John 19
19:1. Severe scourgings often preceded crucifixions. Beatings were a regular punishment themselves, but flogging and scourging, much more severe, were part of the death sentence. Because Pilate has not yet pronounced sentence, the beating Jesus receives is a lesser one. Pilate may hope that the blood it draws would satisfy Jesus’ accusers (19:5)—but this is an unlikely supposition (18:31).
The crown of thorns, perhaps from the branches of the thorny acanthus shrub or from the date palm (the latter would have looked more realistic), may have been meant to turn mainly outward (mimicking the wreaths of Hellenistic kings) rather than painfully inward; nevertheless, some thorns must have scraped inward, drawing blood from Jesus’ scalp. Only the highest king would wear an actual crown instead of a wreath, so they are portraying him as a vassal prince.
19:3. “Hail” is sarcasm derived from the customary salutation of the Roman emperor, “Ave (Hail), Caesar!
19:6. Pilate’s challenge is derisive: the Jewish authorities did not have the legal right to execute capital offenders, and if they had they would normally have stoned them rather than crucified them.
19:7–9. The Old Testament called the Messiah (and all David’s line) the Son of God (2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:27); in a more general sense, all Israel was called God’s child (Ex 4:22; Deut 8:3 Hos 11:1). But even falsely claiming to be the Messiah was not a capital offense in standard Jewish teaching, as long as one were not a false prophet advocating other gods. On their own terms, Jesus’ accusers are thus mistaken about the law’s teaching about him (10:34–36); but John may intend more irony: he believed the Old Testament predicted that God’s Son would die (cf. Is 53).
Pilate hears the charge very differently. Although many wandering philosophers claimed to be sons of gods and were not taken seriously, some teachers were thought to actually possess divine wisdom or power, and Pilate may be cautious not to offend such a powerful being. Some Romans were cynical about the gods, but most believed in them, and Pilate may be especially cautious, given the reputation of Jewish magicians for being among the best in antiquity.
19:10. Pilate’s decree was legally binding in all capital cases; he did not even have to accept the recommendations of his consilium, or council. He was authorized to judge in all cases regarding public order, even if no specific laws had been violated. Roman law did not take silence as an admission of guilt, but the issue with Pilate is no longer guilt or innocence but weighing the religious and political consequences of both decisions.
19:11. Judaism understood that rulers held authority only temporarily delegated them by God, who would judge in the end; “above” was sometimes a Jewish way of speaking of God (frequent in John). Here Jesus may imply that the authority of Caiaphas, unlike that of Pilate, is illegitimate; the high priesthood was to be for life, but high priests had been deposed and others installed at the whim and for the political expediency of the Romans.
(Jewish people reckoned days from sunset to sunset, so what we would call Friday night they considered the beginning of the sabbath, or Saturday.) Later rabbis estimated that offerings began earlier on Passover eve, but the slaughter of Passover lambs probably had to continue all day and was finally completed about the time the evening offering was slaughtered, roughly when Jesus died (about 3 p.m.).
The “sixth hour” should mean noon but by a different reckoning could mean 6 a.m., close to dawn. Or John could use it for a symbolic connection with 4:6 or a symbolic connection with Passover (many scholars argue here that the slaughter of Passover lambs began about noon).
19:15–16. For Pilate to free someone accused of treason or of insulting the emperor’s maiestas would invite the same accusation against himself, especially at this time under Tiberius, one of the most paranoid rulers of the first century. Although not accommodating when he did not need to be, Pilate is known to have acceded to mob demands on other occasions. As a provincial governor he officially had full discretion to decree the penalty. Crucifixion was the standard Roman method of execution for slaves, revolutionaries or other provincials who were not Roman citizens (such as most Palestinian Jews).
19:17. Condemned criminals normally carried their own cross (the horizontal beam, the patibulum, not the upright stake) to the site of the execution; the victim was usually stripped naked for the procession and execution as well, although this full nakedness must have offended some Jewish sensibilities in Palestine.
The probable site of Golgotha was outside the city wall and not far from Herod’s palace—perhaps a thousand feet north/northeast of it. Roman custom placed crucifixions, and Jewish custom located stonings, outside towns rather than at their center (in the Old Testament, cf. Lev 24:14, 23; Num 15:35–36; Deut 17:5; 21:19–21; 22:24; in the New Testament, cf. Luke 4:29; Acts 7:58).
19:18. Several stakes, at most about ten feet high, stood in Golgotha ready to be reused whenever executions occurred. On the top of the stake or slightly below the top was a groove into which the horizontal beam of the cross would be inserted after the prisoner had been fastened to it with ropes or nails.
According to Jewish tradition dating from the second century or earlier, Passover lambs would be hung up on iron hooks and flayed. Jesus here is hanged.
19:20. The site of execution was necessarily outside the city, although the soldiers preferred that it be nearby (see comment on 19:17). Jewish people in the Roman Empire dealt with three or four basic languages: Greek, Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew (of these, Greek especially was spoken outside Palestine and shared its prominence with Aramaic inside Palestine). Jewish inscriptions to foreigners were written in Greek and Latin.
19:21–22. No longer faced with the possibility of mob unrest or a complaint to Tiberius, Pilate returns to his characteristic lack of cooperation. In about this same year, Pilate minted a cheap coin of Tiberius bearing the augur’s wand—a pagan symbol quite offensive to Jewish sensibilities.
19:23. Roman law as later codified in their legal Digests granted the soldiers the right to the clothes the executed man was wearing; it was customary to execute the condemned man naked. The basic unit of the Roman army was the contubernium, composed of eight soldiers who shared a tent; half-units of four soldiers each were sometimes assigned to special tasks, such as execution quads.
