John 19
People's New Testament
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
19:1-16 The Crucifixion

SUMMARY OF JOH 19:

Jesus Scourged. The Crown of Thorns. Pilate's Acquittal. The New Charge of the Jews. No King but Caesar. Crucified at Golgotha. The Garments Parted by Lot. The Women at the Cross. The Mother of Jesus Committed to John. It Is Finished.

For notes on these verses, see Mt 27:19-22. Compare Mr 15:15-22 Lu 23:20-31. John gives a few additional features.

And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
19:1-16 The Crucifixion

SUMMARY OF JOH 19:

Jesus Scourged. The Crown of Thorns. Pilate's Acquittal. The New Charge of the Jews. No King but Caesar. Crucified at Golgotha. The Garments Parted by Lot. The Women at the Cross. The Mother of Jesus Committed to John. It Is Finished.

For notes on these verses, see Mt 27:19-22. Compare Mr 15:15-22 Lu 23:20-31. John gives a few additional features.

And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
19:1-16 The Crucifixion

SUMMARY OF JOH 19:

Jesus Scourged. The Crown of Thorns. Pilate's Acquittal. The New Charge of the Jews. No King but Caesar. Crucified at Golgotha. The Garments Parted by Lot. The Women at the Cross. The Mother of Jesus Committed to John. It Is Finished.

For notes on these verses, see Mt 27:19-22. Compare Mr 15:15-22 Lu 23:20-31. John gives a few additional features.

Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
19:1-16 The Crucifixion

SUMMARY OF JOH 19:

Jesus Scourged. The Crown of Thorns. Pilate's Acquittal. The New Charge of the Jews. No King but Caesar. Crucified at Golgotha. The Garments Parted by Lot. The Women at the Cross. The Mother of Jesus Committed to John. It Is Finished.

For notes on these verses, see Mt 27:19-22. Compare Mr 15:15-22 Lu 23:20-31. John gives a few additional features.

Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
19:5 Behold the man! Jesus had been scourged, and then, bleeding and torn, was crowned with thorns and a purple robe thrown around him, and led out before the people. Pilate, it is probable, hoped to arouse pity.
When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
19:6 Crucify him. The response was this savage cry.

Take ye him, etc. Pilate then declared. This is his formal acquittal of the charge of sedition and rebellion that they mad made. He had committed no crime against Roman law. Hence, if punished, it must be by their law.

The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
19:7 We have a law. Failing in their purpose, they now fall back on their charge of blasphemy: He made himself the Son of God.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
19:9,10 Whence art thou? This statement arouses the fear of Pilate. He had never seen such calm dignity and majesty before. Could this prisoner be divine? When Jesus is silent, Pilate reminds him that he has power to crucify or release.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
19:9,10 Whence art thou? This statement arouses the fear of Pilate. He had never seen such calm dignity and majesty before. Could this prisoner be divine? When Jesus is silent, Pilate reminds him that he has power to crucify or release.
Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
19:11 Thou couldest have no power at all against me, etc. Jesus breaks the silence and at once assumes the position of Pilate's judge. He declares that Pilate could have no power over himself unless it were given him. Christ submitted because it was the Father's will that he should drink the cup. Poor, helpless Pilate was not so great a sinner as the Jews, who might have known better, who were filled with devilish hate, who were now forcing Pilate to the crime. The words of Christ are really words of compassion.
And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
19:12 If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. This means that he will be accused before Caesar's tribunal of winking at treason. The Caesar then on the throne was Tiberius, dark, suspicious, cruel in character. Such a charge from the representatives of the Jewish nation at Rome would probably prove fatal to Pilate; would certainly end his career as a public man. The risk was too great. He would rather sacrifice an innocent man than to sacrifice himself. Hence he at once surrenders.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
19:14 It was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour. John marks the exact time when this remarkable judgment was rendered. It was about six o'clock in the morning, on Friday, the day of preparation for the passover. Mark says that the crucifixion began at the third hour (Mr 15:25), nine o'clock, as the Hebrews began to count at six. John wrote many years later, after Jerusalem had fallen, among people who began to count at midnight, as did all the Roman world, and he therefore used their language and called six o'clock the sixth hour, as we do, rather than the first hour as the Hebrews did. Christ and his apostles had eaten the passover already. How then could it be that was the preparation day? Amid conflicting views, I can only give what seems to me the best solution: (1) It is certain that Christ ate a meal the evening before in the Upper Room which was called a passover. (2) It is certain from Joh 18:28 that the Jews had not eaten the passover at that time. (3) It seems clear to me that Christ, anxious to eat this passover (see Lu 22:15), ate it in advance of the usual time, in order that he, the true Paschal Lamb, Our Passover (1Co 5:7) might be offered on the same day that the passover was eaten. The priests hurried the trial and execution of Jesus so that they might proceed to the preparation of the passover that evening. As the Lord's supper was anticipatory of the suffering on the cross, so was the Lord's last passover. The question has difficulties, but this view has fewer than any other.
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
19:15 We have no king but Caesar. They had not now. They had rejected the divine King, and chosen Barabbas instead, for life, and now make choice of Caesar as their king instead of the Lord's Anointed. To Caesar's tender mercies they committed themselves, and in about a generation Caesar will trample them in the wine press of wrath. The choice they had made sealed the fate of their city and nation.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
19:17-30 For notes on the Crucifixion, see Mt 27:33-66. Compare Mr 15:22-47 Lu 23:33-46. I note some additional features given by John.
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
19:25 His mother's sister The mother's sister is not here named. In Mt 27:56, the parallel passage names Salome, the mother of James and John, as one of the four women; hence, it is generally supposed that Salome was the sister of Mary and the aunt of Jesus.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
19:26 Woman. See PNT Joh 2:4.

Behold thy son! In his mortal agony, Jesus does not forget his bereaved mother, but commits her to the care of John, her nephew, it is supposed. His love shines forth in the sufferings on the cross.

Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
19:31 Because it was the preparation. For the passover. See Joh 19:14.

That sabbath was an high day. A double Sabbath, both the weekly Sabbath and a passover Sabbath. It was usual Roman custom to leave crucified bodies on the cross, but out of deference to their wishes Pilate consents that the legs of the victims should be broken in order to hasten death, so that the bodies might be taken down and buried. The legs were crushed with a hammer like a sledge and the shock would bring speedy death.

Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
19:34 Pierced his side. Finding him lifeless, the soldiers did not break his legs, but to make sure of death thrust a spear into his side.

Came there out blood and water. The water, with clots of blood, can be accounted for only the previous rupture of the heart and the flow of blood into the pericardium, or outer sack of the heart, where it would separate very rapidly into water and clots of blood. Hence, it seems certain that the immediate physical cause of the death of Christ was rupture of the heart.

And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
19:36 That the scripture should be fulfilled. See Ex 12:46.
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
19:37 And again another scripture saith. See Zec 12:10.
And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
19:38-42 For notes on the Burial, see Mt 27:57-66. Compare Mr 15:42-47 Lu 23:50-56.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
19:39 There came also Nicodemus. This is the third mention of him. See Joh 3:1 7:50 Both he and Joseph were members of the Sanhedrin. Only John mentions that he aided Joseph in the burial.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
The People's New Testament by B.W. Johnson [1891]

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