John 19

John 19:1

Then Pilate thinking to satisfy the Jews’ importunity by inflicting this lighter punishment on him, appointed Jesus to be scourged, meaning, when he had done so, to release him: see Luke xxiii. 16.

John 19:3

And saluted him as a mock king of the Jews— “and profess to you, that having scourged him, I found nothing capital in him, or which may deserve farther punishment, or indeed any at all.

John 19:6

When therefore those of the sanhedrim, and the officers that attended them, saw him, they called to have him crucified; but Pilate professed he could find nothing for which to do it, and therefore they must do it themselves, if they would have it done, for he could not.

c took upon him to be the Son of God. d afraid of passing any sentence against him. e What is thy stock, or extraction? But Jesus—

f Wilt thou behave thyself thus obstinately toward me, who have it in my power either to put thee to death or to free thee from it?

g I am under no crime at all in which thou mayest found the right of putting me judicially to death; and having the whole host of angels at my command, I am also able to rescue myself out of thy hands; so that thou hast neither right nor power to inflict any punishment on me, were it not that God, who is my Father, hath in his great wisdom and divine counsels, for most glorious ends, to the good of the world, determined to deliver me up into thy power, to suffer death under thee. And this is a great aggravation of the sin of Judas, and the Jewish sanhedrim, he to deliver me up to them, they to make thee their instrument to serve their malice, in crucifying me, not only an innocent person, but even the Son of God himself. This they have had means to know better than thou, and therefore though thy sin be great, yet theirs being against more light, is much more criminous, and shall accordingly be more severely punished.

John 19:12

This speech of Christ’s was so resented by Pilate, that from that time he was very solicitous to have him set at liberty. But the Jews’ clamours and threats overawed him, telling him that this Jesus was a stirrer of sedition and disturber of the government,

John 19:13

[a] in the Hebrew, Gabbatha] The word is Syriac or Chaldee, and so called Hebrew here, according to the custom of the New Testament, which calls the Syriac language (being at that time the vulgar of the Jews) the Hebrew, and therefore Nonnus in his paraphrase reads,

Γαβαθὰ παφλάζοντι Σύρῳ κικλήσκετο μύθῳ, and, ver. 17, Γολγοθὰ τὸν καλέεσκε Σύρων στόμα,— and of the inscription on the cross, Ἀὐσονίῃ γλώσσῃ τε Σύρῳ, καὶ Ἀχαΐδι φωνῇ, the Syrian still, where the evangelists read Hebrew.

John 19:14

And it was the paschal day of preparation to the feast of unleavened bread, and it was toward noon or mid-day: and he saith unto the Jews—

[b] about the sixth hour] Here is a seeming difference between the evangelist and St. Mark, in the specifying the time of day wherein Christ was condemned and led immediately to crucifixion. It is here ὥρα ὡσεὶ ἕκτη, about the sixth hour, but there, Mark xv. 25, ὥρα τρίτη καὶ ἐσταύρωσαν—It was the third hour, and they crucified him. If the reading of the ancient Greek and Latin MS. were here to be heeded, this controversy were soon at an end, for that reads here ἦν ὡσεὶ τρίτη, it was about the third hour. And so Peter, bishop of Alexandria, reads it, adding καθὼς τὰ ἀκριβῆ βιβλία περιέχει, αὐτότε τὸ ἰδιόχειρον τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ ὅπερ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν πεφύλακται χάριτι Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἐφεσίων ἁγιωτάτῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν πιστῶν ἐκεῖσε προσκυνεῖται, “as the accurate copies have it, and that written with St. John’s own hand, which is still preserved in the church of Ephesus, and is had in great reverence by the faithful there.” But of what authority that relation is may yet be questioned; and the ancient Alexandrian copy, which we have oft cited by the name of the King’s MS., accords in the main with the printed copies, ἦν ὡς ἕκτη, it was as it were the sixth. And it is more probable that the reading τρίτη, the third, in Mark, should move some transcribers here to read τρίτη too, (to take away this seeming difference, and to accord the evangelists, which they conceived to differ, if it were read ἕκτη, the sixth,) than for any to turn τρίτη to ἕκτη, contrary to what was before in St. Mark, if they had found it otherwise. This other way then will be more proper to salve the difficulty: that the whole νυχθήμερον, night

John 19:16

Thereupon he passed sentence against him, according to the votes of the Jews, that he should be crucified; and the soldiers, ver. 23, led him away to execution.

John 19:17

And a cross being laid on his shoulder, he was led toward a place called in Syriac Golgotha, that is, the place of a skull, (but by the way they met Simon of Cyrene, and made him carry the cross part of the way.)

the cause of his death, his accusation, (see note [b] Mark xv.) and put it on the cross—

opponeth Cæsar, ἀντιλήγει τῷ Κ. The ancient Greek and Latin MS. read, ἂν ἀναλύψῃ, it was about the third hour; but the King’s MS., ἂν ὡς Ἰατῷ, it was about the sixth. to the place, εἰς τὸν— the Nazarene, ὁ Ναζωραῖος.

