Xylosspongium is the Greek word for a sponge on a stick This all gets messy and complicated, but you'll understand.

I was watching a documentary about the origins of the Germanic tribes. A fictional character in the story is in a predicament with two bad choices. Either he gets captured by another Germanic tribe and is sold as a slave or he tries to escape by crossing into Roman territory and risks getting captured and sold as a slave. He is caught by the Romans as he tries to sneak over the border and is forced to begin training, instead, as a gladiator. During the drama, it is explained that had this German gladiator been forced to fight with his Germanic tribesmen, the last living German gladiator would have committed suicide by swallowing a sponge.

Why had I never read about this before? Suddenly, the blog you are now reading began to unfurl in my mind. Gladiators and Christ and a fight to the death. Insults, ignominy, disgust.

Xylosspongium is the Greek word for a sponge on a stick, the then equivalent of a toilet brush. It is documented as a latrine cleaner just as is its use as a means of suicide:

"In the middle of the first century Seneca reported that a Germanic gladiator commits suicide with a sponge on a stick. The Germanic hides himself in the latrine of an amphitheater and pushed the wooden stick in his gullet" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylospongium). Another source says that this was suicide by suffocation.

 The Roman guards offered the nearly-dead hung-up Jesus a sponge soaked with vinegar.  John 19:29 reads "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit" (http://biblehub.com/john/19-29.htm).

History has it that vinegar and water were the common drink of Roman soldier as well as a drink for gladiators. "A little draught of a sleeping drug in the cup of posca, the watered vinegar that each gladiator would rinse his mouth with before entering the arena, would insure that in a few minutes the man's reaction time would slow down" (https://www.wordnik.com/words/posca).

The Roman guards weren't having a momentary twinge of conscience by offering to let Jesus slake his thirst. In my opinion, they were offering him the bad end of the stick and maybe insulting him about suicide. I am not unique in this opinion:

"When I learned after contacting this site that vinegar soaked sponges were used by Romans to clean their asses, suddenly the memory of that little detail popped into my head...And of course, I have never heard anyone report that this shit-stained sponge may have been the final insult of the crucifixion, not even in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ" (http://www.poopreport.com/Intellectual/jesuss_last_days.html).

I never found the Bible easy to read, mainly because it never seemed to clearly explain a lot of what it recorded. This detail about Jesus pleading for a drink, and then being given vinegar from a sponge instead of water, is a good example of how vague the Bible can be. I have never heard anyone ever explain why the Roman soldier gave Jesus vinegar. And of course, I have never heard anyone report that this shit-stained sponge may have been the final insult of the crucifixion, not even in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. - See more at: http://www.poopreport.com/Intellectual/jesuss_last_days.html#sthash.BX6SykFE.dpuf

I never found the Bible easy to read, mainly because it never seemed to clearly explain a lot of what it recorded. This detail about Jesus pleading for a drink, and then being given vinegar from a sponge instead of water, is a good example of how vague the Bible can be. I have never heard anyone ever explain why the Roman soldier gave Jesus vinegar. And of course, I have never heard anyone report that this shit-stained sponge may have been the final insult of the crucifixion, not even in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. - See more at: http://www.poopreport.com/Intellectual/jesuss_last_days.html#sthash.BX6SykFE.dpuf