Bible Commentaries
John 19

Verses 1-42

XIX 1-7 Scourging and Ecce Homo—1. Pilate ordered the scourging. Generally a preliminary of crucifixion, it was administered with the horrible flagellum made of thongs or the still more horrible flagrum armed with bone or metal. The mode of executing the penalty is described elsewhere, § 721h.

2 f. The soldiers themselves took the initiative in the mockery of the crown of thorns. Jn mentions the crown, the purple garment, the mock-imperial salute (imitation of Ave Caesar imperator), the blows with the open hand; he omits the reed, the genuflexions, the spittings.

4. Pilate seizes on what he considers a new opportunity of saving Jesus. Disfigured by the wounds and blood caused by scourges and thorns, and wearing a crown and a robe that made him look much more pathetic than any tinselled pretender to royalty could possibly be, Jesus was led out. ’Behold the man’ was intended to excite pity or (in the more brutal) such a kind of laughter as would wish to push tragedy no further.

6. In the chief priests (here mentioned for the first time as a group directing hostilities before the praetorium) and in the Levitical guards it only excited more emphatic hatred. The cry ’Crucify, crucify’, recorded for the first time by Jn and with the stark brevity of verb without object (attested by the best Gk and Lat. MSS) represents a frenzy of hatred. Pilate stiffens before it. There is both sarcasm and strong contempt in the words: ’Take him you and crucify him: for I find no cause in him’. For the third time in Jn (4th in the harmonized narrative) Pilate says, ’I find no cause’. American Seniors Association

7. The Sanhedrists being stung by the scoff at their dependence on Rome to carry out a capital sentence, their fury turns back, in spite of their plans, to the religious charge. For a capital crime against Roman law they substitute a crime against Jewish law—blasphemy, punishable by the Jewish code with stoning or (failing the power to stone) by execution in the Roman way, i.e. by substituting the Roman penalty of crucifixion. The words: ’He made himself the Son of God’ can have nothing but their full sense. Otherwise the blasphemy statute of Leviticus 24:16 could not be invoked.

8-16 Last Interrogation and Sentence—8. Pilate must have already felt, at least vaguely, that no man ever faced jealous hatred like this man. Hence his scepticism could not prevent him, on hearing of Jesus’ claim to be ’Son of God’, from suspecting that the prisoner might be more than human.

9. It was, however, superstitious fear and curiosity rather than love of truth that prompted his question: ’Whence art thou?’ Jesus did not answer. American Seniors Association

10. Pilate’s remark in the face of this silence shows that he conceived himself as supreme arbiter of the prisoner’s liberty and life.

11. The answer of Jesus refers to the present situation—to the power of the death-sentence towards which Pilate was drifting. ’The power given from above’ does not refer to Pilate’s civil jurisdiction. Pilate has the power to crucify by a permissive decree of God not authorizing the crime but permitting the event in view of the redemption of the world. ’Therefore he that hath delivered me to thee, hath greater sin’. The one who has greater sin is Caiphas rather than Judas. The latter’s treason was indeed blackest of all, but is not presumed known to Pilate, who had moreover already said: ’Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me’. The ’therefore’ is exceedingly difficult to interpret. The logical connexion implied in it would seem to be conveyed most satisfactorily by the following paraphrase: ’You, Pilate, a pagan and under God’s permissive providence an instrument in this crime, partly unwilling, though sufficiently responsible to be a sinner, have sin indeed, but for the very reason of your lesser and his greater responsibility, the spiritual ruler of Israel who handed Israel’s Messias over to you has greater sin’.

12-16. As Pilate is now seeking to release Jesus it is clear that the religious charge has failed; and since the political charge has also failed, there is only one thing left, to play on Pilate’s fears for his own security. The Sanhedrists now play their last desperate card and wrest the death-sentence from Pilate by intimidation.

