Pilate is afraid, and examines him again. 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he Son of God. 393 SECT. clxxxviii. The Jews then answered him, There is no room to represent him as a faultless person, nor ought to die, because any reason to be backward to condemn him; John he made himself the but these objections you have made oblige us XIX. 7. to mention one circumstance which, for the horror of it, we would willingly have concealed: we have a Divine law which we received from heaven, by which blasphemy is forbidden on the highest penalties; and by this our law he ought to die, though he were not chargeable with sedition and treason, because he has made himself the Son of the most high God, in such a sense as no creature can be ; and this he declared but this morning in open court. (Compare Mat. xxvi. 63, 64. Mark xiv. 62. and Luke xxii. 70, p. 372.) 8 When Pilate saying, he was the more afraid; When Pilate therefore heard this expression, 8 therefore heard that he was still more afraid than before; for the Romans believed many poetical stories of men begotten by their deities, and thought them a kind of demi-gods, who could not be injured without engaging their divine parents in the 9 And went again quarrel. And therefore apprehending that his 9 into the judgment-hall, wife's dream might also take its rise from such a Whence art thou? cause, he entered again into the palace, and But Jesus gave him taking him aside, he said to Jesus, Tell me and saith unto Jesus, no answer. plainly from whence thou camest, and from f He was still more afraid than before.] Though I think, with Mr. Cradock, and several others, the interpretation given in the paraphrase the most natural; yet I cannot forbear mentioning that of Dr. Lardner, who thinks he was afraid of a sedition among the Jews, from his knowledge of their great obstinacy in any thing in which religion might seem to be concerned: and he adds, he might be the more reasonably alarmed on this head, as since the beginning of his government he had met with two remarkable instances of their stiffness; one in an attempt he made to bring the image of Cesar into Jerusalem; the other in a design he had formed of supplying the city with water at the expence of the sacred treasury of the temple. See Lard. Credib. part i. Vol. I. p. 330-338. Then Whence art thou?] It is strange Mr. Locke should think (as he does in his Reasonableness of Christianity, Vol. I. p. 133.) that Christ declined giving him an answer, lest, when he heard he was born at Bethle hem, he should have any such apprchensions as Herod had entertained. Pilate probably knew nothing at all of that prophecy, as Herod himself indeed did not, till he had learnt it from the Jewish scribes whom he consulted on Christ's birth. (Mat. ii. 4, 5, 6, Vol. VI. p. 78.) The answer which our Lord had made to his former inquiries shewed how far he was from declining any danger; and the true reason of his present silence was that Pilate's unsteady conduct rendered him unworthy of any farther information. b Dost 394 SECT. clxxxviii. Pilate, convinced of his innocence, sought to release him. power to release thee? Then Pilate in surprise said to him, What, dost 10 Then saith Pilate thou make me no reply, and not so much as speak thou not unto me? unto him, Speakest John to me in such a circumstance as this, in which Knowest thou not, XIX. 10 thy life is so evidently concerned? Dost thou that I have power to not know that I have power and authority to crucify thee, and have crucify thee, and have power to release thee, if I please, notwithstanding all the clamorous demands of thine enemies h 11 Jesus calmly replied,Thou couldst have no power 11 Jesus answered, at all against me, except it were given thee from Thou couldst have no above, from the God of heaven, whose provi- me, except it were power at all against dence I acknowledge in all these events: there- given thee from above: fore he who has delivered me to thee, even the therefore he that deJewish high-priest with his council, having far greater opportunities of knowing him and his law, hath the greater and more aggravated sin; yet thou thyself canst not but know that on the principles of natural equity an innocent person ought not to be given up to popular fury. 12 And from this time Pilate was so far satisfied of the injustice of the prosecution, and of the forth Pilate sought to innocence of Jesus, that he endeavoured the more earnestly to release him. But the Jews still insisted on his passing sentence on him to be crucified; and apprehensive of the governor's design, h Dost thou not know that I have power to that hath the greater sin. livered me unto thee 12 And from thencerelease him: but the Jews i Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.] Some have thought that the word arafa, from above, refers to the situation of the temple, which stood much higher than the prætorium; and that it is as if Jesus had said, "I know that whatever thou dost against me is only in consequence of the sentence passed in yonder court held above; so that their guilt is greater than thine." But though this would very well account for the connection of the latter part of the verse, I cannot think it altogether just; for had providence permitted Pilate to seize Christ as one dangerous to Cæsar's dignity, he would have had as much power of putting him to death as he now had. It is therefore much more reasonable to suppose it refers to the permission of God's providence. No thought was more proper to the occasion; and I think the interpretation I have given to the latter clause in this view is natural, though not very common. But if any are not satisfied with it, they may consider whether die lo may not be connected with the beginning of the verse, so that it might be translated, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, unless it were given thee from above for this purpose. (Compare note on John vii. 21, sect. xcix, Vol. VI. p. 515. k As About the third hour Pilate brings him out as their king. go, thou art not Ce 395 Jews cried out, saying, that they effectually might put a stop to his in- SECT. If thou let this man tention of discharging him, they eagerly cried clxxxviii sar's friend: whosoever out, saying, If thou let this man go off with his John maketh himself a king, life, thou art not Caesar's friend, though thou XIX.12. speaketh against Ce- bearest his commission, and representest bis sar. tha. person; for every one that makes himself a king here. 13 When Pilate When Pilate therefore heard that speech, he 13 therefore heard that was very much alarmed, as he well knew how saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down suspicious a prince Tiberius was, and how many in the judgment-seat, spies he kept on all his officers, that nothing in a place that is called might be done or permitted by them in any of the pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabba the provinces, which could at all interfere with his authority: and, that he might not then be charged with any want of zeal for Cæsar's interest, he brought Jesus out of the palace again, and once more sate down on the tribunal, which was then erected (as was said before, p. 377.) without the palace, in a place called in Greek, Lithostraton, or the Pavement, on account of a beautiful piece of Mosaic work with which the floor was adorned: but in Hebrew it was called Gabbatha, or the High-place, because it stood on an eminence, so that the judge, being seated there on his tribunal, might be heard and seen by a considerable number of people'. 