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We continue this verse-by-verse study of John chapters 18-20 here in Part 4, starting with John 19:13.
(13) Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat [cf. Matt. 27:19] at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew ["I.e. Jewish Aramaic" (margin of NASB); cf. John 5:2; 19:17, 20], Gabbatha. [Pilate sat down on the judgment seat to render his final judgment and turn Jesus over to be crucified (cf. Matt. 27:24-26; Mark 15:11-15; and Luke 23:21-25).] (14) Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover [cf. John 18:28; 19:31, 42]; it was about the sixth hour. [["Perhaps 6 a.m." (margin of NASB). See the detailed discussion under John 18:28. I believe (in agreement with the suggestion in the margin of the NASB) that John reckoned the hours from midnight (or, when applicable, from noon) in his Gospel. Apparently the sixth hour in the morning began about the time of sunrise (at the time the sun rose above the horizon). As I mentioned under John 18:28, I believe John's "about the sixth hour" was probably something like 6:30 to 7:00 a.m.]] And he said to the Jews, 'Behold, your King!' [[See John 19:12 and the references cited there, and see John 19:15, 19, 21. It seems clear that Pilate spoke these words (and the words of verse 15) mostly to antagonize the Jews. Notice the Jew's negative response to the inscription that Pilate had written on the cross, "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews" (see John 19:19-22).]] (15) So they cried out, 'Away with Him away with Him [cf. Luke 23:18] crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' [[As I mentioned, this was an amazing statement for the chief priests to make. For one thing, they believed that God was the King of Israel, and they believed that the Messiah, when He came (even today the Jews don't believe that Messiah has come yet) would reign as a king. They were goaded into this statement by Pilate's repeated attempts to release Jesus and then his mocking them by calling Jesus their King in verses 14, 15, when they had just so strongly denounced Him as a blasphemer who needed to be put to death - He certainly was not their King! See under verse 14. Jesus was/is the King, the King of Israel, the King of true Israel, the King of all men, and the King of this world. For one thing, all beings (angels and men) and things were created by Him and for Him (cf. John 1:1-4; Col. 1:16, 17), but neither the Jewish rulers nor Pilate believed it. Jesus kingship will be manifested before all when He returns to begin to fully reign on the earth (reigning includes judging).]] (16) So he [Pilate] then handed Him over to them [or, "for them"] to be crucified [or, "that He might be crucified"]. [[Compare Matt. 27:26; Mark 15:15; Luke 23:25; Acts 2:23; and 3:15. It seems clear (in context with verse 15) that "them" here in verse 16 refers to the chief priests and other Jews who were clamoring for Jesus to be crucified. Luke 23:25 says, "he [Pilate] delivered Jesus to their will." (Luke 23:13-25 show that "their" refers to the "chief priests and rulers and the people" [Luke 23:13].) "Then at last, to satisfy them, he handed Jesus over to be crucified" NEB. It is also clear that Pilate handed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers to crucify Him. John 19:23 says, "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus...." "They," the first word of the following verse (John 19:17) undoubtedly refers to the Roman soldiers.