12. After the last word of Jesus—’And from this’ is both temporal and logical—Pilate tried to release him. He is deterred by the threat of denunciation to the emperor. Not to be ’a friend of Caesar’ was a serious matter, when the Caesar was Tiberius who, as Suetonius informs us, was atrociously severe where there were suspicions or charges of treason’judicia maiestatis atrocissime exercuit’ ( Vita Tiberii, 58). ’If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king declares against Caesar’—this was decisive. 13. Pilate had Jesus brought out and set up his tribunal—the folding curule chair of a Roman magistrate—’in the place . . . called Lithostrotos’ (from the remarkable pavement), but also known by the Hebrew (Aramaic) name of Gabbatha, meaning a height or eminence rather than a bare front (also etymologically possible). Pilate caved in to peer pressure and knowing Jesus was innocent,he had Jesus Scourged and then condemned an innocent man to a most gruesome death.

14. Jn also carefully notes the time. Parasceve (preparation) had become synonymous with Friday, but here it probably means the preparation day before the Pasch. It was actually Friday, Mark 15:42. The hour was approximately the sixth (probably about 11 a.m., cf.Mark 15:20 ’the third hour’). Defeated but haughty towards those forcing his hand, Pilate said: ’Behold your king’.

15. Another frenzied cry for the crucifixion of their victim—and Pilate responded with the deliberate question: ’Am I to crucify your king?’ To which the leaders of the theocratic people said: ’We have no king but Caesar’.

16. According to legal form the sentence had to be read—as being irrevocable. A usual form of sentence was Ibis ad crucem—’Thou shalt go to the cross’. All that Jn says however is that Pilate delivered him to the Jews that he might be crucified (by an execution squad of four Roman soldiers under the command of a centurion).

16b-22 The Crucifixion —Jn is very brief regarding the via dolorosa. He does not repeat what Mt, Mk, Lk had recorded of Simon the Cyrenean, nor the sympathy shown by some women of Jerusalem, Lk. It was of course the soldiers, not the Jews, that took Jesus (and led him out). 17. The cross which he carried would, on the basis of probabilities established by ancient references to crucifixion, be the patibulum or cross-beam only. The upright, which the Gk word ?ta??ó? more properly indicates, would in this case have been already erected at the place of execution. Nevertheless, all the narratives suggest that Jesus carried a heavier weight than a mere cross-beam; the use of one and the same word by Jn identifies the instrument which Jesus carried with that beside which his mother stood; Tertullian who knew the facts of crucifixion, writing against Jews ( Adv. Jud, 10), says very confidently: ’Jesus carried his cross on his shoulder’—note singular number, for the patibulum was lashed over both shoulders. Jesus, therefore, probably carried the whole cross, which was a crux immissa (not decussata or commissa), having an upright above the cross-beam, to which an inscription could be affixed; cf. § 722b. The place of crucifixion was called Golgotha (Aram. Gulgulta), meaning skull, not because the skull of Adam was unearthed there to receive the flow of Christ’s blood—a beautiful conception still often represented on crucifixes—nor because it was like a head in the imaginary topographic skeleton of Jerusalem, but simply because it was a hill promontory such as Arabs in Jerusalem still call râs (head). As the Calvary under the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is most probably the true site, we can calculate the length of the via dolorosa—from Antonia to Golgotha—as something over one-third of a mile.

18. Jn repeats, in a different form of words, what the Synoptists recorded of the crucifixion of Jesus between two thieves (Isaiah 53:12—but the citation in Mark 15:28 is possibly a gloss imported from Luke 22:37).

19. The form of the title of the cross, given substantially by Mt, Mk, Lk, is most probably reproduced with verbal accuracy by Jn. As Pilate had to write the sentence of crucifixion, the words ’Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews’ would be excerpted from some such formula as: Jesum Xazarenum Regem Judaeorum crucis supplicio animadverti placet. With the same evident unwillingness the proconsul Galerius Maximus pronounced a similarly worded sentence of decapitation on St Cyprian.

20. Pilate would have written Jesus Nazaremus Rex Judaeorum with his own hand in Latin (the language of administration) and then ordered the same to be written in Greek (the language of lettered people and of pilgrims) and in Hebrew (Aramaic, the spoken language of Palestine).

21 f. His firmness in refusing to change the title of the cross was a magistrate’s insistence on the irrevocability of a Roman sentence, mixed with a desire to have this revenge on the Jews; but, in God’s providence, Pilate’s inscription stands as a perpetual monument of the Kingship of Jesus of Nazareth.

