Jesus is questioned concerning CHAP. XVIII. his doctrine and disciples. unto Peter, Art not thou also one of || resort; and in secret have I said no- A.M. 4033. A. D. 29. An. Olymp. this man's disciples? He saith, I am A. D. 29. An. Olymp. CCII. 1. 21 Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. 22 And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the 19 The high-priest then asked Jesus of his palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the disciples, and of his doctrine. a high-priest so? 23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, why smitest 20 Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always thou me? • Matt. 26. 55. Luke 4. 13. ch. 7. 14, 26, 28. & 8. 2. Jer. 20. 2. Acts 23. 2. Or, with a rod. tily, says he, on a subject concerning which the Scripture is that day but if he be condemned, the sentence cannot be silent. Verse 17. The damsel that kept the door] Cazarius, a writer quoted by Calmet, says, this portress was narned Ballila. It is worthy of remark, that women, especially old women, were employed by the ancients as porters. In 2 Sam. iv. 6. both || the Septuagint and Vulgate make a woman, poiter to Ishbosheth. ARISTOPHANES, in Vespis, v. 765. mentions them in the sanie office, and calls them Erxus, Sekis, which seems to signify a common maid-servant : Ότι την θύραν ανεωξεν η Σηκις λαθρα. And EURIPIDES, Troad. brings in Hecuba, complaining that she, who was wont to sit upon a throne, is now reduced to the miserable necessity of becoming a porter, or a nurse, in order to get a morsel of bread. And PLAUTUS, Curcul. Act. i. sc. 1. mentions an old woman who was keeper of the gate : Anus hic solet cubitare custos janitrix. Why they, in preference to men, should be pitched upon for this office, I cannot conceive; but we find the usage was common in all ancient nations. See the notes on Matt. xxvi. || 69. Verse 18. Servants and officers] These belonged to the chief priests, &c. the Roman soldiers had probably been dismissed after having conducted Christ to Annas. pronounced till the next day. But no kind of judgment is to be executed, neither on the eve of the sabbath, nor the eve of any festival." Nevertheless, to the lasting infamy of this people, Christ was judicially interrogated and condemned during the night; and on the night too of the pass-over, or, according to others, on the eve of that feast. Thus, as I have marked before, all the forms of justice were insulted and outraged in the case of our Lord. In this his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. See Acts viii. 33. Verse 20. I spake openly to the tworld] To every person in the land indiscriminately-to the people at large:-the Tw xow here, is tantamount to the French tout le monde, all the world, i. e. every person within reach. This is another proof that St. John uses the term world, to mean the Jewish people only; for it is certain our Lord did not preach to the Gentiles. The answer of our Lord, mentioned in this and the following verse, is such as became a person conscious of his own innocence, and confident in the righteousness of his cause. I have taught in the temple, in the synagogues, in all the principal cities, towns, and villages; and through all the country. I have had no secret school. You and your emissaries have watched me every where. No doctrine has ever proceeded from my lips, but what was agreeable to the righteousness of the law, and the purity of God. My disVerse 19. Asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine.J ciples, when they have taught, have taught in the same way, He probably asked him, by what authority, or in virtue of and had the same witnesses. Ask those who have attended what right he collected disciples, formed a different sect, our public ministrations, and hear whether they can prove, preached a new doctrine, and set himself up for a public re- that I or my disciples have preached any false doctrines, have former? As religion was interested in these things, the high-ever troubled society, or disturbed the State. Attend to the priest was considered as being the proper judge. But all this, ordinary course of justice, call witnesses, let them make their with what follows, was transacted by night, and this was con- || depositions, and then proceed to judge according to the evitrary to established laws. For the Talmud states, Sanhed. || dence brought before you. c. iv. s. 1. that "criminal processes can neither commence nor terminate, but during the course of the day. If the person be acquitted, the sentence may be pronounced during | Verse 22. One of the officers-struck Jesus] This was an outrage to all justice : for a prisoner, before he is condemned, is ever considered to be under the especial protection of jus Peter is interrogated, and A.M. 4033. (24 Now Annas had sent him bounding his kinsman whose ear Peter cut AM45, A. D. 99. An. Olymp. unto Caiaphas the high-priest.) CCHI. 1. 25¶ And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. b They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not. A. Olymp. CCIL. 1. 