[c] bearing his cross] Christ’s carrying his cross was a part of the Roman custom of crucifying; so saith Plutarch, de Ser. Num. Vin. Τῷ σώματι τῶν κολαζομένων ἕκαστος τῶν κακούργων ἐκφέρει τὸν αὐτοῦ σταυρὸν, “Every one of the malefactors that are to be put to death carries out his own cross.” So Artemidorus, Ὁ μέλλων προσηλούσθαι πρότερον σταυρὸν βαστάσει, “He that is to be nailed to the cross first carries it upon his shoulders;” and so Plautus distinctly, Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci, “Let him carry it through the city, and then be fastened to it.” And whereas in the other Gospels there is no mention of this, but only of their pressing Simon of Cyrene to carry it for him, (which is not mentioned here,) the way of reconciling that difficulty is very easy, by affirming, that he first bare it himself, according to the Roman custom, (which St. John, according to his wont, mentions, because it was omitted by the rest,) but after, meeting Simon by the way, they made him bear it for him.

John 19:21

Then they of the Jewish sanhedrim said to Pilate— The inscription shall not be altered. under garment, (see Luke xxiii. 34,) which was woven all of one piece.

This therefore was exactly, according to that prediction, done by the soldiers.

John, he said unto his mother, John shall supply the place of a son to thee, to sustain thee: (see note [b] 1 Tim. v.)

John 19:27

And to John, Deal thou with her as with thine own mother: whereupon John took her home to his own house with him.

28, 29. After this, Jesus considering that all this while, or thus far, all the prophecies concerning him had punctually been fulfilled, to give farther occasion to the fulfilling that of Psalm lxix. 22, he saith, I thirst. Or, seeing that now all was completed, save only that one particular prediction, he calls for somewhat to drink, knowing that, according to that of the psalmist, they would give him vinegar: and accordingly so they did.

John 19:30

And as soon as he had drunk of that, he said aloud, All prophecies are now fulfilled, as far as belongs to my life; and bowing his head, as in a gesture of adoration and prayer, he said, Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit; and so expired.

John 19:31

Then the Jews, that the bodies of the dead might be quickly taken from the cross, and not hang there on the day following, which was the first day of unleavened bread, (to which this day of the pasch was the eve or preparation,) and also Saturday, and so a feast and a sabbath together, besought Pilate—

[c] It is not lawful for us to — | The Jewish rabbins were wont to say, that “forty years before the destruction of the second temple, the power of judicature in capital crimes was taken from them, because,” say they, “murderers prevailed, and dissipated capital punishments from Israel.” And accordingly it appears that Christ here was crucified by the Romans, the Jewish form of hanging being by stoning first, and then setting up a stake and a piece of wood across it, and hanging the dead person up (his hands being joined and nailed together) toward the west, and then taking him down, and burying the wood with him: but for crucifying men alive, as the Romans did Christ, there is nothing to be found among the Jews, who, if they had had the execution of him, would first have stoned him, which they often attempted to do. See Paul. Fagius on the Chald. Paraph. Deut. xxi. 22.

[d] an high day] That day was the first of unleavened bread, and the sabbath too, and therefore a sabbath, and a great day. For that which is among the Hebrews חכ, a feast, קרא מקרא, convocatio cætus, “the day of solemn assembly” in any feast, (such were the first day and the last of the feast of tabernacles, the first and seventh of the feast of unleavened bread, and the day of Pentecost,) is by the Jews, writing in Greek, called μεγάλη ἡμέρα, a great day. So it is rendered by the Greek, Isaiah i. 13, μεγάλη ἡμέρα, where we read calling of assemblies. Hence is that of Tertull. cont. Marci. l. 5, Dies observatis, &c. “Ye observe days,” and among them he names jejunia et dies magnos, “fasts and great days.” So John vii. 37, the last day of the feast of tabernacles, which was a day of calling assemblies, is there called μεγάλη ἡμέρα τῆς ἰορτῆς, the great day of the feast. See Scal. Proleg. de Emend. Temp. p. 7 et 6.

John 19:32

The soldiers therefore, according to appointment, went to take them down; and lest there should be any life in them, and so being taken down they should run away and escape, they brake the legs of the two thieves.

35, 36. And John, the writer of this, testified the *as yet were finished, or, fulfilled, &c. verlncrtu. * that was a great sabbath day.

John 19:35

[e] saw it] This speech of this evangelist, and his so much care HAMMOND ANNOTT. Z

John 19:37

Zech. xii. 10. ¶ not following him openly, for fear of the Jews— ʳ See ch. iii. 2.

John 19:40

No, by no means; but release to us Barabbas. This Barabbas was one that in an insurrection had been guilty of murder, Acts iii. 14, and was a robber also. ### CHAP. XIX.

John 19:41

Now near the place of his crucifixion there was a garden, where this Joseph had a tomb, (Matt. xxvii. 60,) which he had newly hewed out for his own use, and nobody had as yet ever been buried in it.

ᵇ See ver. 31. ¹⁰ swathes. ¹¹ embalm, ἀνταφιάζειν.