Joh 18:31 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord has been condemned by religious authority; now He is to taken to civil authority. Everywhere He is an object of mockery. Thus they make the measure of their sins full, and all the more so as the longsuffering of God continues. After being busy with Him the whole night, early in the morning they bring Him to the Praetorium, Pilate’s official residence. Again we see the great hypocrisy of the Jews, this time in their refusal to enter the Praetorium. They experience it as defilement to enter this building of a heathen, while at the same time they are intent on murder and seek false witnesses against the Son of God. What deeds the religious flesh is capable of! They are full of zeal for the purity that belongs to their ceremonies, but indifferent as to justice. They do not have the faintest notion that they are putting the true Passover to death. Nor do they realize that they are thus fulfilling in guilty unbelief the voice of the law to their own destruction, whatever the plans of God may be concerning the death of Christ. When they have brought Him to the Praetorium, Pilate comes out to them. He has to, for they, in order not to defile themselves, do not want to go in. To know why they are bringing the Prisoner, he asks about the accusation. In any case, in order to convict someone, an accusation is needed. The Jews do not answer Pilate’s question, but attack his question itself. In hypocritical indignation they argue that surely they are not so unjust as to bring someone who would not be an evildoer. Surely Pilate should know better. In the altercation that follows between Pilate and the Jews, each wants to impose on the other the responsibility of putting the Lord Jesus to death. Pilate gives them permission to judge Christ according to their law, but the Jews have no desire to do so. It’s not that they don’t want to or don’t dare, but they want an official verdict so that later its legal validity cannot be questioned. Therefore, they shift the responsibility back to Pilate by pointing out to him that Roman law does not allow them to carry out a death sentence themselves. It proves their cunning. As soon as it suits them, they appeal to the authority they hate. However, neither Pilate nor the Jews determine the manner in which the Lord Jesus will die. He will not receive the Jewish death penalty, which is carried out by stoning. He will have to die on the cross, the death penalty applied by the Romans. He Himself foretold this ( ). As a result, Jew and Gentile will be guilty of His death ( ).

‏ John 18:31

Pilate and the Jews

The Lord has been condemned by religious authority; now He is to taken to civil authority. Everywhere He is an object of mockery. Thus they make the measure of their sins full, and all the more so as the longsuffering of God continues. After being busy with Him the whole night, early in the morning they bring Him to the Praetorium, Pilate’s official residence.

Again we see the great hypocrisy of the Jews, this time in their refusal to enter the Praetorium. They experience it as defilement to enter this building of a heathen, while at the same time they are intent on murder and seek false witnesses against the Son of God. What deeds the religious flesh is capable of! They are full of zeal for the purity that belongs to their ceremonies, but indifferent as to justice. They do not have the faintest notion that they are putting the true Passover to death. Nor do they realize that they are thus fulfilling in guilty unbelief the voice of the law to their own destruction, whatever the plans of God may be concerning the death of Christ.

When they have brought Him to the Praetorium, Pilate comes out to them. He has to, for they, in order not to defile themselves, do not want to go in. To know why they are bringing the Prisoner, he asks about the accusation. In any case, in order to convict someone, an accusation is needed. The Jews do not answer Pilate’s question, but attack his question itself. In hypocritical indignation they argue that surely they are not so unjust as to bring someone who would not be an evildoer. Surely Pilate should know better.

In the altercation that follows between Pilate and the Jews, each wants to impose on the other the responsibility of putting the Lord Jesus to death. Pilate gives them permission to judge Christ according to their law, but the Jews have no desire to do so. It’s not that they don’t want to or don’t dare, but they want an official verdict so that later its legal validity cannot be questioned. Therefore, they shift the responsibility back to Pilate by pointing out to him that Roman law does not allow them to carry out a death sentence themselves. It proves their cunning. As soon as it suits them, they appeal to the authority they hate.

However, neither Pilate nor the Jews determine the manner in which the Lord Jesus will die. He will not receive the Jewish death penalty, which is carried out by stoning. He will have to die on the cross, the death penalty applied by the Romans. He Himself foretold this (Jn 3:14 ; Jn 8:28 ; Jn 12:32-33). As a result, Jew and Gentile will be guilty of His death (Acts 4:27-28).