26 One of the servants of the high-priest, be- unto tice; nor has any one a right to touch him, but according to the direction of the law. But it has been observed before, that if justice had been done to Christ, he could neither have suffered nor died. Verse 24. Now Annas had sent him, &c.] It has been observed before, that the proper place of this verse is immediately after the 13th, and if it be allowed to stand here, it should be read in a parenthesis, and considered as a recapitulation of what had been before done. Malchus's relations. This occasioned a more vehement denial than before; and immediately the cock crew the second time; which is eminently called anexrogopwvia. The first denial may have been between our twelve and one; and the second between our two and three. At the time of the third denial, Luke xxii. 61. proves that Jesus was in the same room with Peter. We must farther observe, that Matthew, chap. xxvi. 57. lays the scene of Peter's denials in the house of Caiaphas; whereas John, ver. Verse 27. And the cock crew.] Peter denied our Lord 15-23. seems to intimate, that these transactions took place three times: Peter's first denial. I. This took place, when he was without, or beneath, in the hall of Caiaphas's house. He was not in the higher part where Christ stood before the high-priest; but without that division of the hall, and in the lower part with the servants and officers, at the fire kindled in the midst of the hall, ver. 16, 18. and the girl who kept the door, had entered into the hall where she charged Peter. Peter's second denial. || in the house of Annas: but this difficulty arises from the injudicious insertion of the particle ou, therefore, in ver. 24. which should be omitted, on the authority of ADES. Mt. BH. many others; besides some Versions, and some of the primitive Fathers. Griesbach has left it out of the text. See Bishop Newcome's Harm. Notes, p. 48. The time of Peter's denials happened during the space of the third Roman watch, or that division of the night between twelve and three, which is called aλexTogo, or cock-crowing, Mark xiii. 35. Concerning the nature and progress Peter's denial, see the notes on Matt. xxvi. 58, 69–75. Verse 28. The hall of judgment] 'Eis to weαitwgiov, to the prætorium. This was the house where Pilate lodged; hence called in our margin, Pilate's house. The prætorium is so called, from being the dwelling-place of the prætor, or chief of the province. It was also the place where he held his court, and tried causes. II. This was in a short time after the first, Luke xxii. 58. Having once denied his Master, he naturally retired from the place where his accuser was, to the vestibule of the hall, Matt. xxvi. 71. and it was the time of the first cock-crowing,|| or soon after midnight. After remaining here a short time, perhaps an hour, another girl sees him, and says to them who were standing by in the vestibule, that he was one of them. Peter, to avoid this charge, withdraws into the hall, and warms himself. The girl, and those to whom she had spoken, follow him; the communication between the two places being immediate. Here a man enforces the charge of the girl, ac-high-priest-and the assembling of the grand council or Sancording to Luke; and others urge it, according to St. John; and Peter denies Jesus vehemently. Peter's third denial. III. He was now in the hall, and also within sight of Jesus, though at such a distance from him, that Jesus could not know what passed, but in a supernatural way. And about an hour after his second denial, those who stood by, founded a third charge against him, on his being a Galilean, which St. Luke says, chap. xxii. 59. one in particular strongly affirmed; and which, according to John, ver. 26. was supported by one of St. John has omitted all that passed in the house of Caiaphas-the accusations brought against Christ—the false witnesses-the insults which he received in the house of the hedrin. These he found amply detailed by the other three Evangelists; and for this reason it appears that he omitted them. John's is properly a supplementary Gospel. Lest they should be defiled] The Jews considered even the touch of a Gentile as a legal defilement; and therefore would not venture into the prætorium, for fear of contracting some impurity, which would have obliged them to separate themselves from all religious ordinances till the evening, Lev. xv. 10, 11, 19, 20. That they might eat the pass-over.] Some maintain that re x here does not mean the paschal lamb, but the other Verse 31. It is not lawful for us to put any man to death] sacrifices which were offered during the paschal solemnity-They might have judged Jesus according to their law, as for this had been eaten the evening before; and that our Lord was crucified the day after the pass-over. Others have maintained that the paschal lamb is here meant; that this was the proper day for sacrificing it; that it was on the very bour in which it was offered, that Christ expired on the cross; and that therefore our Lord did not eat the paschal lamb this year, or that he ate it some hours before the common time. Bishop Pearce supposes that it was lawful for the Jews to eat the paschal lamb any time between the evening of Thursday, and that of Friday. He conjectures too that this permission was necessary, on account of the immense number of lambs which were to be killed for that purpose. When Cestius desired to know the number of the Jews, he asked the priests how he might accomplish his wish? They informed him that this might be known by the number of the lambs slain at the pass-over, as never less than ten partook of one lamb, though twenty might feast on it. On this mode of computation he found the lambs to be 256,500; εικοσι πεντε μυριάδας ηρίθμησαν, προς δε εξακισχίλια και πεντακοσία, See Josephus, War, b. vi. c. 9. s. 3. Pilate bace them do: but they could only excommunicate, or scourge him. They might have voted him worthy of death; but they could not put him to death, if any thing of a secular nature were charged against him. The power of life and death was in all probability taken from the Jews when Archelaus, king of Judea, was banished to Vienna, and Judea was made a Roman province; and this happened more than fifty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. But the Romans suffered Herod, mentioned Acts xii. to exercise the power of life and death during his reign. See