19, 1-16:  The Scourging and Crowning.  Cf. Matt. 27, 26-31; Mark 15, 15-20; Luke 23, 4 f.13-16.20-25.  Evidently supposing the Synoptic account, John is brief as usual, but displays more clearly Pilate's inclination to release our Lord.  1-3.  Scourging was a normal preliminary to crucifixion.  Matthew and Mark report the incident only in this character, and therefore after the death sentence; whereas Luke, like John, shows that Pilate hoped the scourging might suffice for Christ's discharge.  This extremely cruel practice was called "an intermediary death," and in fact, the victim often died under the lashes.  The crowning with thorns was a spontaneous jest of the soldiers.  The purple garment was probably a faded military cloak.  In all of this Pilate was quite arbitrary.  John tells of three admissions on his part that he found no guilt in Christ.

4 f.  Pilate makes two appeals for the prisoner's release.  First, I find no guilt in him, and yet, to satisfy you, I have scourged Him.  Again, the demonstration of our Lord's pitiable condition: Behold the man! as if such a man could be a king!    6.  These appeals are rejected.  The Synoptics suppose that the crowd joined in the cry, Crucify him! but John here reveals that the officials were behind it.  Take him yourselves, etc.: if you dare crucify an innocent man.    7.  The law referred to is Lev. 24, 16, against blasphemy.  Clearly they understood the title "Son of God" in its literal force; otherwise, it would not have been blasphemous: cf. 5, 18; 7, 20; 8, 58; 10, 33.  The political charges having failed, the Jews now admit their real accusation.

8.  This fear could have two causes, the rising fanaticism of the Jews, and the possibility of some divine power in our Lord.    9.  Christ's silence recalls Isa. 53, 7.    10 f.  Pilate's pride merited the rebuke that, without permission from God, he would be powerless.  Cf. 18, 6.  He who delivered me: i.e., Caiphas, as head of the Sanhedrin.  Has the greater sin: to both Pilate and the Jews God had made available this power of His Son, but both sinned in using it.  The sin of the Jews was the greater because they had initiated the process, they had evidence of His divinity, and yet their conduct was inspired by hatred.  Pilate's sin was the less because he was an instrument, was acting under the moral stress of fear, and had far less light.    12.  From then on, or as the Greek text can also be rendered, "on that account."  This gave Pilate a new incentive to dismiss the case.  It also led the Jews to a final and a winning argument.  To their charge of Christ's pretension to a throne Pilate could not be indifferent; to be so would endanger his title to be considered the friend of Caesar.

13.  The judgment seat was a rostrum or curule chair from which sentence was formally pronounced.  Lithostrotos: a Greek term meaning in general a stone pavement, here probably the court outside the praetorium.  Gabbatha: a cleared space or court.  Cf. Acts 12, 4; 16, 19; 18, 12.    14.  Preparation Day: originally meaning preparation for the paschal supper, the expression later denoted the preparation also for the Great Sabbath.  Cf. Mark 15, 42.  According to John's dating either sense might apply here.  The sixth hour: cf. Mark 15, 25, where from 9 to 12 may be meant, while John more precisely sets the scene nearer 12.  Neither aims to give the exact hour.  Behold your king is ironical.    15.  The retort of the chief priests is decisive.  We have no king but Caesar is their final repudiation of Jesus as the Messias.    16a.  Pilate acceded to their wish, though the execution of the sentence was in the hands of the Roman soldiers.  Cf. Luke 23, 25; Acts 2, 23; 3, 15.    16b.  In the Greek text this is read with 17, omitting the words and led him away.

19, 17-24:  The Crucifixion.  Cf. Matt. 27, 31-56; Mark 15, 20-41; Luke 23, 26-49.    17.  Bearing the cross: the victim usually carried his own cross, probably his arms tied to the cross-beam only.  The assistance of Simon, mentioned in the Synoptics, was found necessary after the procession left the praetorium.  The Skull: as the Aramaic Golgotha is explained in Matt. 27, 33; Mark 15, 22.    18.  Two others: the fulfillment of Isa. 53, 12, "He was reckoned among the wicked."  Cf. Mark 15, 28.    19 f.  John and Luke tell us that the inscription was written in three languages.  It was usual thus to publish the crime of the offender.  In this case Pilate was obviously deriding the Jews.  Each of the Evangelists gives only the sense of the inscription, and thus their words can differ.    21 f.  Pilate had no mind to change what he had written.    23 f.  The clothes of the condemned were the spoil of the soldiers who executed the sentence.  Here the garments included all the under clothing, while the tunic was the outer cloak.  A predication of this scene is found in Ps. 21, 19.  The first verse of this same Psalm is quoted by Christ in the words Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani (Mark 15, 34).

