CHAPTER 19

Jn 19:1–16. Jesus before Pilate—Scourged—Treated with Other Severities and Insults—Delivered Up, and Led Away to Be Crucified.

1. Pilate took Jesus and scourged him—in hope of appeasing them. (See Mk 15:15). “And the soldiers led Him away into the palace, and they call the whole band” (Mk 15:16)—the body of the military cohort stationed there—to take part in the mock coronation now to be enacted.

2. the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head—in mockery of a regal crown.

and they put on him a purple robe—in mockery of the imperial purple; first “stripping him” (Mt 27:28) of His own outer garment. The robe may have been the “gorgeous” one in which Herod arrayed and sent Him back to Pilate (Lu 23:11). “And they put a reed into His right hand” (Mt 27:29)—in mockery of the regal scepter. “And they bowed the knee before Him” (Mt 27:29).

3. And said, Hail, King of the Jews!—doing Him derisive homage, in the form used on approaching the emperors. “And they spit upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head” (Mt 27:30). The best comment on these affecting details is to cover the face.

4, 5. Pilate … went forth again, and saith … Behold, I bring him forth to you—am bringing, that is, going to bring him forth to you.

that ye may know I find no fault in him—and, by scourging Him and allowing the soldiers to make sport of Him, have gone as far to meet your exasperation as can be expected from a judge.

5. Then Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!—There is no reason to think that contempt dictated this speech. There was clearly a struggle in the breast of this wretched man. Not only was he reluctant to surrender to mere clamor an innocent man, but a feeling of anxiety about His mysterious claims, as is plain from what follows, was beginning to rack his breast, and the object of his exclamation seems to have been to move their pity. But, be his meaning what it may, those three words have been eagerly appropriated by all Christendom, and enshrined for ever in its heart as a sublime expression of its calm, rapt admiration of its suffering Lord.

6, 7. When the chief priests … saw him, they cried out—their fiendish rage kindling afresh at the sight of Him.

Crucify him, crucify him—(See Mk 15:14).

Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him; for I find no fault in him—as if this would relieve him of the responsibility of the deed, who, by surrendering Him, incurred it all!

7. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God—Their criminal charges having come to nothing, they give up that point, and as Pilate was throwing the whole responsibility upon them, they retreat into their own Jewish law, by which, as claiming equality with God (see Jn 5:18 and Jn 8:59), He ought to die; insinuating that it was Pilate’s duty, even as civil governor, to protect their law from such insult.

8. When Pilate … heard this saying, he was the more afraid—the name “Son of God,” the lofty sense evidently attached to it by His Jewish accusers, the dialogue he had already held with Him, and the dream of his wife (Mt 27:19), all working together in the breast of the wretched man.

9. and went again into the judgment hall, and saith to Jesus, Whence art thou?—beyond all doubt a question relating not to His mission but to His personal origin.

Jesus gave him no answer—He had said enough; the time for answering such a question was past; the weak and wavering governor is already on the point of giving way.

10. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not to me?—The “me” is the emphatic word in the question. He falls back upon the pride of office, which doubtless tended to blunt the workings of his conscience.

knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?—said to work upon Him at once by fear and by hope.

11. Thou couldest—rather, “shouldst.”

have no power at all against me—neither to crucify nor to release, nor to do anything whatever against Me [Bengel].

except it were—“unless it had been.”

given thee from above—that is, “Thou thinkest too much of thy power, Pilate: against Me that power is none, save what is meted out to thee by special divine appointment, for a special end.”

therefore he that delivered me unto thee—Caiaphas, too wit—but he only as representing the Jewish authorities as a body.

hath the greater sin—as having better opportunities and more knowledge of such matters.

12. And from thenceforth—particularly this speech, which seems to have filled him with awe, and redoubled his anxiety.

Pilate sought to release him—that is, to gain their consent to it, for he could have done it at once on his authority.

but the Jews cried—seeing their advantage, and not slow to profit by it. If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend, &c.—“This was equivalent to a threat of impeachment, which we know was much dreaded by such officers as the procurators, especially of the character of Pilate or Felix. It also consummates the treachery and disgrace of the Jewish rulers, who were willing, for the purpose of destroying Jesus, to affect a zeal for the supremacy of a foreign prince” [Webster and Wilkinson]. (See Jn 19:15).

When Pilate … heard that, … he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in—“upon”

the judgment seat—that he might pronounce sentence against the Prisoner, on this charge, the more solemnly.

in a place called the Pavement—a tesselated pavement, much used by the Romans.

in the Hebrew, Gabbatha—from its being raised.