23-24 Division of Garments —Here Jn adds notable clarifying details. None of the evangelists say that Jesus was crucified in absolute nakedness, but that was undoubtedly the rule, and the Fathers and most commentators have supposed that there was no departure from the rule in this case. Judging from passages in the Talmud, Jewish feeling was against total nudity even in capital executions. The blasphemous (2nd cent.?) graffito of the crucifixion from the Paedagogium of the Palatine at Rome cannot indeed be adduced as evidence on this point, but it is worth noting that it shows a loin-cloth. Four pieces of the clothing in which Jesus went to Calvary fell to the four soldiers of the execution squad. These (cloak, cincture, sandals and head-dress?) were divided. The completely woven unsewn tunic was too valuable to tear into pieces. They cast lots for it, and thus literally fulfilled the prophecy of Ps 21(22):19 here cited by Jn, but of doubtful authenticity in Mt. This seamless coat or tunic (which Trier and Argenteuil claim to possess) has, at least from the time of St Cyprian, been regarded as a symbol of the unity of the Church.

25-27 Jesus and His Mother —Jn draws a marked contrast, difficult to render in translation, between the soldiers who did these things and the little group that stood beside the cross.

25. The balance of the opening phrase (even as estimated by the maker of the Syriac Peshitta) leads us to distinguish not three but four women beside the cross or Jesus. The disputed point is whether ’his mother’s sister’ is ’Mary of Cleophas’ or another cousin of our Lady. The general love of anonymity and reticence shown by Jn would suggest that if she is the latter we must identify her with Salome, his own mother, who was certainly on Calvary that day, Mark 15:40. As Mary Cleophas is identifiable with ’Mary the Mother of James the less, and of Joseph’, Mark 15:40, Jn most probably mentions the same three women as Mk, but Jn alone names the Saviour’s mother, § 673b. The incomparable comment of St Ambrose at the end of a letter to the clergy of Vercellae (Vercelli) should be read in PL 16, 1218. Part of this eloquent page is found in the Breviary (Sept 15). 26 f. The literal or immediate sense of Jesus’ words: ’Woman, behold thy son’ (addressed to his mother) and ’Behold thy mother’ (addressed to Jn) is a last touching fulfilment of the fourth commandment. Jesus provides for his mother, and the privileged legatee of this precious trust is ’the disciple whom Jesus loved’. 27b indicates this clearly: ’From that hour (comparable in many ways to the 10th hour of that wonderful first day 1:39) the disciple took her to his home’. The further spiritual meaning (which attaches a declaration of the universal spiritual maternity of Mary to these words) is barely suggested by Origen in the 3rd cent., and is not clearly enunciated (except rhetorically by George of Nicomedia, friend of Photius) either in the east or the west, till it finds its theologian in Rupert of Deutz ( 1070-1129). The position of this interpretation in the Church today scarcely permits us to regard it as an accommodated sense. Jn is mystically the representative of the human race called to be spiritual children of the Mother of Jesus. This motherhood of Mary was, latently at least, the mind of the Church from the earliest times— ’hoc perpetuo sensit Ecclesia’ (Leo XIII, Sept. 5, 1895—cf. Pius XI, Rerum Ecclesiæe, Feb. 28, 1927).

28-30 Last Words and Death of Jesus —Of the first three words of petition, pardon, and piety spoken by Jesus on the cross, Jn has only the third just dealt with; of the last four words of desolation (moral suffering), thirst (physical suffering), consummation, and voluntary surrender, he has two: ’I thirst’ and ’it is consummated’.

28. He fulfilled Ps 68(69):22 (cf. Ps 21(22):19) when he said the former of these. The soldiers had sour Wine with them—a mixture of acid wine and water called posca. A sponge, which served for some purpose or other, formed part of their apparatus. This they dipped in the vessel and fixing it on sprigs of hyssop they offered it to him by means of a reed or cane, as Mt and Mk had already narrated. Jn added the detail of the hyssop. To read ???? on a javelin instead of ????+´p?, as many now do, is not only an unreasonable preference of one codex (476 London) against all other MSS and the ancient versions, but also supposes what, on consideration, is an unlikely scribal lapse. Moreover, it supposes the improbability that ’reed’ or cane in Mt, Mk stands for the shaft of a javelin. 30. ’It is consummated’ means that the work of redemption is accomplished. So it really is at the moment that Jesus, after the seventh word recorded by Luke, bows his head and dies.

