John 19:12-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
12 Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.[a] Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”(A)
13 When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him[b] on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.[c] And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” 15 They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.[d]
The Crucifixion of Jesus. So they took Jesus,
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 19:12 Friend of Caesar: a Roman honorific title bestowed upon high-ranking officials for merit.
- 19:13 Seated him: others translate “(Pilate) sat down.” In John’s thought, Jesus is the real judge of the world, and John may here be portraying him seated on the judgment bench. Stone Pavement: in Greek lithostrotos; under the fortress Antonia, one of the conjectured locations of the praetorium, a massive stone pavement has been excavated. Gabbatha (Aramaic rather than Hebrew) probably means “ridge, elevation.”
- 19:14 Noon: Mk 15:25 has Jesus crucified “at the third hour,” which means either 9 a.m. or the period from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, the time when, according to John, Jesus was sentenced to death, was the hour at which the priests began to slaughter Passover lambs in the temple; see Jn 1:29.
- 19:16 He handed him over to them to be crucified: in context this would seem to mean “handed him over to the chief priests.” Lk 23:25 has a similar ambiguity. There is a polemic tendency in the gospels to place the guilt of the crucifixion on the Jewish authorities and to exonerate the Romans from blame. But John later mentions the Roman soldiers (Jn 19:23), and it was to these soldiers that Pilate handed Jesus over.
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