while he pronounced Him innocent. Note the absence of eye and the change of order. 5. popov. Not pépwv; wearing, not merely 'bearing.' The crown and the robe are now His permanent dress. The Evangelist repeats the details (v. 2) as of a picture deeply imprinted in his memory: whether or no he entered the Praetorium, he no doubt witnessed the Ecce Homo. isov o aveρwπos. In pity rather than contempt. Pilate appeals to their humanity: surely the most bitter among them will now be satisfied, or at least the more compassionate will control the rest. No one can think that this Man is dangerous, or needs further punishment. When this appeal fails, Pilate's pity turns to bitterness (v. 14). 6. oi άρỵ. к. оi ún. Repeat the article as in xi. 47. The leaders take the initiative, to prevent any expression of compassion on the part of the crowd. The sight of the Man' maddens rather than softens them. For крavуál∞ see on xviii. 40. σTaúp. σTaúρ. Crucify, crucify. The imperative without an accusative better expresses the cry which was to give the cue to the multitude. According to all four Gospels the demand for crucifixion was not made until after the offer to release Jesus for the Feast. λaß. av. vμeîs. Take Him yourselves, as in xviii. 31. We may admit that it ought to have been beneath the dignity of a Roman judge to taunt the people with a suggestion which they dared not follow; but there is nothing so improbable in it as to compel us to believe that the Jews had the power of inflicting capital punishment (see on xviii. 31). Pilate is goaded into an exhibition of feeling unworthy of his office. The eyó again (xviii. 38) contrasts his verdict with that of the Jews. 7. vóμov. They refer to Lev. xxiv. 16. The Jews answer Pilate's taunt by a plea hitherto kept in the background. He may think lightly of the seditious conduct of Jesus, but as a Procurator he is bound by Roman precedent to pay respect to the law of subject nationalities. He has challenged them to take the law into their own hands; let him hear what their law is. Pilate had said 'Behold the Man!' The Jews retort, 'He made Himself Son of God.' They answer his appeal to their compassion by an appeal to his fears. See on viii. 53. 8-11. Inside the Praetorium; Christ's origin is asked and not told; the origin of authority is told unasked. 8. T. T. Móyov. This word: it is no mere 'saying' (¿ñμa); like the word of Caiaphas, it has more meaning than the speakers know. It intensifies Pilate's disquietude. The message from his wife and the awe which Christ's presence was probably inspiring had already in some degree affected him. This mysterious claim still further excites his fears. Was it the offspring of a divinity that he had so infamously handled? Comp. Matt. xxvii. 54. 9. πραιτώριον. See on xviii. 28. Πόθεν εί σύ; is a vague question which might apply to Christ's dwelling-place, already known to Pilate (Luke xxiii. 6); he hoped for an answer as to His origin. Would the Prisoner repeat this mysterious claim, or explain it? But Pilate could not have understood the answer; and what had it to do with the merits of the case? No answer is given. Comp. Matt. xxvii. 12—14 and Christ's own precept, Matt. vii. 6. 10. Baffled and still in doubt as to the relations between himself and his Prisoner he takes refuge in a domineering tone of assumed confidence. To me speakest Thou not? Whatever He might do before His countrymen, it was folly to refuse to answer the Roman governor. For ovolav, authority, see on i. 12 and comp. v. 27, x. 18, xvii. 2: note the emphatic repetition. 11. OVK Eixes. Comp. xv. 20. This is Christ's last word to Pilate; a declaration of the supremacy of God, and a protest against the claim of any human potentate to be irresponsible. The Accused has become the judge's Judge. Even Pilate could understand avweev: had Jesus said Tapà Tоû Tатpós μov, he would have remained uninstructed. The point is not, that Pilate is an instrument ordained for the carrying out of God's purposes (Acts ii. 23); he was such, but that is not the meaning here. Rather, that the possession and exercise of all authority is the gift of God; iii. 27; Rom. xiii. 1-7 (see notes there). To interpret 'from above' of the higher tribunal of the Sanhedrin is quite inadequate. Comp. iii. 3, 7, 31; James i. 17, iii. 15, 17, where the same adverb is used: see notes in each place. It is for this cause (see on i. 31), because Pilate's authority over Jesus is the result of a Divine commission, whereas that of His enemies was usurped, that their sin is greater than His. Moreover, they might have known Who He was. 8 Tapasoús. The addition of σo (contrast xiii. 11, xviii. 2, 5) shews that Caiaphas, the representative of the Sanhedrin and of the nation, and not Judas, is meant: comp. xviii. 35. Judas had delivered Jesus to the Sanhedrin, not to Pilate. For exav áμapтíav see on xv. 22. 