PARISH EDUCATION PROGRAM (P.E.P.) 2005-06 FALL-WINTER SESSION

Gospel of John Chapter 18b

Friday, January 27, 2006— 2:00 P.M

 

PRAYER - PSALM 40

A. OUR FALL-WINTER 2005-2006 SESSIONS
The Gospel of John alternating with rotating topics. Introducing Orthodoxy; Orthodox Saints; Church History; Our and Other Churches; Parables of Christ, Contemporary Ethical Issues, etc.

B. WHAT WE WILL DO TODAY

Today, we will continue our study of the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John in the light of the writings and commentaries of the Church Fathers, and other Orthodox and some non-Orthodox commentaries. The 18^th chapter of John describes Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, His trial before the Jewish authorities, and His trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, leading in chapter 19 to His mocking, His crowning with thorns and His Crucifixion.

C. UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE FROM THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
Comments from, ‘The Orthodox Study Bible; St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 14; St. Augustine, On the Gospel of.John, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 7; Orthodox Study Bible; Panagiotes Trembelas, Commentary on the Gospel of.John; John Kolitsaras, The New Testament The Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John. Oxford, 1824. Collegeville Bible Commentaty: The Gospel According to John and the .Johannine Epistles. Text and Interpretive Rendition. Athens Zoe Publications. St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to S. John, vols. I & 2. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts. All quotations may be edited for the sake of clarity.

 D. THE READING FOR TODAY - JOHN 18:24-40
²⁴Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. ²⁵Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “Are not you also one of his disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not” ²⁶One of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” ²⁷Peter again denied it; and at once the cock crowed.

   Cyril Alexandria: (Why does John tell of this third denial, showing Peter’s weakness?) “It was the bound duty of the wise Evangelist to make mention of such things, that his hearers might know what even the teachers of the world were in themselves before Christ’s Resurrection, and before the Holy Spirit descended upon them; and what they were thereafter, when they had received the grace of the Spirit, which Christ called the power from on high (Luke 24:49).

For anyone may see how very zealous they were in assuming virtue; how readily they girded up their loins to follow Christ, and to overcome perils of every sort which they so frequently encountered.

But when our Savior Christ had not yet subdued the power of death, the fear thereof was still stubborn, and altogether invincible; and they who had not yet received the Spirit, nor had their hearts steeled by grace from above, showed that their minds were not yet wholly free from human frailty, and they were not altogether unshaken by the terrors of death. . . . Even the disciples, therefore, themselves were frail at first; but, when they had received the Spirit of the Almighty God, they cast aside their native weakness, and, by communion with Him, attained exceeding boldness” (Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Vol.2, Bk. 12, pp. 591-2).

St. John Chrysostom: “But why have the Evangelists with one accord written concerning him? Not as accusing the disciple, but as desiring to teach us, how great an evil it is not to commit all to God, but to trust to one’s self’ (Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, Homily 83,3, pp. 310).

 ²⁸Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover.

Orthodox Study Bible: “Jesus is taken to the Praetorium, the military quarters of Pilate, where the Jewish leaders do not enter. They fear being defiled (ritual pollution by contact with the Gentiles) — a supreme irony in view of their evil intentions against Jesus. According to this Gospel the main trial of Jesus occurs before Pilate (18:28-19:16). In this dramatic account, Pilate goes back and forth between Jesus and the Jewish leaders” (p. 261).

²⁹ So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” ³⁰They answered him, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over.”

Chrysostom:  “Do you see that Pilate was free from fondness for rule and from malice? For seeing Jesus bound, and led by so many persons, he did not think that they had unquestionable proof of their accusation, but questions them, thinking it a strange thing that they should take for themselves the judgment, and then commit the punishment without any judgment to him. What then say they? ‘If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over.’ O madness! Why do you not mention His evil deeds, instead of concealing them? Why do you not prove the evil? Do you see that they everywhere avoid a direct accusation, and that they can say nothing? Annas questioned Him about His doctrine, and having heard Him, sent Him to Caiaphas. He having in his turn questioned Him, and discovered nothing, sent Him to Pilate. Pilate says, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ Nor here have they anything to say, but again employ certain conjectures. (Homilies on the Gospel of St John, Homily 83, 4, pp. 310).

³¹Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” ³²This was to fulfil the word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death he was to die.

[Outside (a) 18:28-32 — Jewish authorities demand from Pilate the death of Jesus].

Collegeville Bible Commentary: “Numerous commentators have noted that this trial before Pilate has been organized using the double-stage technique (outside with the crowd, inside with Jesus) and in the order of inverse parallelism (as was the case with the Prologue). Schematically, we find the following seven scenes.

Outside (a) 18:28-32 — Jewish authorities demand from Pilate the death of Jesus

Inside (b) 18:33-38a — First dialogue between Pilate and Jesus.

Outside (c) 18: 38b-40 — Pilate wishes to release Jesus, since he finds him guilty of no crime.

Inside (d) 19:1-3 — Flagellation (whipping) and crowning with thorns: Jesus as king.

Outside (c’) 19:4-8 — Pilate finds Jesus guilty of no crime (twice).

Inside (b’) 19:9-I I — Second dialogue between Pilate and Jesus.

Outside (a’) 19:12-16 — Jewish authorities obtain from Pilate the sentence of death.

Clearly and remarkably, (a) , (b) and (c) are matched by (a’), (b’) and (c’). Section (d) climactiacally stresses the kingship of Jesus.” (pp. 77-78).

