NIV Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition - Flipbook - Page 67
page 1843
18:28
qver 33; Jn 19:9
rJn 11:55
18:32
20:19; 26:2;
Jn 3:14; 8:28;
12:32,33
sMt
18:33
28,29; Jn 19:9
23:3; Mt 2:2
tver
uLk
18:36
3:2
26:53
xLk 17:21; Jn 6:15
vMt
wMt
18:37
3:32
8:47; 1Jn 4:6
yJn
zJn
18:38
23:4; Jn 19:4,6
aLk
•
J ohn 1 8 : 3 9
enter the palace, q because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. r 29So 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 w
ould 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. 32This took place to fulfill
what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. s
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, t summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you
the king of the Jews?” u
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 v is not of this w
orld. If it were, my servants would fight to
prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. w But now my kingdom is from another place.” x
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. y Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” z
ilate Hands Jesus Over to Be Crucified
P
(232/Matthew 27:15–26; Mark 15:6–15; Luke 23:13–25 )
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 c harge against him. a 39But it is your custom for me
outside the house where they had taken Jesus for trial. They kept the
ceremonial requirements of their religion while harboring murder and
treachery in their hearts.
18:29 This Roman governor, Pilate, was in charge of Judea (the region
where Jerusalem was located) from AD 26 to 36. Pilate was unpopular
with the Jews because he had raided the temple treasuries for money
to build an aqueduct. He did not like the Jews, but when Jesus, the King
of the Jews, stood before him, Pilate found him innocent.
18:30 Pilate knew what was going on; he knew that the religious leaders
hated Jesus, and he did not want to act as their executioner. They could
not sentence Jesus to death themselves—permission had to come from
a Roman leader. But Pilate initially refused to sentence him without sufficient evidence. Jesus’ life became a pawn in a political power struggle.
18:31–19:14 Pilate made four attempts to deal with Jesus: (1) He tried
to put the responsibility on someone else (18:31); (2) he tried to find a way
of escape so he could release Jesus (18:39); (3) he tried to compromise
by having Jesus flogged rather than handing him over to die (19:1-3);
and (4) he tried a direct appeal to the sympathy of the accusers (19:15).
Everyone has to decide what to do with Jesus. Pilate tried to let everyone
else decide for him—and in the end, he lost.
18:32 This prediction is recorded in Matthew 20:19 and John 12:32,
35. Crucifixion was a common method of execution for criminals who
were not Roman citizens.
18:34 If Pilate was asking this question in his role as the Roman governor,
he would have been inquiring whether Jesus was setting up a rebel government. But the Jews were using the word king to mean their religious
ruler, the Messiah. Israel was a captive nation, under the authority of the
Roman Empire. A rival king might have threatened Rome; a Messiah could
have been a purely religious leader.
18:36-37 Pilate asked Jesus a straightforward question, and Jesus answered clearly. Jesus is a king, but one whose kingdom is not of this world.
Pilate seemed to have no question in his mind that Jesus was speaking
the truth and was innocent of any crime. It is also apparent that while
recognizing the truth of Jesus’ innocence, Pilate chose to ignore it and
sentence him to death. It is a tragedy when we fail to recognize the truth.
It is a greater tragedy when we recognize the truth but fail to act on it.
18:38 Pilate was cynical; he thought that all truth was relative. To many
government officials, truth was whatever the majority of people agreed
with or whatever helped advance personal power or political goals. We
see the same thing today. If we refuse to accept any standard of truth, we
have no basis for claiming something to be morally right or wrong. Many
people today have rejected the idea of objective truth, so every truth claim
is revamped or criticized as a narrative, spin, or agenda. Justice becomes
defined as whatever works or whatever helps those in power. In Jesus
and his Word, we have a standard for truth and for our moral behavior.
Perhaps Pilate should have asked, “Who is truth?”
Golgotha
(other possible site)
Antonia Fortress
(later Praetorium?)
Herod’s
Royal
Palace
Mount of
Olives
Temple
Traditional
Golgotha
Garden of
Gethsemane
Hasmonean
Palace
Herod’s
Lower Palace
Caiaphas’s UPPER CITY
House?
JERUSALEM
Traditional
Upper Room?
LOWER CITY
N
0
0
0.1 mi
0.1 km
JESUS’ TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION Jesus was taken from a trial
before the Jewish high council (the Sanhedrin) to a trial before the
Roman governor, Pilate, in Pilate’s palace. Pilate sent him to Herod
(Luke 23:5-12), but Herod just returned Jesus to Pilate. Responding to threats from the mob, Pilate finally turned Jesus over to be
crucified.