12-16. Outside the Praetorium. The power from above controlled from below pronounces public sentence of death on the Innocent. 12. ÉK TOÚTOV. Upon this; see on vi. 66. The imperfect expresses continued efforts. Indirect means, as the release in honour of the Feast, the appeal to compassion, and taunts, have failed; Pilate now makes more direct efforts. We are not told what they were; but the Evangelist shews by the unwillingness of Pilate how great was the guilt of the Jews.' ἐὰν τ. ἀπολύσῃς. If thou release this man: ἀπολῦσαι and ἀπολύσῃς must be translated alike. The Jews once more shift their tactics and from the ecclesiastical charge (v. 7) go back to the political, which they now back up by an appeal to Pilate's own political interests. They know their man: it is not a love of justice, but personal feeling which moves him to seek to release Jesus; and they will overcome one personal feeling by another still stronger. Pilate's unexplained interest in Jesus and supercilious contempt for His accusers must give way before a fear for his own position and possibly even his life. Whether or no there was any such honorary title as Amicus Caesaris, like our 'Queen's Counsel,' it is unlikely that the Jews allude to it here: they simply mean 'loyal to Caesar.' For ἑαυτὸν ποιών see on viii. 53. avriλéɣel T. K. Setteth himself against Caesar; ipso facto declares himself a rebel: thus the rebellion of Korah is called avriλoyía (Jude 11). For a Roman governor to protect such a person would be high treason (majestas). The Jews scarcely knew how powerful their weapon was. Pilate's patron Sejanus (executed A.D. 31) was losing his hold over Tiberius, even if he had not already fallen. Pilate had already thrice nearly driven the Jews to revolt, and his character therefore would not stand high with an Emperor who justly prided himself on the good government of the provinces. Above all, the terrible Lex Majestatis was by this time worked in such a way that prosecution under it was almost certain death. Atrocissime exercebat leges majestatis (Suetonius). 13. Pilate's mind seems to have been made up at once: without replying he prepares to pass sentence. The fatal moment has come, and as in the case of the arrest (xviii. 1—4) the Evangelist gives minute particulars. yayev w. Sentence must be pronounced in public. Thus we find that Pilate, in giving judgment about the standards, which had been brought into Jerusalem, has his tribunal in the great circus at Caesarea, and Florus erects his in front of the palace (Josephus, B. J. II. ix. 3, xiv. 8). ékálσev may be either transitive, as in 1 Cor. vi. 4; Eph. i. 20, or intransitive, as in Matt. xix. 28, xxv. 31. If it is transitive here, the meaning will be, 'placed him on a seat,' as an illustration of his mocking exclamation, 'Behold your King!'-i.e. 'There He sits enthroned!' But [viii. 2;] xii. 14; Rev. iii. 21, xx. 4, the only places where S. John uses the word, and Acts xii. 21, xxv. 6, 17, where we have the same phrase as here, are against the transitive meaning in this place. The absence of the article before ẞnuaтos perhaps indicates that the Bema was a temporary and not the usual one; everywhere else in N. T. Bua has the article. With the pregnant use of els comp. xx. 19, (xxi. 4). AutóσTρWTOV. Josephus (Ant. v. v. 2) says that the Temple-Mount, on part of which the fortress of Antonia stood, was covered with a tesselated pavement. This fact and the Aramaic name tend to shew that the portable mosaic which Imperators sometimes carried about for their tribunals is not meant here. But Gab Baitha is no equivalent of Aóσтрwтov, though it indicates the same place: it means 'the ridge of the House,' i.e. the Temple-Mound. For 'Eßpaïori see on v. 2. 14. ἦν δὲ π. τ. π., ὥρα ἦν ὡς ἕκτη. In two abrupt sentences S. John calls special attention to the day and hour; now it was the eve of the Passover: it was about the sixth hour. It is difficult to believe that he can be utterly mistaken about both. The question of the day is discussed in Appendix A; the question as to the hour remains. We have seen already (i. 39, iv. 6, 52, xi. 9), that whatever view we may take of the balance of probability in each case, there is nothing thus far which is conclusively in favour of the antecedently improbable view, that S. John reckons the hours of the day as we do, from midnight to noon and noon to midnight. The modern method is sometimes spoken of as the Roman method. This is misleading, as it seems to imply that the Romans counted their hours as we do. If this were so, it would not surprise us so much to find that S. John, living away from Palestine and in the capital of a Roman province, had adopted the Roman reckoning. But the Romans and Greeks, as well as the Jews, counted their hours from sunrise. Martial, who goes through the day hour by hour (Iv. viii.), places the Roman method beyond a doubt. The difference between the Romans and the Jews was not as to the mode of counting the hours, but as to the limits of each individual day. The Jews placed the boundary at sunset, the Romans (as we do) at midnight. (Pliny, Nat. Hist. II. lxxvii.) The this day' of Pilate's wife (Matt. xxvii. 