19, 25-30:  The Death of Jesus.    25.  John mentions those particulars in which he was involved.  The older and more general view is that there were three women in this group: Mary, wife or mother of Cleophas, who was his mother's sister, the Blessed Virgin, and Mary Magdalene.  This last is probably to be distinguished, by her title "the Magdalene," from Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus.    26 f.  The doctrine of Mary's maternity over all Christians does not rest on this text, although its words may be thus accommodated.    28.  Cf. Ps. 68, 22, but also Ps. 21, 16.    29.  Common wine: the common dry wine of the soldiers, often called "vinegar."  A stalk of hyssop: this stalk is frail and only about eighteen inches long.  Hence Lagrange explains: hyssop was wrapped around the end of a rod to serve as a sponge.    30.  It is consummated: Christ has accomplished His mission from the Father.  Cf. Heb. 10, 7.  This was the price paid for our salvation.  Cf. Rom. 3, 25 f; 1 Cor. 6, 20; 7, 23; 2 Cor. 5, 15; Gal. 3, 13; Eph. 2, 13; Heb. 10, 10-14; 1 Pet. 1, 18 f.

19, 31-42:  The Burial.    31-37:  The lance.  The incident is recorded only by John.    31.  Cf. Deut. 21, 23.  If this Sabbath was the 15th Nisan, we can understand its especial solemnity.  That their legs might be broken: the crurifragium was a means of hastening the death of one crucified.  The femur was fractured with a rod, the additional pain compensating for a shortening of the agony of the cross.    32 f.  The thieves, still alive, died under this treatment.  Jesus, however, was already dead.    34.  One of the soldiers: tradition, following the "Gospel of Nicodemus," names him Longinus, deriving the name from the Greek term for "lance."  Opened: the Greek means more exactly "pierced."  There came out blood and water: John seems to consider this a prodigy.  But if John intended thus to prove a real death of Christ as against the Docetists, the phenomenon can readily be understood as natural.  The commonest explanation is that the lance pierced the heart of Jesus, the water being the lymph escaping from the pericardial sac (cf. 1 John 5, 6).    35.  John declares himself an eyewitness of this event.  And his witness is true: note the force of this in 4, 23.37; 6, 32; 7, 28; 15, 1: it is a genuine testimony worthy of all credence.  And he knows: generally taken of John himself; but some would refer it to Christ.  Thus John would call upon Christ to witness the truth of his statement.  That you also may believe: that the reader may see in this, as John does, the fulfillment of Scripture.    36.  For connects this verse with the foregoing as its explanation; cf. Ex. 12, 46; Num. 9, 12; Ps. 33, 21.  Christ fulfills the type of the Paschal Lamb.  Cf. also 1, 29.36.    37.  Cf. Zach. 12, 10; Apoc. 1, 7.  The sense of the Hebrew texts is expressed.

38-42:  The burial.  Cf. Matt. 27, 57-61; Mark 15, 42-47; Luke 23, 50-56.    38.  Arimathea: probably Ramathaim, today er-Ram, to the north and west of Jerusalem, and the home of Samuel.  Joseph probably gathered courage from seeing this death of the Master.  Cf. Isa. 53, 9.    39.  For Nicodemus cf. 3, 1 ff; 7, 50 f.  Myrrh is an odorous resin; aloes, a scented wood.  Mixture: a variant reading has "roll."  Cf. Ps. 44, 9; Prov. 7, 17; Cant. 4, 14.  A hundred pounds: about 70 pounds avoirdupois.    40.  In linen cloths: possibly in the form of a shroud.  Cf. 11, 44.  Jewish manner of preparing for burial: this involved three operations: the washing of the body (not mentioned in the Gospels), the anointing (the concern of the women), and wrapping in cloths over which the preservatives had been spread.  The haste of this temporary internment admitted only of the shroud and the spices.    41.  Matthew tells us that the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.