Luke 19:35

ἐπιρίψαντες … τὰ ἱμάτια. To do Jesus royal honour. Comp. 2 Kings 9:13. Vulg[333] jactantes. The verb which is a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον in the N.T. implies hasty action.

[333] Vulg. Vulgate.

ἐπεβίβασαν. It is clear that He rode upon the unused foal, which was probably led by the bridle, while it is possible that the mother went by its side. St Matthew, however, alone (apparently) mentions two animals (Luke 21:2; Luke 21:7), and possibly this may have been due to some confusion arising out of the Hebrew parallelism (Zechariah 9:9, “riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, son of she-asses”) in the translation into Greek from an Aramaic document. The ass in the East is not a despised animal (Genesis 22:3; Genesis 49:14; Judges 5:10), and it is only because it was despised by Gentiles that Josephus substitutes for it ‘horse’ or ‘beast of burden,’ and the Seventy (LXX[334]) soften it down into ‘foal,’ &c. The Gentile world abounded in sneers against this narrative, and had all sorts of absurd stories about the Jews and the ass, or ass’s head, which they were supposed to worship (Jos. c. Ap. II. 10; Tac. Hist. v. 3. 4). The Christians were also called ass-worshippers (Tert. Apol.16; Minuc. Fel. Oct. 9), and this calumny is alluded to in one of the hideously blasphemous wall caricatures (Graffiti). (See however King’s Gnostics, p. 90; Lundy, Monumental Christianity, p. 60.)

[334] LXX. Septuagint.