14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! And it was then the preparation of the pass- 14 over, or the sixth day of the week, and consequently the day which fell before the paschal sabbath, which was observed with some peculiar solemnity (see John xix. 31, sect. cxcii.); and the morning was so far advanced, that it [was] drawing on apace towards the sixth hour, and was now about the third hour, or nine in the morning", which obliged them to dispatch, that they As he well knew how suspicious a prince Tiberius was, &c.] Every body that knows the character of Tiberius, especially as illustrated by Suetonius in his excellent History, will see how naturally Pilate might be apprehensive on this head. 1 In Hebrew, Gabbatha.] There are various etymologies of this word. I think the most probable is that which derives it from na, elevavit, and so it intimates its being raised on high. It was, perhaps, a kind of stage, or scaffold, in the midst of a spacious area belonging to the palace, in which the governor might place himself on pub VOL. VII. 3 D The 396 John But they cried out, Away with him, Crucify him. SECT. they might have execution done, as usual, beclxxxvii fore noon. And Pilate, finding he must, after all, yield to the people, and consent to the death xix. 14, of Jesus, lest his former struggle should be misrepresented at Rome, was resolved to manage this incident so as to procure from the Jews a public acknowledgment of Cæsar's authority: and therefore, pointing to Jesus, as he now appeared in this mock pomp of royalty, he says to the Jews, who were present in vast numbers, Behold your king, if you think fit to own him, 15 as it is said many of you have done. But they again cried out with indignation and dis-out, Away with him, dain, Away with [him] away with [him]; we cify him. Pilate saith are so far from owning him, that we desire thee unto them, Shall I to crucify him. Pilate says to them, What, shall crucify your king? I crucify your king? How strange, and how ex- swered, We have no travagant a demand is this! And the chief priests king but Cesar. answered, in the name of all the people, We have no king but the emperor Tiberius Cæsar, whose royal authority we all of us acknowledge, and will always maintain. Mat. 15 But they cried away with him, cru The chief priests an MAT. XXVII. 24. And Pilate, seeing that it signified nothing any When Pilate saw that XXVII. longer to oppose the popular torrent, but that 24 -The best commentators I know (and they he conferences with the Jews about him, as also the change of dress, scourging, crowning with thorns, &c. should be dispatched by six? The very contents of the preceding sections seem to demonstrate the contrary,-On the other hand, it could not now be twelve at noon, since Mark assures us to the contrary, and his account is confirmed both by Matthew and Luke. (See the places just now quoted, and note d`on Mark xv. 25, sect. clxxxix.)-I cannot therefore but conclude with Columelus (Observ. p. 77), Beza, and Erasmus, that instead of the sixth we should read the third hour, that is, nine in the morning. For this we have the authority of the Cambridge manuscript, and of Peter of Alexandria, who expressly asserts it was in, the third, in the original copy, which he says continued till his time; and though, as Dr. Mill abundantly shews in his Annotation on this place, all the best manuscripts and ancient versions are on the other side, I am obliged here to follow the superior authority of common sense; however, in submission to the greatest number of copies, I have still retained the common reading in the version, and have only given what I apprehend to bc the true reading in the paraphrase. Some other unsatisfactory hypotheses will be touched on in the note last referred to. Sce a large and accurate view of them in Wolf. Cur. Phil. Vol, I. page 969-976. Ho Pilate washing his hands, they wish his blood on themselves. 397 they rather grew more tumultuous by the delay, SECT. was determined however to do all he could to clxxxviii make his own conscience easy in complying with Mat. XXIII. And when they had said this, Pilate, who now Luke was something easier in his own mind, and was desirous to satisfy the people", since he perceived n He took water, and washed his hands, &c.] It is well known that the Jews in some cases were appointed to cash their hands as a solemn token that they were not themselves concerned in the murder com. mitted by some unknown person (see Deut. xxi. 6-9): but, as this was also a rite that was frequently used by the Gentiles in token of innocence, it is more probable that Pilate, who was a Gentile, did it in conformity to them. See Grotius in loc. and Elsner. Observ. Vol. I. p. 122, 123. o May his blood be on us, and on our children!] As this terrible imprecation was dreadfully answered in the ruin so quickly brought on the Jewish nation, and the calamities which have since pursued that wretched people, in almost all ages and countries; so it was peculiarly illustrated in the severity with which Titus, merciful as he naturally was, treated the Jews whom he took during the siege of Jerusalem; of whom Josephus himself writes (Bell, Jud. lib. v. cap. 11 (a!. vi. 12), § 1), that pas avec avgurls, having been scourged and tortured in a very terrible manner, they were crucified, in the view, and near the walls of this city; perhaps, among other places, on mount Calvary and it is very probable this might be the fate of some of those very persons who now joined in this cry, as it undoubtedly was of many of their children. For Josephus, who was an eye-witness, expressly declares, "that the number of those thus crucified was so great, that there was not room for the crosses to stand by each other; and that at last they had not wood enough to make crosses of." A passage which, especially when compared with the verse before us, it impresses and astonishes me beyond any p Desirous to satisfy the people: To inavov ment 2+ |