I'll quote a sentence from what Merrill C. Tenney says under verse 17 ("Expositor's Bible Commentary," Vol. 9 [Zondervan, 1981], page 180). "Under Pilate's orders, Jesus was turned over to the execution squad, which normally consisted of four legionnaires and a centurion." (On the four Roman soldiers, see verse 23; on the centurion, see Matt. 27:54; Mark 15:39; and Luke 23:47.)]] (17) They [the Roman soldiers] took Jesus, therefore, and He went out [Jesus went out of the city, outside the city wall (cf. Heb. 13:12).], bearing His own cross [[The most common view in the commentaries is that Jesus just bore the cross-member (the horizontal beam) of the cross, and that the vertical beam would have been left at the place of execution, probably being permanently fastened in a vertical position. Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; and Luke 23:26 speak of the Roman soldiers pressing into service Simon of Cyrene, a "passer-by coming from the country" (Mark 15:21), to carry Jesus' cross. Apparently Jesus carried His cross for a while, but eventually He gave out physically because of the extreme trauma He had endured, very much including the Roman scourging, which in itself could, and sometimes did, kill people.]], to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew ["I.e. Jewish Aramaic" (margin of NASB)], Golgotha [[Compare Matt. 27:33; Mark 15:22 ("they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull"); and Luke 23:33. ((I had a lengthy footnote here, going on for five paragraphs: " 'Golgotha' is gulgolta, the Aramaic word for 'the skull,' with the second 'l' assimilated to the following 't' ([The word "Hebrew"] in this Gospel, as in verse 13, includes Aramaic; the Hebrew form of the word is gulgoleth). The familiar designation 'Calvary' is derived from Latin 'calvaria' ('skull') and has come into Western European languages from the use of the Latin word in the Vulgate text of all four passion narratives. The origin of the name 'Skull-place' remains a matter of conjecture. As for its actual location, it lay outside the city wall [at that time], presumably outside the second north wall (the third north wall, farther to the north, was not begun until about twelve years later, under Herod Agrippa I). If the praetorium of the trial narrative is to be identified with the Antonio fortress, then the present Via Dolorosa probably marks the route of the cross with substantial accuracy, although it runs several feet above the first-century level. Until a few years ago it was uncertain whether the traditional site of Golgotha, covered by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was outside the line of the second north wall or not; that it actually was outside was indicated by excavations conducted in 1963 and later in the Muristan area, to the south of the site" (F. F. Bruce, "Gospel of John" [Eerdmans, 1983], page 367).
"Golgotha is an English transliteration of the Greek, itself a transliteration of the Aramaic.... ... The place of the skull probably derived its name from its appearance, though this is uncertain. The site is in doubt. Gordon's Calvary is not an option. [Carson has a footnote, "Cf. Andre Parrot, "Golgotha and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre" (tr. E. Hudson; SCM, 1957), pp. 59-65).] The most likely site is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, just outside the northern wall, and not far from the road (Matt. 27:39; John 19:20)." (D. A. Carson, "Gospel According to John," pages 609, 610). I don't know enough about the topic to agree with Carson that "Gordon's Calvary is not [even] an option." He may be right. Most of the commentators and other scholars (including archaeologists) that I have read agree that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most likely site for the crucifixion and burial of the Lamb of God.
"The actual location of Golgotha is a matter of debate. When [the Roman emperor] Hadrian reconstructed Jerusalem after the Second Revolt [which was led by Bar Kochba (many, including Rabbi Akiba, thought he was the Messiah)] as Aelia Capitolina (A.D. 135), Christianity was considered a Jewish sect, and its holy sites were treated accordingly. Hadrian had a Roman temple built over the crucifixion site. This temple enabled Helena, Constantine's mother, to identify the place of the crucifixion and tomb of Jesus when she came to Jerusalem in A.D. 326. Hadrian's temple was removed and a magnificent basilica built in its place (A.D. 336) ...." Laney says Gordon's "arguments are unconvincing" (J. Carl Laney, "John," pages 345, 346).
"Golgotha (19:17) was undoubtedly near the site of the Holy Sepulchre.... The traditional Protestant 'Garden Tomb' is a substantially later site and cannot represent the site of Jesus' burial [Keener has a footnote, "Tomb architecture changed radically after Jerusalem's fall (Goodenough, "Symbols," 1:84-89; Brown, "Death," 938-39)."]; by contrast, the Catholic Holy Sepulchre and tombs in its vicinity date to the right period. [Keener has a footnote, "On the latter, see Brown, 'John,' 2:899; idem, 'Death,' 1279-83; cf. Blinzler, 'Trial,' 215-52; Smith, 'Tomb'; Ross, 'Church'; Riesner, 'Golgotha.' "] The tradition of the latter vicinity is as early as the second century (when Hadrian erected a pagan temple there; he defiled many Jewish holy sites in this manner) and probably earlier. Good evidence exists, in fact, that this site dates to within the first two decades after the resurrection. This is because (1) Christian tradition is unanimous that Jesus was buried outside the city walls and no one would make up a site inside (cf. Heb 13:12; John 19:41); (2) Jewish custom made it common knowledge that burials would be outside the city walls; (3) the traditional vicinity of the Holy Sepulchre is inside Jerusalem's walls; (4) Agrippa I expanded the wall of Jerusalem sometime in the 40s C.E. [AD]" (Craig S. Keener, "Gospel of John," Vol. 2 [Hendrickson Publishers, 2003], pages 1134, 1135).
