Good Friday reading

[didymus]

from St. John’s Passion:

And he said to the Jews,
“Behold, your king!”
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.”
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So he (Pilate) handed Jesus over to them (the Jews/high priests) to be crucified?
But they brought him to Pilate because “we do not have the right to execute anyone” (actually, according to a footnote in my NAB they could have just stoned Him for blasphemy if they had wanted to).
Pilate hands Jesus back, but he is the one who writes the sign to go on the cross, and it’s Roman soldiers who nail him to it. So he must have given orders to somebody.

This reading has always seemed to not quite make sense. Is St. John trying to put more of the blame on the Jews and less on the Romans? I hate that kind of explanation but it might fit.

 

[NotWorthy]

It sounds like Pilate handed Jesus over to the Jews, along with some Roman soldiers to do the dirty work for them. The Jews were most definitely culpable, for Pontius showed no desire to crucify Jesus until his hand was forced. The romans were accomplices though, in my eyes.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Pilate sounds like some of our politicians who legalize abortions, fund them, but deny that they are doing them. They are someone elses act. They weren’t there when the dirty deed was done so can wash their hands of it.

 

[Mark77]

Pilate sounds like some of our politicians who legalize abortions, fund them, but deny that they are doing them. They are someone elses act. They weren’t there when the dirty deed was done so can wash their hands of it.

Perfect!

"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.” **Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”(Jn 18:36-37).

Someday, when we are questioned by Jesus, “What did you do for the least of my kingdom?” I do not want to have to say “Nothing!”, I pray that I can only whisper “Mercy.”

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

Mark

 

[patrick457]

It sounds like Pilate handed Jesus over to the Jews, along with some Roman soldiers to do the dirty work for them. The Jews were most definitely culpable, for Pontius showed no desire to crucify Jesus until his hand was forced. The romans were accomplices though, in my eyes.

One interesting thing is that Pilate had the last laugh in writing the inscription. By writing ‘King of the Judaeans/Jews’ on that placard, Pilate is making it look like Jesus is executed for being king - as if he’s saying ‘Rome is greater than you Judaeans; just look at what happened to your King’ - rather than (supposedly) claiming to be one.

 

[NotWorthy]

One interesting thing is that Pilate had the last laugh in writing the inscription. By writing ‘King of the Judaeans/Jews’ on that placard, Pilate is making it look like Jesus is executed for being king - as if he’s saying ‘Rome is greater than you Judaeans; just look at what happened to your King’ - rather than (supposedly) claiming to be one.

Exactly. Pilate was no innocent man. Wasn’t he later removed from Judea for being too harsh on the locals? I’m not sure of the facts on that, though.

But yes, the inscription could be translated as, “Look, Jews… Pigs! This is what happens to those who rise up against Rome!”.

I recall a story of an earlier revolution in Judea against Rome. Some 400 or so men were captured (not sure of the numbers) a few decades before Christ’s passion. The Romans, as usual, wanted to make it very clear to the Judeans what happens to those who rise up against them. They took a revolutionary, and crucified him on a cross outside the gates on a road leading to Jerusalem. Then traveled down the road until the first cross was almost out of sight. Then they’d crucify another man on the cross. This was done on each main road to Jerusalem in every direction until the Romans ran out of Revolutionaries to hang. That way, to any pilgrim heading to Rome, these criminals were always in sight for many miles before one finished their journey. It was a crime to aid these criminals in any way, and it often took them days to die. It was, as you could expect, a most horrible lesson for the Jews.

 

[patrick457]

Exactly. Pilate was no innocent man. Wasn’t he later removed from Judea for being too harsh on the locals? I’m not sure of the facts on that, though.

In 36 AD, a religious fanatic from Samaria promised to a number of people that he would uncover some sacred vessels that Moses has supposedly buried on Mt. Gerizim - which is sacred to the Samaritans. The crowd assembled in a nearby village carrying weapons and prepared to ascend the mountain. Before they could get very far, however, Pilate ordered his troops to block the ascent and had many of those gathered killed and the leaders executed. Eventually, this butchery caused the a council of the Samaritans to complain to Lucius Vitellius, then governor of Syria (Pilate’s superior) that their purposes were religious, not rebellious and that Pilate was guilty of reckless slaughter. Vitellius then sent his friend Marcellus to take charge of the province of Judea, removed Pilate from his office as ‘Prefect’ and ordered him to return to Rome to answer to the charges against him, but the Emperor Tiberius died before Pilate even arrived. This is where he disappears in recorded history.

We could not blame the man, though, after ten to eleven years (ca. 26-36 AD) of having to face political rebels and ‘messiahs’ - One of whom is the actual one!

But yes, the inscription could be translated as, “Look, Jews… Pigs! This is what happens to those who rise up against Rome!”.

That is exactly one of the purposes of crucifixion: it is a sort of state-sponsored terrorism done to both display the might of the Empire and discourage its subjects from disrupting Roman law and order, keeping them in line: a cruel, gory “this is what happens when you rebel against us” show.