19) proves nothing; it would fit either the Roman or the Jewish method; and some suppose her to have been a proselyte. In this particular S. John does seem to have adopted the Roman method; for (xx. 19) he speaks of the evening of Easter Day as 'the same day at evening' (comp. Luke xxiv. 29, 33). This must be admitted as against the explanation that 'yesterday' in iv. 54 was spoken before midnight and refers to the time before sunset: but the servants may have met their master after midnight. Yet there is some evidence of a custom of reckoning from midnight in Asia Minor. Polycarp was martyred at the eighth hour' (Mart. Pol. xxI.), Pionius at 'the tenth hour' (Acta Mart. p. 137); both at Smyrna. Such exhibitions commonly took place in the morning (Philo ii. 529); so that 8.0 and 10.0 A.M. are more probable than 2.0 and 4.0 P.M. McClellan adds another argument. "The phraseology of our present passage is unique in the Gospels. The hour is mentioned in conjunction with the day. To cite the words of St Augustine, but with the correct rendering of Paraskeuê, 'S. John does not say, It was about the sixth hour of the day, nor merely, It was about the sixth hour, but It was the FRIDAY of the Passover; it was about the SIXTH hour.' Hence in the straightforward sense of the words, the sixth hour that he means is the sixth hour of the Friday; and so it is rendered in the Thebaic Version. But Friday in S. John is the name of the whole Roman civil day, and the Roman civil days are reckoned from midnight." New Test. 1. p. 742. This solution may therefore be adopted, not as certain, but as less unsatisfactory than the conjecture of a false reading either here or in Mark xv. 25, or the various forced interpretations which have been given of S. John's words. The reading Tρirη in some MSS. here is evidently a harmonizing correction. If, however, the mode of reckoning in both Gospels be the same, the preference in point of accuracy must be given to the Evangelist who stood by the cross. Se o Bas. úμav. Like the title on the cross, these words are spoken in bitter irony. This Man in His mock insignia is a fit sovereign for the miserable Jews. Perhaps Pilate would also taunt them with their own glorification of Him on Palm Sunday. To the Christian the words are another unconscious prophecy. 15. keîvol. The pronoun indicates their opposition. The four aorists are all appropriate: èкpavyaσav, they shouted out once for all; while the three aorists imperative shew their impatience to have their. will. Eraupóow is either Shall I or Must I. Note the emphatic position of T. Bao. vuŵv: 'Must I crucify your King?' Pilate begins (xviii. 33) and ends with the same idea, the one dangerous item in the indictment, the claim of Jesus to be King of the Jews. This explains the length at which S. John describes the scenes with Pilate: see introductory note on xviii. 12-27. oi apxiepeis. This depth of degradation is reserved for them. "The official organs of the theocracy themselves proclaim that they have abandoned the faith by which the nation had lived." Sooner than acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah they proclaim that a heathen Emperor is their King. And their baseness is at once followed by Pilate's: sooner than meet a dangerous charge he condemns the Innocent to death. To rid themselves of Jesus they commit political suicide; to free himself from danger he commits a judicial murder. 16. τότε οὖν π. In none of the Gospels does it appear that Pilate pronounced sentence on Jesus; he perhaps purposely avoided doing so. But in delivering Him over to the priests he does not allow them to act for themselves: 'he delivered Him to them that He might be crucified' by Roman soldiers; not that they might crucify Him themselves. 17-42. THE DEATH AND BURIAL. For what is peculiar to S. John's narrative in this section see the introductory note to chap. xviii. Besides this, the title on the cross, the Jews' criticism of it, and the conduct of the four soldiers, are given with more exactness by S. John than by the Synoptists. The section falls into four double parts, all four of which contain a marked dramatic contrast, such as S. John loves to point out (see on vv. 18 and 30) :– (1) The Crucifixion and the title on the cross (17-22). 17-22. THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE TITLE ON THE CROSS. 17. Taρélaẞov ovv. They took Jesus therefore, or they received, as in i. 11, xiv. 3. The verb means 'to accept what is offered, receive from the hands of another.' A comparison of the three texts is instructive. The eternal Son is given by the Father, comes to His own inheritance, and His own people received Him not (i. 11). The Incar |