Jesus has been apprehended, brought before the high priest where he is accused and Peter has denied the Lord three times just as was prophesied. Then Jesus is taken from the house of the high priest Caiaphas to the Praetorium to be tried by Pontius Pilate. Pilate asks them what Jesus is guilty of and their response is evasive “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over.”, Pilate turns to pragmatism and states they should just judge him under their own law but then they reveal their hand, they want Jesus killed and this seems to spark Pilate’s curiosity and Roman sense of justice.
33 Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Pilate re-enters the praetorium because he had to go outside of it to talk to Jesus’ accusers. They refuse to enter the gentile governed building because it would make them unclean and therefore unable to celebrate the Passover, the fact they have no such issues with Jesus being thrown in there means they had already made up their mind, he would not be celebrating the Passover and had every intention of having his execution rushed before the dusk of Good Friday. A praetorium is a roman headquarters for the general or commander-in-chief, sometimes they were temporary structures like tents for planning battle strategies or well furnished palaces for council meetings and official business. In the context of Pilate it was the latter and was originally built by King Herod the Great but was co-opted by the Romans.
Pilate proceeds to question Jesus, commentators note that in the Gospels there are three leading charges against Jesus namely sedition, anti-fiscal agitation and claiming to be Christ the King. (Luke 23:2) . Pilate does not seem to be interested in the other charges but is very interested in the one of sovereignty that Jesus claimed. This could be because he was worried about a revolutionary figure behind Jesus’ peaceful exterior or it could be to do with what he thinks his accusers are referring to. Pilate would not understand the divine and spiritual implications of “Christ the king” or “anointed king” but he does understand the worldly framework of Kingship so he asks “are you king of the jews?”
King of the Jews is actually an official title in this time period and was not a title invented by the Hebrews although there were ancient titles like ‘King of Israel’ or ‘King of Judah’. ‘King of the Jews’ is the title designated by the Romans and was the individual that Caesar had extended power to rule the region and population of Judea, hence the name. Herod the Great was the first to receive this title which was ironic since he was neither of noble heritage nor a Jew, he was an Edomite racially, as were his sons. So the Roman perspective of who was King of the Jews had little to do with divinity, ethnicity or even popularity but to do with a legal declaration of the Roman government, enforced by the local prefect who would be Pilate, he is essentially asking Jesus “are you contending the throne?”.
34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
Jesus being fully aware of who has what authority in the mortal framework asks Pilate if it is himself proposing the question or if he is just repeating Jesus’ accusers. This is important, as the governing of this region was under Pilate’s jurisdiction. He has the authority to deal with the political issue of the Roman designated title “King of the Jews” but if he is just repeating his accusers then it has nothing to do with this century old political office. What is interesting about this theory is that when followed to the later passion narrative, Pilate, the Roman authority in the land, will proclaim in Latin, Hebrew and Greek that Jesus is King of the Jews, an office that had been empty since Herod the Great’s death. Jesus is asking “what do you mean by king? if you’re thinking from your perspective, no. If you’re asking about what the Jews are saying then, yes.
35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?”
Pilate answers Jesus’ question with another question. “Am I a Jew? as if to say, “do I look like I understand your religion? I do not understand what it is your own people are accusing you of” This lets us know that Pilate was just repeating the accusers and is letting go the position that Jesus might be contending the legal office designated by the Romans. He says Jesus’ own nation and chief priests have given him over to him for judgement but finds the accusations unintelligible so he asks Jesus himself “What have you done?”.
36 Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.”
37 Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”
In order to answer Pilate’s question in verse 35b, Jesus does what he does best. There is no separation between who he is and what he does. So instead of giving a long list of what he has done Jesus says exactly who he is. He establishes that his authority does not come from the world, which is where all other authority comes from. He cements this statement by saying if it were of this world, it would act like the other authority structures built from the world i.e. the use of violence. “My servants would fight”. He then completes his response by repeating the declaration that his authority, his kingship, is not from this world. Just like many throughout his ministry, Pilate is unable to understand a king outside of the worldly framework. So in verse 37 Pilate proposes the question “So you are a king?” and Jesus responds with “You say that I am a King”. Jesus responds this way as if you say “that is the highest way you can understand it”. Since Pilate is limited in his comprehension Jesus elaborates further by saying “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” The truth is interpreted as God’s will. Jesus’ very incarnation (For this I was born) and his ministry (come into the world) is to “bear witness” to God’s will. The Greek word this phrase is translated from is Matureó which means to To bear witness, testify, give evidence, affirm that one has seen, heard, or experienced something. Jesus is not from the world but came into it, he is to affirm the authority of God and the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. His very earthly existence and actions are to be the sign of God’s dominion on earth itself. We always forget that up until this point the earth has been drawn up into principalities and dominions by God himself.(see Deuteronomy 32) The incarnation and kingship of Christ is to be the conduit through which all humanity is reunited with God, the authority not from this world.
“Pilate, surprised at an avowal of kingship of any kind, asked: ‘Art thou a king then?’ The answer given by Jesus is Yes. He is a Teacher-King, born and present in the world to proclaim the royal authority of truth. ‘Every one who is of the truth (joined to it by the filial sympathy of true goodness, cf. 3:21) heareth my voice’, i.e. obeys me.”
Leonard, W. 1953. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John.” In A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, edited by Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe, 1012. Toronto; New York; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson.
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