I'll quote part of what George R. Beasley-Murray says here ("John" [Word Inc., 1987], page 318). "The hillock behind the bus station in Jerusalem, Gordon's Calvary, is undoubtedly reminiscent of a skull in shape, but the traditional site of Golgotha in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is favored by recent archaeologists (see, e.g., J. Jeremias, 'Golgotha' [...1926]; A. Parrot, 'Golgotha et Saint-Sepulchre' [...1955]; K. M. Kenyon, 'Digging up Jerusalem' [...1974] 226-34, 261-67; J. Finegan, 'The Archaeology of the New Testament' [...1978] 156-68 [with bibliography])."].]] (18) There they crucified Him [Mark 15:25 says, "It was the third hour when they crucified Him." Essentially everyone agrees that the third hour means 9 a.m., but it seems clear that Mark's third hour, sixth hour (Mark 15:33), and ninth hour (Mark 15:34) are very rough approximations of the time. Jesus could have been (and probably was) crucified more than an hour before 9 a.m. (see under John 18:28; 19:14).
I'll quote part of what J. Carl Laney says regarding crucifixion ("John" (Moody Press, 1992), page 344). "Crucifixion was not a Roman invention. The Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Persians all practiced crucifixion during the first millennium B.C. ("Vassilios Tzaferis, 'Crucifixion: The Archeological Evidence,' 'Biblical Archaeology Review,' January-February 1985: 48)." And although the traditional method of execution among Jews was stoning (Deut. 21:21), the Hasmonean tyrant Alexander Jannaeus used this dreadful punishment on his own Jewish kinsmen (Josephus 'Jewish Wars' 1.97). The Romans adopted crucifixion as the official punishment for non-Romans, particularly slaves. Crucifixion was later used by the Roman army to execute rebels. During the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, Roman troops crucified as many as five hundred Jews a day for several months (Josephus 'Jewish Wars' 5.449-52). ... Death by crucifixion was in every sense excruciating, a term derived from the Latin excruciatus, meaning 'from the cross.' Although a crucified victim suffered terrible thirst and physical exhaustion, death usually came as a result of asphyxiation. ...."
I'll quote part of what Leon Morris says here ("Gospel According to John," pages 805, 806). "Popular piety, both Protestant and Catholic, has often tended to make a great deal of the sufferings of Jesus, to reflect on what was done and to dwell on the anguish He suffered. None of the Gospels does this. The Evangelists record the fact [that He was crucified] and let it go at that. The death of Jesus for men was their [the Gospel writers] concern. ((Morris has a footnote: "Cf. Morgan [G. Campbell Morgan 'The Gospel According to John,' 1951]: 'It may be a challengeable opinion, but I think the Church of God has suffered more than it knows by pictures of the crucifying of Jesus; and sometimes by very honest and well-intentioned sermons, trying to describe the matter on the physical side. I am not denying the tragedy and the pain of it physically, but the physical suffering of Jesus was nothing compared to the deeper fact of the Cross.' ")) They make no attempt to play on the heartstrings of their readers." We must make sure that our religious thinking and activities go beyond the emotional level and the flesh; our faith and worship must be based on the balanced truth of what the Bible teaches and must be in/by the Holy Spirit.]], and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between [[Compare Matt. 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32, 33, 39-43; and John 19:32. "John gives us no details of the two men who were crucified with Jesus. Mark and Matthew call them 'bandits' (Greek "lestai") using the same word John uses of Barabbas (18:40); they were probably freedom fighters of his company. ..." (F. F. Bruce, "Gospel of John," page 368). See under John 18:40.]]. (19) Pilate also wrote an inscription ["Pilate had a notice prepared" NIV] and put it on the cross. It was written, 'JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.' [Compare Matt. 27:37; Mark 15:26; and Luke 23:38. Pilate was taunting the Jews with this inscription (cf. John 19:14, 15, 21, 22).] (20) Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew ["Jewish Aramaic" (margin of NASB)], Latin and in Greek. [["Aramaic...was the language in common use in Judea; Latin was the official language of the army; and Greek was the lingua franca of the Empire, and well known in Galilee" (D. A. Carson, "Gospel According to John," page 610).]] (21) So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, 'Do not write, "The King of the Jews
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