Church History: Pilate sought to know whether Jesus was of heaven or of earth; but Jesus did not answer, for the motive of the question was not right. Pilate did not wish an answer that he might give or withhold worship; but that he might know how strenuously he should defend Jesus. But innocent life is to be defended at all hazards, and it matters not whether it be human or divine. Pilate, therefore, already knew enough to enable him to discharge his duties.
Pilate tried to win the consent of the rulers that Jesus be released, but that which John here indicates was probably an actual attempt to set Jesus free. He may have begun by unloosening the hands of Jesus, or some such demonstration. Whatever Pilate's demonstration was it was immediately met by a counter one on the part of the rulers. They gave a cry which the politic Pilate could not ignore. Taking up the political accusation (which they had never abandoned), they give it a new turn by prompting Pilate to view it from Caesar's standpoint. Knowing the unreasoning jealousy, suspicion and cruelty of the emperor, Pilate saw at once that these unscrupulous Jews could make out of the present occasion a charge against him which would cost him his position, if not his life. He brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Pilate had already again and again declared Jesus innocent. He now mounts the judgment seat that he may formally reverse himself and condemn him. The apostle as an eye-witness fixes by its two names the exact spot where this awful decision was rendered.8
The preparation for any feast signifies the day before it, because on that day they prepared whatever according to the law was necessary for the solemnization. Some doubt whether in this place the Passover signifies strictly the paschal supper, which it could not do if the Jews strictly this year kept to the law; for the fourteenth day of the month Nisan at evening was the time when most certainly Christ kept it, who ate it the night before. It is therefore more probably thought, that by the Passover, is meant their great festival, which was upon the fifteenth day. John tells us it was about the sixth hour; that is, in the latter part of the interval between nine o'clock in the morning and twelve at noon: for the division of the day according to the Jews was in four parts; the first was from the rising of the sun till our nine in the morning, and was called the third hour; the other was from the third hour to the sixth, that is, twelve o'clock at noon; the third division was from their sixth hour to the ninth, that is, three o'clock with us in the afternoon; the fourth division was from the ninth hour to sunset, that is, with us six o'clock in the evening, when the sun is in the equinox. Now, not only the time when any of these hours came was called either the third or sixth hour, but the space of three hours allotted to each division was so called, when the next division began: so the time of our Savior's crucifixion is recorded by Mark to be the third hour; that is, the whole space from nine o'clock to twelve was not quite gone, though it was near at an end; and by the evangelist here it is said, that it was about the sixth hour, that is, near our twelve o'clock. And thus the different relations are clearly reconciled.3
Carried away by the strong emotions of the moment, the official organs of the Jewish theocracy proclaimed Caesar to be their only king, thus yielding with Jesus their claims to independence and their hopes in a Messiah. This is a most significant fact. When their ancestors rejected Jehovah as their king (1Samuel 12:12), their faithful prophet, Samuel, warned them what the king of their choice would do, and what they should suffer under him. Thus Jesus also foretold what this Caesar of their choice would do to them (Luke 19:41-44; 23:27-31). They committed themselves to the tender mercies of Rome, and one generation later Rome trod them in the wine-press of her wrath.
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