When very young, when I first heard this gospel, I thought ‘vinegar’ !!! (here sour wine) was the Romans being nasty to Jesus. But later, reading a little history, I learned that Roman soldiers (legions/auxiliaries) generally drank their water mixed with vinegar (usually made from low quality wine) as their normal drink (local water tastes bad or has germs which vinegar kills ... )
Here in this version they mention more clearly that the ‘sour wine’ was sitting there (crucifying is hard thirsty work) and they were simply giving him a drink of their water -— which would have been a little clearer than the more tersely worded version I heard as a kid.
Very interesting... I had no idea. Thanks.
From that perspective, it seems more an act of mercy on their part.