John 19:1-16

Pilate gives way to the Jews. Pilate's next attempt is to persuade the Jews to be content with a lighter penalty than crucifixion. The prisoner is not dangerous enough, even to the religious authorities of the nation, to make the extreme penalty necessary. Scourging will meet the case. It was the usual preliminary of the Roman punishment of crucifixion, and in the Synoptic account it is recorded only after the sentence has been pronounced. Cf., however, Luke 23:16; Luke 23:22, where Pilate suggests it as a sufficient punishment. The soldiers obey orders, and, visibly interpreting the governor's wishes, add mockery to the scourging, making sport of the claimant to a kingdom, and perhaps of Jewish sovereignty in general. The other gospels record mockery, after the Jewish trial, of the prisoner as a discredited prophet. Pilate shows Jesus to the Jews in this plight, hoping that it will convince them of His helplessness. Behold the man, not a very dangerous leader of men. This only incites their hatred. To their cry, Crucify Him, he answers that if they want that they must take the responsibility. They declare that He has deserved the death penalty for blasphemy. At this he is afraid, either from superstition, or from his experience of Jewish fanaticism. To his surprise at the prisoner's silence before His judge, who wields the power of life and death, Jesus replies that all earthly power has its source as well as its limitations in the will of God, which enhances the guilt of him that delivered him up. It is uncertain whether Caiaphas, or Judas, or Satan is meant. Pilate's former conviction of Jesus-' innocence gives way at last before the Jews-' veiled threat to accuse him of treason against the Emperor. Taking his seat upon the tribunal he gives formal sentence. We may compare Josephus, Wars, II, xiv. 8: At this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace, and on the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat upon it. The sentence is given about noon. This is apparently a correction of the Marcan tradition which places the actual crucifixion at the third hour, i.e. 9 A.M. The attempts to harmonise the two statements, by showing that Jn. used the same reckoning of hours that we do, are not convincing.

[John 19:13. Gabbatha: was connected by Zahn, INT, vol. i. p. 29, with gabab, to rake together, and explained as mosaic. He has withdrawn this in his commentary, p. 637, where other suggestions are discussed. See also Wellhausen, p. 86, Dalman, The Words of Jesus, pp. 7 f. A. J. G. and A S. P.]