John finds two distinct acts in Psalm 22:18 (a very Jewish method of interpretation), as Matthew does in Zechariah 9:9 (see comment on Mt 21:4–7).
19:25–26. The evidence is disputed as to whether relatives and close friends were allowed near crucifixions; they probably were. In either case, the soldiers supervising the execution would have looked the other way in practice if they had no reason to forbid it; the prerogatives of motherhood were highly respected in the ancient world. Because Jesus may not be elevated far above the ground, Jesus’ mother and disciple can hear him without being extremely close to the cross.
19:27. Jesus makes an oral testament in front of witnesses, which makes it binding, and formally places his mother under his disciple’s protection, providing for her after his death. Dying fathers could exhort sons to take care of surviving mothers (which they normally would do); for a disciple to be accorded a role in his teacher’s family was a great honor to the disciple (disciples sometimes called their teachers “father”).
A primary responsibility which Jewish custom included in “honoring one’s father and mother” was providing for them (cf. 1 Sam 22:3) in their old age. Jesus’ mother is probably in her mid to late forties, is probably a widow and lives in a society where women rarely earned much income; she is therefore officially especially dependent on her eldest son, Jesus, for support, although after his death her younger sons would support her.
19:28. Some scholars have suggested that Jesus may have recited the rest of Psalm 22 after the verse cited by Mark (15:34); in the light of Mark 15:35, this suggestion is not likely, but John could nonetheless allude here to the same psalm (Ps 22:15).
19:29–30. “Hyssop” was not the most natural instrument to use for this purpose. If this plant is identified as the Origanum maru l., its stalk is over three feet long; others claim that it is a very small plant that could not have reached far, and they suggest a play on words with the similar-sounding term for “javelin.” In either case, John mentions hyssop because of its significance in the Passover (Ex 12:22), fitting the symbolism of John 19 as a whole. “Sour wine,” consisting of wine vinegar mixed with water, was often used by soldiers to quench their thirst.
19:30 It is completed Jesus knows that God’s plan for Him has reached its completion—He has done what He came to earth to do (compare John 17:4–5).
This is likely a citation of Psa 22 (see note on Psa 22:31; note on Psa 22:30–31). Jesus is claiming that He is the ultimate sufferer for God’s people.
19:31 day of preparation See note on John 19:14.
Sabbath The Jewish authorities are so calloused that they are more concerned with their religious day and their place in the celebrations and remembrances than they are about Jesus’ unwarranted death (see 12:42–43).
important day See note on Gen 2:3.
their legs could be broken Crucifixion was an intentionally long and painful death. When people were crucified, their feet and hands would be nailed to the cross. With the rib cage and lungs stretched out, people would need to put weight on their legs to lift themselves up and make it easier to breathe. If someone stayed alive for what was deemed too long on a cross, executioners would break their legs.
19:33 did not break his legs Like the Passover lamb, none of Jesus’ bones are broken (Exod 12:46; see note on John 1:29; note on v. 29).
19:34. According to (probably) first-century Jewish tradition, the priests were supposed to pierce Passover lambs with a wood pole from their mouth to their buttocks.
Jewish tradition required certification that a person was dead before the person could be treated as dead, but Jewish observers would not treat the body as disrespectfully as this Roman does.
A foot soldier was armed with a short sword and a pilum, or lance; the pilum was of light wood with an iron head, and was about three and a half feet long. Such a lance could easily penetrate the pericardial sac which surrounds and protects the heart and contains watery fluid. A Greek might read this description as referring to a demigod, because Greek gods had ichor (which looked like water) instead of blood. But the person who has read the Gospel from start to finish would see in it a symbol rooted in Old Testament and Jewish hopes; see comment on 7:37–39.
19:35. Eyewitness accounts were considered more valuable than secondhand accounts, and narrators who were eyewitnesses (like Josephus) make note of that fact.
19:36. Although John here could allude to Psalm 34:20, he probably refers instead to the Passover lamb (Ex 12:46; Num 9:12). Jewish law (second century or earlier) stipulates the maximum corporal punishment for breaking the Passover lamb’s bones.
19:37. Although a late rabbinic passage interpreted Zechariah 12:10 messianically, the passage itself seems to refer to God’s having been pierced by the people of Jerusalem (before the coming of Jesus one would have assumed a figurative sense, “pierced with sorrow”). (Pronouns with divine referents seem to change readily in Zechariah; cf. 2:8–11 and 4:8–9, unless an angel is in view—4:4–6.)
19:39. If this measure of Nicodemus’s mixture is one of weight, it is as much as seventy-five of our pounds (Roman pounds were lighter); if it is a measure of volume identified with the Old Testament log, it may be less than seventy fluid ounces. In either case it is a lavish expression of devotion, as in 12:3; but other accounts of lavish devotion for beloved teachers are occasionally reported (a Gentile convert allegedly burned eighty pounds of spices at the funeral of Gamaliel I, Paul’s teacher), so the numbers need not be doubted. Myrrh was used for embalming the dead, and aloes for perfume.
19:41. On the locale, cf. “near the city” in verse 20: according to Jewish custom, burials had to be outside the city walls (one may compare the outrage of pious Jews over Antipas’s building Tiberias on a graveyard). To be buried in a tomb not yet used was no doubt a special honor and would make the tomb difficult to confuse with others in the vicinity.
19:42. The sabbath (or in this case, the coming of Passover—18:28) interrupted all other activities. Joseph and Nicodemus did not need to “lay” Jesus there very carefully; this would have been only a preliminary burial even had the sabbath not approached, to be completed a year later, after the flesh had rotted off the bones.