they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitters

χολή, ῆς, ἡ (χόλος ‘gall, bile’; since Archilochus [VII B.C.], Fgm. 96; PGM 36, 284; LXX; TestSol 5:9; 13; TestJob 43:8; Test12Patr, ApcEsdr, Philo; Jos., Ant. 17, 173; Mel., P. 79, 574; loanw. in rabb. The equivalent χόλος Hom. et al. is used in both the lit. sense of ‘gall, bile’ and the fig. ‘bitter anger’.)

① lit. a substance w. an unpleasant taste, someth. bitter, gall (PSI 1180, 103 [II A.D.], bile of a hyena; the LXX uses χολή to transl. (a) מְרֵרָה=gall Job 16:13; (b) מְרֹרָה=poison Job 20:14; (c) לַעֲנָה=wormwood Pr 5:4; La 3:15; (d) רֹאשׁ=poison Dt 29:17 [of an unspecified poisonous plant]; Ps 68:22) ἔδωκαν αὐτῷ πιεῖν οἶνον μετὰ χολῆς μεμιγμένον they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitters (so Moffatt) Mt 27:34 (fr. Ps 68:22 [?]; cp. Mk 15:23 wine laced w. myrrh).—B 7:3, 5; GPt 5:16 (s. ὄξος).—Zohary, Plants 186.

② fig. ext. of 1: the Semitic idiom χολὴ πικρίας gall of bitterness, bitter gall Ac 8:23 (πικρία 1) in ref. to Simon Magus prob.= bitter poison and refers to his predicament in a state of sin (cp. Dt 29:17 ἐν χολῇ καὶ πικρίᾳ; on the theme 1QS 2:11–17), not to an emotional condition. (Sometimes cited in this connection, but of a difft. order is Biogr. p. 153 the tragedian Philocles ἐπεκαλεῖτο Χολὴ διὰ τό πικρόν.)—PKatz conjectures ἐν χολῇ for ἐνοχλῇ (s. ἐνοχλέω) Hb 12:15 (ZNW 49, ’58, 213–23) on the basis of Dt 29:17 (cp. P⁴⁶ ἐνχ[.]λη). In such case χολή refers to an emotional condition: wrath.—B. 1134. DELG s.v. χόλος. M-M.