Chapter XVIII
36 My kingdom is not of this world - Is not an external, but a
spiritual kingdom; that I might not be delivered to the Jews - Which Pilate
had already attempted to do, Joh 18:31, and afterward actually did, Joh
19:16.
37 Thou sayest - The truth. To this end was I born - Speaking
of his human origin: his Divine was above Pilate's comprehension. Yet it
is intimated in the following words, I came into the world, that I might
witness to the truth - Which was both declared to the Jews, and in the
process of his passion to the princes of the Gentiles also. Every one that
is of the truth - That is, a lover of it, heareth my voice - A universal
maxim. Every sincere lover of truth will hear him, so as to understand
and practise what he saith.
38 What is truth? - Said Pilate, a courtier; perhaps meaning what
signifies truth? Is that a thing worth hazarding your life for? So he left
him presently, to plead with the Jews for him, looking upon him as an innocent
but weak man.
Chapter XIX
1 Mt 27:26; Mr 15:15.
7 By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son
of God - Which they understood in the highest sense, and therefore accounted
blasphemy.
8 He was the more afraid - He seems to have been afraid before
of shedding innocent blood.
9 Whence art thou? - That is, whose son art thou?
11 Thou couldst have no power over me - For I have done nothing
to expose me to the power of any magistrate. Therefore he that delivered
me to thee, namely, Caiaphas, knowing this, is more blamable than thou.
13 Pilate sat down on the judgment seat - Which was then without
the palace, in a place called, in Greek, the pavement, on account of a
beautiful piece of Mosaic work, with which the floor was adorned: but in
Hebrew, Gabbatha - Or the high place, because it stood on an eminence,
so that the judge sitting on his throne might be seen and heard by a considerable
number of people.
14 It was the preparation of the passover - For this reason both
the Jews and Pilate were desirous to bring the matter to a conclusion.
Every Friday was called the preparation, (namely, for the Sabbath.) And
as often as the passover fell on a Friday, that day was called the preparation
of the passover.
17 Bearing his cross - Not the whole cross, (for that was too
large and heavy,) but the transverse beam of it, to which his hands were
afterward fastened. This they used to make the person to be executed carry.
Mt 27:31; Mr 15:20; Lu 23:26.
19 Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews - Undoubtedly these
were the very words, although the other evangelists do not express them
at large.
20 It was written in Latin - For the majesty of the Roman empire;
in Hebrew - Because it was the language of the nation; and in Greek - For
the information of the Hellenists, who spoke that language, and came in
great numbers to the feast.
22 What I have written, I have written - That shall stand.
23 The vesture - The upper garment.
24 They parted my garments among them - No circumstance of David's
life bore any resemblance to this, or to several other passages in the
22d Psalm. So that in this scripture, as in some others, the prophet seems
to have been thrown into a preternatural ecstacy, wherein, personating
the Messiah, he spoke barely what the Spirit dictated, without any regard
to himself. Psa 22:18.
25 His mother's sister - But we do not read she had any brother.
She was her father's heir, and as such transmitted the right of the kingdom
of David to Jesus: Mary, the wife of Cleopas - Called likewise Alpheus,
the father, as Mary was the mother of James, and Joses, and Simon, and
Judas.
27 Behold thy mother - To whom thou art now to perform the part
of a son in my place, a peculiar honour which Christ conferred on him.
From that hour - From the time of our Lord's death.
29 A stalk of hyssop - Which in those countries grows exceeding
large and strong. Psa 69:21.
30 It is finished - My suffering: the purchase of man's redemption.
He delivered up his spirit - To God, Mt 27:50.
31 Lest the bodies should remain on the cross on the Sabbath -
Which they would have accounted a profanation of any Sabbath, but of that
in particular. For that Sabbath was a great day - Being not only a Sabbath,
but the second day of the feast of unleavened bread (from whence they reckoned
the weeks to pentecost:) and also the day for presenting and offering the
sheaf of new corn: so that it was a treble solemnity.
34 Forthwith there came out blood and water - It was strange,
seeing he was dead, that blood should come out; more strange, that water
also; and most strange of all, that both should come out immediately, at
one time, and yet distinctly. It was pure and true water, as well as pure
and true blood. The asseveration of the beholder and testifier of it, shows
both the truth and greatness of the miracle and mystery.
35 His testimony is true - Valid, unexceptionable. And he knoweth
- And his conscience beareth him witness, that he testifieth this for no
other end, than that ye may believe.
36 A bone of it shall not be broken - This was originally spoken
of the paschal lamb, an eminent type of Christ. Exod 12:46.
37 They shall look on him whom they have pierced - He was pierced
by the soldier's spear. They who have occasioned his sufferings by their
sins (and who has not?) shall either look upon him in this world with penitential
sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the clouds of heaven, Rev 1:7.
Zec 12:10.