much on this point in Calmet and Pearce. After all, I think it probable, that though the power of life and death was taken away from the Jews, as far as it concerned affairs of state; yet it was continued to them in matters which were wholly of an ecclesiastical nature: and that they only applied thus to Pilate to persuade him that they were proceeding against Christ as an enemy of the state, and not as a transgressor of their own peculiar laws and customs. Hence, though they assert that he should die according to their law, because he made himself the Son of God, chap. xix. 7. yet they lay That Jesus ate a pass-over this last year of his life, is suf- peculiar stress on his being an enemy to the Roman governficiently evident from Matt. xxvi. 17—19. Mark xiv. 12—18.ment; and when they found Pilate disposed to let him go, Luke xxii. 8-15. and that he ate this pass-over some hours they asserted that if he did, he was not Cæsar's friend, ver. before the ordinary time, and was himself slain at that hour 12. It was this that intimidated Pilate, and induced him to in which the paschal lamb was ordered by the law to be sa- give him up, that they might crucify him. How they came crificed, is highly probable, if not absolutely certain. See See to lose this power, is accounted for in a different manner by the note on Matt. xxvi. 20. and at the conclusion of the Dr. Lightfoot. His observations are very curious, and are chapter, where the subject, and the different opinions on it, subjoined to the end of this chapter. are largely considered. Verse 29. Pilate then went out] This was an act of condescension; but as the Romans had confirmed to the Jews the free use of all their rites and ceremonies, the governor could do no less than comply with them in this matter. He went out to them, that they might not be obliged to come into the hall, and thus run the risk of being defiled. Verse 30. If he were not a malefactor] So they did not wish to make Pilate the judge; but the executor of the sentence which they had already illegally passed. Verse 32. That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled] Or, thus the word was fulfilled. God permitted the Jews to lose the power of life and death, in the sense before stated, that according to the Roman laws which punished sedition, &c. with the cross, Christ might be crucified, according to his own prediction: chap. xii. 32. and iii. 14. St. Luke says, Verse 33. Art thou the King of the Jews?] expressly, xxiii. 2. that when the Jews brought him to Pilate, they began to accuse him as a rebel, who said he was king of the Jews, and forbad the people to pay tribute to Cæsar. It was in consequence of this accusation that Pilate asked the truth alone that I influence the minds, and govern the manners question, mentioned in the text. Verse 34. Sayest thou this thing of thyself] That is, is it because my enemies thus accuse me, or because thou hast any suspicion of me, that thou askest this question? Verse 35. Am I a Jew?] That is, I am not a Jew, and cannot judge whether thou art what is called the Christ, the king of the Jews. It is thy own countrymen, and their spiritual rulers, who delivered thee up to me with the above accusation. What hast thou done?] If thou dost not profess thyself king over this people, and an enemy to Cæsar; what is it that thou hast done, for which they desire thy condemnation ? Verse 36. My kingdom is not of this world] It is purely spiritual and divine. If it had been of a secular nature, then my servants would have contended-they would have opposed force with force, as the kingdoms of this world do in their wars; but as my kingdom is not of this world, therefore no resistance has been made. Eusebius relates, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 20." that the relatives of our Lord were brought before Domitian, and interrogated whether they were of the family of David? and what sort the kingdom of Christ was, and where it would appear? they answered that this kingdom was neither of this world, nor of an earthly nature that it was altogether heavenly and angelical; and that it would not take place till the end of the world." Verse 37. Thou sayest] A common form of expression for, yes, it is so. I was born into the world that I might set up and maintain a spiritual government: but this government is established in and by truth. All that love truth, hear my voice, and attend to the spiritual doctrines I preach. It is by of my subjects. Verse 38. What is truth?] Among the sages of that time there were many opinions concerning truth; and some had even supposed that it was a thing utterly out of the reach of men. Pilate perhaps might have asked the question in a mocking way; and his not staying to get an answer, indicated that he either despaired of getting a satisfactory one, or that he was indifferent about it. This is the case with thousands: they appear desirous of knowing the truth; but have not patience to wait in a proper way to receive an answer to their question. I find in him no fault] Having asked the above question, and being convinced of our Lord's innocence, he went out to the Jews to testify his conviction, and to deliver him, if possible, out of their hands. Verse 39. But ye have a custom] Nothing relative to the origin or reason of this custom is known. Commentators have swam in an ocean of conjecture on this point. They have lost their labour, and made nothing out: see the notes on Matt. xxvii. 15. Luke xxiii. 17. Verse 40. Barabbas was a robber] See Matt. xxvii. 16. The latter Syriac has in the margin açxıλnsns, a chief robber, a captain of banditti, and it is probable that this was the case. He was not only a person who lived by plunder, but shed the blood of many of those whom he and his gang robbed; and rose up against the Roman government, as we learn from Luke xxiii. 