Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
, the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). ) Heb. rosh. In Deut. 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. ” The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:19). Comp. ) Gr. chole (Matt. 27:34), the LXX. translation of the Hebrew rosh in Ps. 69; 21, which foretells our Lord’s sufferings.
The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) “mingled with gall,” or, according to Mark (15:23), “mingled with myrrh;” both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying.
He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father (John 18:11).
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
GALL, BILE, an animal fluid, of exceedingly bitter taste, secreted by the liver. Ps 69:21. Allusion is made to it in Job 16:13; Job 20:14, Job 20:25; Lam 2:11, and elsewhere. But by the same word, in Ps 69:21, reference is made to the extraction of a very bitter herb, Deut 29:18; Deut 32:32, perhaps hemlock. Hos 10:4. " Comp. Matt 27:34; Mark 15:23; Acts 8:23. See Myrrh. GAL'LERY a veranda common in Eastern houses. V. is not a correct translation of the Hebrew, which means, according to the latest researches, the colonnade or else wainscoting. Song 1:17; Zeph 41:15.