seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 18:28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
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Here's the link to the commentary I read.
To the Praetorium: This word described the headquarters of Pilate in Jerusalem, likely at the Roman Fortress Antonia, where Pilate held court and conducted public business.
They themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled: John used an ironic touch to expose the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers. They refused to break relatively small commands regarding ceremonial defilement, but broke much greater commands in rejecting God’s Messiah and condemning an innocent Man to death.
That they might eat the Passover: This statement introduces a controversy, namely this — was the Last Supper a Passover meal, and was Jesus crucified on the Passover or the day following? This statement in John 18:28 seems to indicate that Passover was the coming day, the day Jesus would be crucified and that the Last Supper was the day before Passover. Yet several passages seem to indicate that the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Matthew 26:18, Mark 14:12, 14:16, Luke 22:15). The best solution to this difficult chronological problem seems to be that Jesus was crucified on the Passover, and the meal they had the night before was as Passover meal, held after sunset (the start of the day in Jewish reckoning). We can speculate that Passover lambs were sacrificed on both days, a necessity due to the massive number of lambs sacrificed in Jerusalem at the temple on Passover (later described by Josephus as being more than 200,000).
“Bishop Pearce supposes that it was lawful for the Jews to eat the paschal lamb any time between the evening of Thursday and that of Friday. He conjectures too that this permission was necessary on account of the immense number of lambs which were to be killed for that purpose.” (Clarke)
Tasker suggested another possibility: “It may be, however, that by the passover in this verse the whole Passover festival, which lasted seven days, is meant; and that the expression eat the passover refers not to the main Passover meal which may have already taken place, but to the remaining meals that would be taken in the Passover season.”
Pilate then went out to them: The religious leaders had reason to expect a favorable result as they brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Secular history presents Pilate as a cruel, ruthless man, completely insensitive to the moral feelings of others.
What accusation do you bring against this Man: Consistent with Roman character, Pilate spoke directly to the matter at hand. He demanded to know the accusation. John recorded their evasion of the question: If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.
You take Him and judge Him according to your law: Pilate responded to their evasion by telling them to resolve the matter themselves. If they would not bring Pilate an accusation that mattered to him, then they would have to judge Him according to their own law and not bother the Romans.
It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death: Without yet answering Pilates demand for a specific accusation, the religious leaders explained why they did not want to judge Him according to their own law. They wanted Jesus dead, and the Romans did not allow them to execute the guilty under their own law.
Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again: John combined two appearances of Jesus before Pilate, separated by an appearance of Jesus before Herod Antipas (Luke 23:8-12). Pilate hoped to give this problem to Herod because he ruled over Galilee, where Jesus was from. Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate, and this is the likely start of the second appearance.
Are You the King of the Jews: Pilate was already involved in this case, having sent a detachment of many Roman troops to arrest Jesus (John 18:3). This was his first look at the Man the religious leaders claimed was dangerous. Yet, Pilate’s question revealed doubt.
Are you speaking for yourself: Jesus wanted to know if Pilate really wanted to know or if he asked the question on behalf of those who already condemned Jesus. The answer could be different depending on where his question came from.
“If Pilate asked it of himself, the question would have meant, ‘Art thou a political King, conspiring against Caesar’! If he had asked it of Caiaphas’ prompting, it would have meant, ‘Art Thou the Messianic King of Israel?’ The answer to the first question would have been ‘No’. The answer to the second question, ‘Yes.’” (Pilcher, cited in Morris)
What have You done: Pilate said that he, as a Roman, had no interest in Jewish spiritual or social ideas. Pilate simply understood that if the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead, He must have done something wrong and he wanted to find out what that was.
My kingdom is not of this world: Jesus plainly told Pilate that He was a king and could say, My kingdom. He also plainly told Pilate that His kingdom was not a rival political kingdom; it was and is not of this world.
My kingdom is not from here: We may imagine that Pilate was relieved and satisfied to hear that the kingdom of Jesus was not from here. Pilate may have concluded that Rome therefore had nothing to fear from Jesus and His kingdom.