St. Augustine: “What then mean the words, ‘It is not lawful for us to put any man to death’? If He is a malefactor, why is it not lawful? Did not the law command them not to spare malefactors, especially (as they accounted Him to be) those who seduced them from their God?. . . Had you become so hardened, false Israelites? Were you by your excessive malice so lost to all sense, as to imagine that you were unpolluted by the blood of the innocent, because you gave it up to be shed by another? Was even Pilate himself going to slay Him with his own hands, when made over by you into his power for the very purpose?

If you did not wish Him to be slain; if you did not lay snares for Him; if you did not get Him to be betrayed to you for money; if you did not lay hands upon Him, and bind Him, and bring Him there; if you did not with your own hands present Him, and with your voices demand Him to be slain,—then boast that He was not put to death by you. But if in addition to all these former deeds of yours, you also cried out, ‘Crucify, crucify him;’ then hear what it is against you that the prophet proclaims: The sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword’ (Psalm 57:4). These, look you, are the spears, the arrows, the sword, wherewith you slew the righteous, when you said that it was not lawful for you to put any man to death.” (On the Gospel of John, Tractate 114, 4, p. 422).

Collegeville Bible Commentary: “The dialogue between Pilate and the authorities makes evident the intent of the latter to do away with Jesus, and it is Pilate who forces this admission (v. 31). The evangelist sees in this a fulfillment of the divine necessity that Jesus be ‘lifted up’ (3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34) on the cross, a Roman punishment.

What evidence we have lends credence to the statement in verse 31 that the Jerusalem Sanhedrin did not have authority to impose capital punishment, and especially while Pilate himself was in the city” (p. 78).

 ³³Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” ³⁵Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?” ³⁶Jesus 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.” ³⁷Pilate 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.” ^38aPilate said to him, “What is truth?”[Inside (b) 18:33-38a - First dialogue between Pilate and Jesus.]

Orthodox Study Bible: “The Jews true charge against Jesus is blasphemy. . . but the charge of blasphemy means nothing to Pilate; he must have a serious political charge in order to condemn Jesus. Therefore, the Jews tell Pilate that Jesus claims to be a political King-Messiah — a threat to Roman rule in Palestine (p.261).

Cyril of Alexandria: “The holy Evangelist was very zealous to narrate every detail about the trial of Christ, and among them he tells us the fact that Pilate asked Jesus question: ‘What have you done.’ By this we may best observe the total absence of charges against Him, and that since none were brought forward, and Christ our Savior was convicted of no crime, the sentence of death that went against Him was impious and most unjust” (Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Vol. 2, Bk. 12, pp. 599).

Augustine: “My kingdom,’ He said, ‘is not of this world.’ ... (He is saying,) ‘Come to the kingdom that is not of this world; come, believing, and fall not into the madness of anger through fear. He says, indeed, prophetically of God the Father, ‘Yet have I been appointed king by Him upon His holy hill of Zion;’ (Psalm 94:11), but that hill of Zion is not of this world. For what is His kingdom, save those who believe in Him, to whom He says, ‘You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world’?

   And yet He wished them to be in the world: on that very account saying of them to the Father, “I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.’ (Matthew 17, 16,15). Hence also He says not here, ‘My kingdom is not’ in this world; but, ‘is not of this world.’ And when He proved this by saying, “If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews,” He does not say, ‘But now is my kingdom not’ here, but, ‘is not from here.’ For His kingdom is here until the end of the world, having tares intermingled therewith until the harvest; for the harvest is the end of the world” (On the Gospel of John, Tractate 115, 1, p. 423).

Panagiotes Trembelas Paraphrase: “Following these words regarding His kingdom Pilate said to Him, ‘Are you therefore a king?’ Jesus responded, ‘I am, but I am not a worldly king, as you understand the meaning of the word king. For my kingship I was born and because of it I came to the world so that I may reveal and proclaim the truth, by which I will spiritually capture the world. Everyone who desires to seek and learn the truth, hears my voice and teaching with understanding and receives it, and conforming to it, becomes a citizen of my spiritual and heavenly kingdom.’ And Pilate says to Him, ‘What is truth? Why bother! Who can ever find it?’ Having said that, without waiting for a answer, he went out again to the Praetorium to the Jews. (Commentary on the Gospel of John, pp. 647-8).

^38b   After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again, and told them, “I find no crime in him. ³⁹But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover; will you have me release for you the King of the Jews?” ⁴⁰They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber. [Outside (c) 18: 38b-40 — Pilate wishes to release Jesus, since he finds him guilty of no crime.]

   Chrysostom: “I find no crime in him.’ Consider how prudently he acted. He said not, “Since he has sinned, and is deserving of death, forgive him on account of the Feast.” But having first acquitted Him of all guilt, he asks them over and above, if they were not minded to dismiss Him as innocent, yet as guilty to forgive Him on account of the time. Wherefore he added, ‘You have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover.’ Then in a way seeking to persuade them, he says, “Will you have me release for you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all, Not this man, but Barabbas.’ O accursed decision! They demand the one like themselves who is guilty be released, but demand that he punish the one who is innocent” (Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, Homily 84, 1, pp. 313).

CONCLUDING PRAYER From the Great Vespers of the Presentation of Christ:

“Search the Scriptures,” said Christ our God in His Gospel. There we shall see our God being born, and wrapped in swaddling clothes; we shall find Him feeding on milk, being circumcised, being carried in Simeon’s arms, appearing in the world as a real man — no imagination or dream, but solid reality. Wherefore we cry out to Him and say, “O God who exists from eternity, Glory to You!

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