John 18:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore Pilate, in perplexity, says, "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."

They said this "that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die."

But how did the words, "It is not lawful to put anyone to death," indicate this? The Evangelist says this either because Christ had to die not for them alone, but also for the Gentiles.

Or he says it because they were not permitted to crucify anyone. If they say, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death," they are pointing to the circumstances of that time.

That they did kill, and killed in another manner, is shown by the example of Stephen, who was stoned. But they wished to crucify Christ, so that the very form of His death would be shameful. See verse 34.

"That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled" concerning His death. This means either that He would be crucified (Mt 20:18-19), or that He would be put to death not by the Jews, but by the Gentiles (Mk 10:33).

Therefore, when the Jews said that it was not lawful for them to kill, the Gentiles took Him. According to their custom, they crucified Him on the cross.

Thus the word of Jesus is fulfilled in both respects: that He is delivered to the Gentiles, and that He is crucified.

But this also reveals the truth of Christ's words, since He foreknew how He would die and foretold it to His holy disciples.

What did He say to them? "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. They will crucify Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise" (Mt 17:23; Mt 20:18; Mt 26:45).

It is necessary to mention this, for it was fitting that He should suffer with foreknowledge.

Thus no one should think that He, to whom all things are "opened and laid bare" (Heb 4:13), underwent this unwillingly. Rather, they should believe that He voluntarily endured the cross for us and on our behalf.

If, in what the Evangelist John adds, "that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die," we see an indication of death on the cross, then I do not see how that conclusion can be drawn.

One might say that the Jews said it was not lawful for them to kill anyone because killing is one thing, and crucifying on a cross another.

But the chief priests' words were their reply to Pilate when he said to them, "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law" (Jn 18:31).

Could they not have taken Him themselves and crucified Him themselves, if they wished, using such a kind of execution in order, supposedly, to avoid killing?

Who does not see how absurd it is that they would be permitted to crucify and yet not permitted to kill anyone?

The Jews said this so that the word of Jesus Christ might be fulfilled. His words had to be fulfilled: "And if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself" (Jn 12:32).

After these words, the Evangelist adds a similar remark: "This He said, signifying by what death He was to die" (Jn 12:33), that is, indicating His death on the cross.

All the Evangelists describe the trial of Jesus in the praetorium, each with his own additions, except Mark. Matthew speaks of the dream of Pilate's wife. Luke speaks of Jesus being sent to Herod.

John gives Pilate's questions to Jesus and Jesus' answers in detail.

The procurator lived in Herod's palace, a magnificent building. Before this building was the βήμα, on which Pilate sat when he spoke with the Jews.

During the trial of Jesus, he spoke with Jesus inside the palace.

It must be noted that Pilate was an enemy of the Jews and used every occasion to insult them.

But because he had already many times used violence and injustice against them, he himself, on the other hand, feared them and dreaded their denunciations.

Through these denunciations he later did in fact lose his position. For his own security, it cost him nothing to make any sacrifice whatever.

In citing these words of the chief priests, the Evangelist John refers to Jesus' prediction of the death by which He would die.

If the Sanhedrin had not been deprived of the right to put the condemned to death, the Jewish execution would have been applied to them: stoning.

But since this right had been taken from the Sanhedrin, it passed to Roman authority.

According to Roman laws, execution was of two kinds. For Roman citizens it was beheading with the sword, and for other persons crucifixion on the cross.

Therefore Jesus foretold that He would be crucified.

It is possible that the Evangelist has in mind the Savior's prediction that He would be delivered to the Gentiles for execution (Mt 20:19).

According to ordinary Jewish practice, a man on whom a death sentence had been pronounced had to be led out of the city and stoned.

But because Judea was subject to the Romans, the supreme Jewish court had been deprived of the right of life and death. Therefore the sentence also had to receive confirmation from the Roman procurator.

For this reason, the next morning began a new and most important stage of the trial of Christ, namely the hearing of His case before Pilate.

The highest native court of the Jews, as we have already seen, did not possess the right of capital punishment. The so-called jus gladii had been taken from it by the Romans.

Where ordinary criminal offenses were concerned, such as theft, murder, robbery, and the like, the Jewish authorities endured this deprivation rather indifferently.

After investigating the case, they handed the guilty over to the judgment of the Roman tribunal, which for the most part sent them to execution without a new examination of its own.

But there was one sphere of cases in which the Jews still wished to be judges and decision-makers themselves: the sphere of religion.

"That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled," and so forth. In this circumstance, acknowledged by the Jews themselves, the Evangelist indicates the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy concerning precisely His death on the cross.

They acknowledged that without the consent of Roman authority they had no right to put anyone to death.

If the right to punish by death had not been taken from them, then they, accusing the Lord of supposed blasphemy, would have stoned Him.

Their law commanded precisely this execution for blasphemers (Lev 24:16). Thus Christ's word concerning the manner of His death would not have been fulfilled.

But now He had to endure crucifixion on the cross. His enemies sought this, and they could not do it without the procurator's decision.

If they had accused Jesus only of crimes against the faith, Jesus would not have been before the judgment of a Gentile and would not have died on the cross.

But the Lord foretold that He would be delivered to the Gentiles and would die by death on the cross (Mt 20:19; Mt 26:2; Jn 3:14; Jn 12:32; Mk 10:33-34). And behold, His words are fulfilled.

The Lord had foretold about Himself that He would die by death on the cross (Jn 3:14; Jn 8:28; Jn 12:32). Death on the cross could be carried out only by the hands of the Gentiles, because at that time it was not used among the Jews.

This prophecy of the Lord is now fulfilled when they delivered Him to Pilate, a Gentile. It was fulfilled that same day.

The Jews, that is, the high priest Joseph Caiaphas with his father-in-law Annas, or Hanan, together with the members of the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees, were apparently unprepared to answer Pilate's question.

Everything shows that they thought it enough to hand the Lord over to the praetor, who had power of life and death. They expected him to order the condemned Man's execution without examining the case, simply to please them.

But the Roman, proud though weak in character and base in soul, did not accept such a role. Compare Jn 19:2. A very interesting section on Pilate in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus is the so-called Acts of Pilate.