John 19 Study Notes

19:1 After the Jewish phase of the trial and Jesus’s interrogation by Pilate, the sentencing stage of his trial began. On Pilate, see note at 18:29. The flogging weakened Jesus so much that he could not carry his crossbeam very far.

19:2 The crown of thorns represented a mock crown ridiculing Jesus’s messiahship. The thorns would sink into his skull, bloodying and distorting his face. The purple robe (cp. Mt 27:28; Mk 15:17) represented a mock royal robe. Purple was the imperial color (1Macc 8:14).

19:3 Hail, King of the Jews mimicked the “Ave Caesar” (“Hail, Caesar!”) extended to the Roman emperor. Roman soldiers customarily played “mock king” games during the Saturnalia festival.

19:4 Usually Pilate’s decision would be final, but the Jews would not let the matter drop.

19:5 Here is the man (Lat ecce homo) conveys a sense of, “Look at the poor fellow!” In his mock regal clothes, Jesus made a heartrending sight. In the context of John’s Gospel, the statement may also highlight Jesus’s humanity and invoke messianic passages such as Zch 6:12.

19:6 Pilate used sarcasm, being fully aware that the Jews did not have the authority to impose the death penalty (see note at 18:31).

19:7 The Jews’ comment may refer to Lv 24:16: “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death” (see note at Jn 5:18; cp. 8:59; 10:31,33).

19:8 Pilate was more afraid than ever. Earlier that morning his wife’s dream had disturbed him (Mt 27:19).

19:9 Jesus’s origin was frequently an issue with his opponents (7:27-28; 8:14; 9:29-30). For John, there were clear spiritual overtones to Pilate’s question, Where are you from? (cp. 18:36-37). Jesus’s silence before Pilate is reminiscent of Is 53:7 (cp. Mk 14:61; 15:5; 1Pt 2:22-23).

19:10-11 In typical Jewish fashion, Jesus used from above to refer to God.

19:12 Unconvinced of Jesus’s guilt, Pilate sentenced him to die only after intense Jewish pressure (vv. 13-16). Caesar, originally the surname of Gaius Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC), became the title of subsequent Roman emperors (cp. v. 15; Mt 22:17,21). Caesar’s friend was a semiformal status indicating a person favored by the emperor. Pilate feared losing this status.

19:13 The judge’s seat served as the platform for the judge’s formal verdict (Ac 25:6,17). The kind of Stone Pavement mentioned here has been excavated on the lower level of the Fortress of Antonia, one of the two possible sites for the governor’s residence (see note at 18:28).

19:14 The preparation day for the Passover may refer to the day before the Sabbath of Passover week (Mt 27:62; Mk 15:42; Lk 23:54; see note at Jn 18:28). If so, all four Gospels concur that Jesus’s Last Supper was a Passover meal eaten on Thursday evening (which, by Jewish reckoning, was the beginning of Friday).

19:15 By professing to acknowledge Caesar alone as their king, the Jewish leaders betrayed their national heritage and denied their own messianic expectations based on the promises of Scripture.

19:16a Upon pronouncement of the sentence, the person was scourged and then executed.

19:16b-42 The final unit in John’s passion narrative describes Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.

19:17 Jesus set out carrying the cross by himself until he collapsed. Simon of Cyrene was then pressed into service, and he carried it to the execution site (Mt 27:32). He went out means “out of the city,” where Jewish custom prescribed that executions should take place (Lv 24:14,23; Nm 15:35-36; Dt 17:5; 21:19-21; 22:24; cp. Heb 13:12). Place of the Skull translates Aramaic Golgotha; the Latin equivalent used in the Vulgate is “Calvary” (see note at 1:38).

19:18 On crucifixion, see note at 18:32. Jesus’s crucifixion between two criminals is reminiscent of Ps 22:16: “A gang of evildoers has closed in on me.” The passage also echoes Is 53:12: “counted among the rebels.”

19:19 The inscription on Jesus’s cross specified the crime for which he was executed, probably to discourage others from committing similar acts.

19:20 On the place . . . was near the city, see note at v. 17. Aramaic was the language most widely understood by the Jewish population of Palestine; Latin was the official language of the Roman occupying force; and Greek was the “international language” of the empire, understood by most Diaspora Jews as well as Gentiles. The trilingual inscription ensured that virtually anyone could read the crimes with which Jesus was charged.

19:21-22 Pilate was unwilling to give in to further Jewish pressures. For John, the inscription unintentionally confirmed Jesus’s true kingship.

