him, coming up offering him vinegar,
Context
After the rulers’ scorn, the soldiers echo the same challenge. Luke is drawing a circle of mockery around the cross: authorities, military, and soon one criminal. The next verse records their specific taunt about His kingship, and the inscription posted above Him will make it explicit. This prepares the reader for the turn in the narrative when the second criminal rebukes the first and appeals to Jesus’ royal mercy.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Matthew 27:34
they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.
- Matthew 27:48
And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
- Mark 15:36
And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down.
- Mark 15:19
And they smote his head with a reed, and spat upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.
- Luke 23:11
And Herod with his soldiers set him at nought, and mocked him, and arraying him in gorgeous apparel sent him back to Pilate.
- Matthew 27:29
And they platted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
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