John 19:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Meanwhile Pilate, hearing from them that He "made Himself the Son of God," was afraid. He feared that what they had said might in fact be true, and that he might be shown to be a transgressor. But they, though they knew this from both His words and His works, were not horrified. Instead, they put Him to death for the very thing for which they ought to have worshiped Him.

Pilate heard only the word that He was the Son of God, and he was afraid. But they had seen His divine works, and yet they put Him to death for the very thing for which they ought to have worshiped Him.

The cunning of the Jews takes an unexpected turn. While they increasingly strengthened the ground of accusation, saying that Christ was committing criminal blasphemy even against the Godhead Himself, in Pilate this very aggravation of Christ’s supposed guilt served, on the contrary, to increase his reverence for Christ.

It calls forth in him a stronger fear, so that he becomes more careful concerning Him than before. He questions Him more precisely about who He really is and “from where.” He was not, it seems to me, without belief that even while being man, one could be the Son of God.

If one compares the accounts of all the Evangelists, it becomes clear that such silence of our Lord Jesus Christ occurred more than once: before the chief priests, before Herod, to whom, as Luke indicates, Pilate sent Him, and before Pilate himself (see Mt 26:63; 27:14; Mk 14:61; 15:5; Lk 23:7-9; Jn 19:9).

Therefore the prophecy did not foretell of Him in vain: “As a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa 53:7). This applies, of course, when He did not answer those who questioned Him.

Although He often gave answers to various questions, in those cases when He did not wish to answer, the comparison with a lamb is used. Thus in His silence He would be seen not as guilty, but as innocent.

He was more afraid that Jesus Christ might truly be God and could punish him, since He had endured such mockery from him.

According to the Evangelist’s account, when Pilate heard this word, namely that Jesus presented Himself as the Son of God, he was the more afraid. He had undoubtedly heard of the miracles Jesus had performed and, through them, could have formed an opinion of Him as an outstanding and extraordinary Man.

Moreover, his wife had seen a terrible dream about Him. And now the chief priests themselves were saying that He made Himself the Son of God (Jn 19:7). Pilate did not know the God of whom the chief priests spoke, and therefore he could not believe in Him.

But this accusation produced in Pilate a completely different impression from what the Lord’s enemies had hoped. The procurator, as St. John observes, on hearing this word, that Jesus Christ called Himself the Son of God, was still more afraid.

Until then he had feared to condemn an innocent man, a righteous man, an extraordinary man, perhaps a favorite of the gods. Now he feared to pronounce sentence upon the Son of God, for whom God, His Father, whoever He might be, would have to avenge Him severely.

For Pilate, as a pagan, was by no means alien to the belief that gods sometimes descend to earth in human form and beget demigods. He found nothing impossible in the thought that such a demigod had appeared in Judea, had been bound, and had come before his tribunal.

He mentions the unexpected yet very natural effect of this statement on the governor, who was already strongly impressed by the earlier words of "the King who came into the world" (Jn 18:37). Hearing it, Pilate was positively frightened. "Filius Dei." Yes, everything in Him shows that He is more than man. Nor was it without reason that Claudia received a mysterious warning in a dream. Thus, by acting unjustly toward Him, one might be acting unjustly toward the very divinity.

Pilate “was the more afraid.” The accusation against the Lord, expressed so directly by the Jews (cf. Lk 23:2), further intensified in Pilate that obscure feeling of fear before Him which had troubled him until now. It had been one of the motives for his desire to release the Lord.

The message from his wife and her request (Mt 27:19), the rumors of the Lord’s miracles which had certainly reached the procurator’s ears, and the Lord’s whole conduct before the tribunal all left in his soul the impression of something mysterious.

Hearing for the first time that Jesus considered Himself the Son of God, the Roman prefect became filled more than before with reverent attention toward Jesus. Although Pilate was a pagan, he could not force his heart not to revere the Divine.

By a dissipated life he had suppressed in himself the natural love for the Divine of which St. Paul speaks (Rom 1:19; Rom 2:14). Yet his wife’s dream had already compelled him to be respectfully attentive to Jesus the Righteous One.

Everything he himself had heard from Jesus also left, in the depths of his soul, wonder toward Jesus. When he heard that before him stood the Son of God, this made him tremble, not with earthly fear, but with religious fear.