31-37 The Transfixion —This passage is the biblical and historical basis of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Its devotional riches may be gathered from the 8 homilies assigned for that Feast and its Octave in the Breviary. Here only the main points of the history are noted.

31. It was very much the concern of the Jews that the bodies should be removed before sundown of that Parasceve or Friday. Deuteronomy 21:23 ordered this removal of an ’accursed one’ (cf.Galatians 3:14) executed on a tree, and in this case the sacred Sabbath just about to begin was also the Paschal solemnity. Hence the request to Pilate for crurifragium (breaking of legs with a hammer or club to bring about immediate death from muscular cramp or shock) and removal.

32. Soldiers (apparently not the execution squad) came to carry out the order. The legs of the two robbers were broken. Jn mentions a ’first’, but we do not know which it was.

33 f. The soldiers (two at least) took timely notice that Jesus was dead. One, however, wishing to make assurance doubly sure, struck the side of Jesus with a lance (a broad-headed spear) intending, no doubt, to pierce the heart. The word for ’struck’ or ’pierced’ (????e?) had become ’opened’ (?????e?) in the codices from which the Latin version was made. Hence Augustine’s famous reference to the evangelist’s ’watchful word’—not really a blunder, however, because Jn’s verb means ’to pierce’, which is equivalent to opening. The soldier has been named in hagiographic legend, Longinus (or Spearman). ’Immediately there came out blood and water’. As Jesus had been dead some time, the phenomenon was extraordinary, as the eyewitness Jn certainly recognized. Many attempts have been made to give a physiological explanation, but none of them seems adequately to explain the impression which Jn registers here and in his first epistle, 5:6. Many hold that the water was serum which owing to Jesus’ intense sufferings collected in the pericardium;cf. IEC, March 1951. But whether the double flow was miraculous or whether it can be explained on natural grounds, as many physiologists claim, is immaterial. There is no doubt about its reality. The Fathers have therefore rightly taken the two liquids as symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist, and, in consequence, see in these regenerating and life-giving streams the graces which produce a second Eve (the Church) from the side of the second Adam sleeping on the cross.

35. That Jn invokes the knowledge of Jesus to corroborate his own testimony is suggested by the word ??e?+???? (Lat. ille), but perhaps the pronoun has not its full classical Greek force here. In any case, the testimony is very solemn.

36 f. Two Scriptures were fulfilled in what had happened: the typal precept not to break the bones of the Paschal lamb, Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12, and a word of Zacharias 12:10, taken from a passage which undoubtedly refers to Messianic times and to the Messias himself. Jn only changes the accusative pronoun from first to third: ’They shall look on him whom they pierced’; cf.Apoc 1:7.

38-42 Burial of Jesus —Jn here supplements the. synoptics. Joseph of Arimathea (which is RamathaimSophim, the birthplace of Samuel, now Rentis, 8 miles NE. of Lydda) is described as a disciple by Mt, and by Jn as a secret disciple. His fear of the Jews vanished at the great hour, for he went boldly to Pilate to ask for the body, Mk. Nicodemus figures in Jn’s narrative only. The quantity of aromatic mixture, which he brought, was very considerable (72 lbs avoirdupois of myrrh, a dried Arabian gum, and of aloes, an odoriferous wood crushed fine or powdered). The intention was not embalmment, and there was no anointing; the women intended doing that later, Lk, Mk. The spices would have been strewn on. the shroud, but principally on the funeral ’bench and within the sepulchral chamber. Jn mentions only smaller bands of linen used for tying. These are to be distinguished from the sindon or shroud, Mt, Mk, Lk, and the napkin over the face, John 20:7. The shrouding was according to Jewish custom but hurriedly done, and we should say (in view of the intention of the. women) that it was provisional; cf. Barnes, The Holy Shroud of Turin, London 1934. Jn alone tells us that. the new tomb was in a garden. Finally, it is not unfair to say that DV failed to render the solemn cadences which 19:42 has both in Gk and Latin.