19:23 The seamless tunic may recall Joseph’s robe (Gn 37:3,23). Similar to several later events at the crucifixion (Jn 19:28-37), the soldiers’ division of Jesus’s clothes and their casting of lots fulfilled Scripture (Ps 22:18). On other fulfillment quotations, see note at Jn 12:38-40.

19:24 The quotation is from Ps 22, a lament psalm ascribed to David. This is the first of several references to Jesus as the righteous sufferer in keeping with the experience of the psalmist (Jn 19:28,36-37). The soldiers did not want to tear Jesus’s tunic because it was woven of one cloth. John may have purposefully shaped his account of Jesus’s crucifixion in a way that highlighted the parallels and fulfillments between the experiences of David and Jesus. For instance, Ps 22:15-18 mentions the sufferer’s thirst (v. 15), his pierced hands and feet (v. 16), and the preservation of all his bones (v. 17).

19:25 On Jesus’s mother, see 2:1-5 and note at 19:26-27. His mother’s sister may be Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee mentioned in Matthew and Mark. On Mary the wife of Clopas, see Lk 24:18. On Mary Magdalene, see 20:1-18 (cp. Lk 8:2-3).

19:26-27 In keeping with biblical injunctions to honor one’s parents (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16), Jesus made provision for his mother, who was almost certainly widowed and probably in her early fifties, with little or no personal income. On the word woman, see note at 2:4. On the disciple he loved, see the notes at 13:23; 20:1-21:25; 21:7-8; 21:24.

19:28-29 The reference to Scripture being fulfilled builds on v. 24 (see note there), most likely in allusion to Ps 69:21: “They gave me vinegar to drink” (cp. Mt 27:34,48; see Ps 22:15). Soldiers and laborers used sour wine to quench their thirst (Mk 15:36). It is different from the “wine mixed with myrrh” Jesus refused on the way to the cross (Mk 15:23). Hyssop was a plant classified in 1Kg 4:33 as a humble shrub. It was used for the sprinkling of blood on the doorpost at the original Passover (Ex 12:22).

19:30 Gave up may echo “willingly submitted to death,” which was prophesied of the Suffering Servant (Is 53:12).

19:31 On preparation day, see note at v. 14. That Sabbath was . . . special because it was the Sabbath of Passover week. For the Jews, bodies of hanged criminals were not to defile the land by remaining on a tree overnight (Dt 21:22-23; cp. Jos 8:29).

19:31-33 The legs of crucifixion victims were broken to hasten death. This prevented them from pushing themselves up with their legs to open the chest cavity and thus breathe better. Since the victims would now have to pull themselves up by the arms instead, suffocation occurred once their arm strength failed. See note at v. 36.

19:34 The flow of blood and water proved that Jesus was dead (1Jn 5:6-8). The passage may also allude to Ex 17:6: “Hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink” (cp. Nm 20:11). The spear was about three and one-half feet long and consisted of an iron spearhead joined to a shaft of wood.

19:35 On John’s witness about Jesus, see notes at 5:31-47; 13:23; 21:24.

19:36 After vv. 24 and 28-29 (see notes there), this is the third scriptural proof that shows that Jesus’s death fulfilled Scripture (Ex 12:46; Ps 34:20). Jesus escaped having his legs broken since he died so quickly, and the spear did not damage any of his bones.

19:37 The Roman soldiers again fulfilled prophecy without knowing it: “They will look at me whom they pierced” (Zch 12:10; also cited in Rv 1:7).

19:38 Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Jewish ruling council (Mt 27:57), asked Pilate for Jesus’s body. Thus Jesus was killed alongside criminals and was buried in a rich man’s tomb. This fulfilled another Scripture: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death” (Is 53:9).

19:39-40 The amount of aromatic spices brought by Joseph and Nicodemus—about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes—was considerable (2Ch 16:14). Myrrh was a fragrant resin used by Egyptians in embalming; aloes were a powder of aromatic sandalwood; the mixture cloaked the smell of decay.

19:41 On the place where he was crucified, see notes at vv. 17,20. The garden was apparently somewhat elaborate; note the mention of a gardener in 20:15. Garden burials are recorded in the OT (Manasseh in 2Kg 21:18; Amon in 2Kg 21:26).

19:42 On the Jewish day of preparation, see note at v. 14. Sabbath was rapidly approaching, when all work ceased, including that of carrying spices or transporting a corpse. Thus we may see it as an instance of divine providence that the tomb was nearby (see note at 20:1).