John 19 Bible Commentary

19:1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and ¹ scourged [him].

(1) The wisdom of the flesh chooses the least of two evils, but God curses that very wisdom.

19:4 ² Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.

(2) Christ is again acquitted by the same mouth with which he was afterwards condemned.

19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, ^a Crucify [him], crucify [him]. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify [him]: for I find no fault in him.

(a) They will have him crucified whom, by an old custom of theirs, they should have stoned and hanged up as convicted of blasphemy: but they desire to have him crucified after the manner of the Romans.

19:8 ³ When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;

(3) Pilate's conscience fights for Christ, but it immediately yields, because it is not upheld with the singular power of God.

19:13 ⁴ When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, ^b Gabbatha.

(4) Pilate condemns himself first, with the same mouth with which he afterwards condemns Christ.
(b) "Gabbatha" signifies a high place, as judgment seats are.

19:16 ⁵ Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led [him] away.

(5) Christ fastens Satan, sin, and death to the cross.

19:19 ⁶ And Pilate wrote a title, and put [it] on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

(6) Christ, sitting upon the throne of the cross, is publicly proclaimed everlasting King of all people by the hand of him who condemned him for usurping a kingdom.

19:23 ⁷ Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also [his] coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

(7) Christ signifies by the division of his garments amongst the bloody butchers (except for his coat which had no seam) that it will come to pass, that he will shortly divide his benefits, and enrich his very enemies throughout the world: but in such a way that the treasure of his Church will remain whole.

19:25 ⁸ Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the [wife] of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

(8) Christ is a perfect example of all righteousness, not only in the keeping of the first, but also of the second table of the ten commandments.

19:28 ⁹ After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

(9) Christ when he has taken the vinegar, yields up the Spirit, indeed drinking up in our name that most bitter and severe cup of his Father's wrath.

19:29 Now there was set a ^c vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put [it] upon hyssop, and put [it] to his mouth.

(c) Galatinus witnesses out of the book called Sanhedrin that the Jews often gave those who were executed vinegar mixed with frankincense to drink, to make them somewhat delirious: so the Jews provided charitably for the poor men's conscience who were executed.

19:31 ¹⁰ The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.

(10) The body of Christ which was dead for a season (because it so pleased him) is wounded, but not the least bone of it is broken: and such is the state of his resurrection body.

19:34 ¹¹ But one of the soldiers with a spear ^d pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

(11) Christ, being dead upon the cross, witnesses by a double sign that he alone is the true satisfaction, and the true washing for the believers.
(d) This wound was a most manifest witness of the death of Christ: for the water that issued out by this wound shows us plainly that the weapon pierced the very skin that encompasses the heart, and this skin is the vessel that contains the water; and once that is wounded, the creature which is so pierced and stricken has no choice but to die.

19:38 ¹² And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave [him] leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

(12) Christ is openly buried, and in a famous place, Pilate permitting and allowing it, and buried by men who showed favour to Christ in doing this, men who had before that day never openly followed him: so that by his burial, no man can justly doubt either of his death, or resurrection.

19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was ^e never man yet laid.

(e) That no man might frivolously object to his resurrection, as though someone else that had been buried there had risen; Theophylact.