What is truth: Pilate’s cynical question showed he thought Jesus claim to be a King of Truth was foolish. Probably, Pilate did not mean that there was no truth, but that there was no truth in the kind of spiritual kingdom Jesus represented. For Pilate, soldiers and armies were truth, Rome was truth, Caesar was truth, and political power was truth.
I find no fault in Him at all: Pilate spoke to the religious leaders who wanted Jesus dead and clearly told them that Jesus was not guilty. Pilate went far beyond saying that Jesus was not guilty of a crime worthy of death; he found no fault in Him at all. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent.
You have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover: Judging there was something different — and innocent — about Jesus, Pilate hoped this custom of releasing a prisoner might help deliver this Man whom Pilate knew was innocent.
Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews: Pilate phrased the question this way to appeal to the Jewish crowd. He thought they would want a Man named as their own King to be spared death by crucifixion.
Not this Man, but Barabbas: The crowd rejected Jesus and chose Barabbas instead. Pilate hoped they would spare Jesus, but the crowd instead condemned Him.
Barabbas was a robber: Mark 15:7 tells us he was one of several insurrectionists, who had committed murder in the insurrection. The Romans would have thought of Barabbas as a terrorist and many Jews would think of him as a freedom fighter.
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Well, I figured out a couple of things this time through John's witness concerning the "trials".
I've always wondered why the people who followed Jesus would put palm branches on the path for Jesus' donkey to tread on, would turn on Him overnight.
The movies and the preachers and the teachers all seemed to show the huge population [hundreds of thousands of Jewish men] shouting "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!".
Thats not what I read here. Check out verse 28.
John 18:28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
This sentencing didn't happen in a grand courtyard. It happened in front of the Roman Governor's House. It didn't happen in open daylight. It was at night when most were home with their families preparing for Passover. It was the Temple Leaders.... not massive crowds. There were not hundreds of thousands of good Jewish men chanting "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!". It was the Temple Leaders. Were there thousands of Temple Leaders? I googled it.... there were only 7200 of men employed by the Temple. This was not done in front of everyone who worked at the Temple... it was only the Temple Leaders yelling "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!". I googled it... there would have been less than 100 chief priests. And according to yet another google search I learned that the Sanhedrin only number 71 men.
So that huge crowd of hundreds of thousands Hollywood would have us believe approved of the crucifixion, boils down to less than 100!
It was by no means the Popular Vote!!!!
Now the next thing I noticed was Pilates reason for asking Jesus if He was king. He wasn't being sarcastic! He was worried about the repercussions of murdering a king. Pilate did not want to have to cause or finance a war! He didn't care if Jesus was thumbing His nose at the chief priests. He just didn't want to start a war!
When Jesus assured Pilate that no waring nation was going to come after Pilate for putting Jesus on the Cross, Pilate was willing to make a deal.
Now on to the Passover meal. Did Jesus call the Last Supper the Passover Meal? He knew He wasn't going to be around to enjoy the dinner with His buddies. By the end of the 15th of Nissan [the date of Passover every year] He would be on His way to the tomb.
According to another google search, the Passover Meal is served after night has fallen on the eve of the15th [Sedar] and again the following night for the Diaspora [when everyone got ready to go back home]. Every Jewish man had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Right?
The Last Supper... was Passover for Jesus. The Angel of Death killed off the oldest male of all the non-Jewish families in Egypt during the first Passover. Jesus would give up His life for this Passover. So, Jesus had His Last Supper from the preparations for Passover. He was the Passover Lamb. He sopped bread, instead of laying gravy over His lamb. There were so many lambs slaughtered in Jerusalem that year, it probably took two days... and the lambs blood ran through that little brook that meandered through the Garden where Jesus was Arrested.
I don't know if I answered the three days question that continues to come up.... but now I've taken the hundreds of thousands of Jewish men yelling "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" and honed it down to less than a hundred. I can live with that.
Oh, and now... one more interesting point.... Barnabas was an insurrectionist.... fancy that! An insurrectionist went free so Jesus could get on the Cross.
Jesus was on the way to the Cross.... The plan is starting to go into action!
Barabbus was just an insurrectionist.... Jesus was there to save the Souls of all who would Believe.
Barabbas was just an insurrectionist.... he did not have the popular vote.
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