19. There never existed a more perfidious, cruel, and murderous people than these Jews; and no wonder they preferred a murderer to the prince of peace. Christ himself had said, If ye were of the world, the world would love its When and how the Jews lost own. CHAP. XVIII. Like cleaves to like: hence we need not be surprised to find the vilest things still preferred to Christ, his kingdom, and his salvation. 1. It is not easy to give the character of Pilate. From the manner of his conduct, we scarcely can tell when he is in jest or in earnest. He appears to have been fully convinced of the innocence of Christ; and that the Jews, through envy and malice, desired his destruction. On this ground he should have released him; but he was afraid to offend the Jews. He knew they were an uneasy, factious, and seditious people; and he was afraid to irritate them. Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum! was no motto of his. For fear of the clamours of this bad people, he permitted all the forms and requisitions of justice to be outraged; and abandoned the most innocent Jesus to their rage and malice. In this case he knew what was truth, but did not follow its dictates; and he as hastily abandoned the author of it, as he did the question he had asked concerning it. Pilate, it is true, was disposed to pity-the Jews were full of malice and cruelty. They both, however, joined in the murder of our Lord. The most that we can say for Pilate is, that he was disposed to justice; but was not inclined to hazard his comfort or safety in doing it. He was an easy, pliable man, who had no objection to do a right thing, if it should cost him no trouble; but he felt no disposition to make any sacrifice, even in behalf of innocence, righteousness, and truth. In all the business Pilate shewed that he was not a good man: and the Jews proved that they were of their father, the devil. See chap. xix. S. 2. As Dr. Lightfoot has entered into a regular examination of when and how the Jews lost the power of life and death in criminal cases; it may be necessary to lay before the Reader a copious abstract of his researches on this subject, founded on ver. 31. of the preceding chapter. "It cannot be denied that all capital judgment or sentence upon life, had been taken from the Jews for above forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem; as they oftentimes them selves confess. But how came this to pass? It is commonly received that the Romans, at this time the Jews' lords and masters, had taken from all their courts a power and capacity of judging the capital matters. Let us superadd a few things here. Rabh Cahna saith, when R. Ismael bar Jose lay sick, they sent to him, saying, Pray, Sir, tell us two or three things which thou didst once tell us in the name of thy Father. He saith to them, An hundred and fourscore years, before the destruction of the temple, the wicked kingdom (the Roman Empire) reigned over Israel, fourscore years before the destruction of the temple, they (the fathers of the Sanhedrin) determined about the uncleanness of the heathen land, and about glass vessels. Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the Sanhedrin removed and sat in the Taberne. What is the meaning of this tradition? Rabbi Isaac bar Abdimi saith, they did not judge judgments of mulcts. The gloss is, Those are the judgments about fining any that offered violence, that entice a maid, and their power of life and death. the price of a servant. When, therefore, they did not sit in the gloss. They thought themselves obliged to punish murderers while they sat in the room Gazith, for the place itself engaged them to it. They are the words of the Gemarists, upon which the The room Gazith was half of it within, and half of it without the holy place. The reason of which was, that it was requisite that the council should sit near the Divine Majesty. Hence it is that they say, Whoever constitutes an unfit judge, is as if he planted a grove by the altar of the Lord, as it is written, Judges and officers shalt thou make thee; and it follows presently after, Thou shalt not plant thee a grove near the altar of the Lord thy God, Deut. xvi. 18, 21. They removed therefore from Gazith, and sat in the Taberne: now though the Taberne were upon the mountain of the temple, yet they did not sit so near the Divine Majesty there, as they did when they sat in the room Gazith. "Let us now in order put the whole matter together. "I. The Sanhedrin were most stupidly and unreasonably remiss in their punishment of capital offenders; going upon this reason especially, that they counted it so horrible a thing to put an Israelite to death. Forsooth he is of the seed of Abraham, of the blood and stock of Israel, and you must have a care how you touch such an one! R. Το "R. Eliezer bar Simeon had laid hold on some thieves. Joshua bar Korchah sent to him, saying, O thou vinegar, the son of good wine! (i. e. O thou wicked son of a good father!) how long wilt thou deliver the people of God to the slaughter! He answered and said, I root the thorns out of the vineyard. whom the other: Let the Lord of the vineyard come and root them out himself. Bava Meziak, fol. 83. 2. It is worth noting, that the very thieves of Israel are the people of God; and they must not be touched by any man, but referred to the judgment of God himself! When R. Ismael bar R. Jose was constituted a magistrate by the king, there happened some such thing to him; for Elias himself rebuked him, saying, How long wilt thou deliver over the people of God to slaughter! Ibid. fol. 64. 1. Hence that which we alledged elsewhere: The Sanhedrin that happens to 4R 2 |