The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross. Murray J. Harris
14:55–65; Luke 22:66–71). Various witnesses spoke against Jesus, but their testimony did not agree. In frustration Caiaphas called for Jesus’ response: “Do you have no reply to make to the charges these men are bringing against you?” When Jesus remained silent, Caiaphas put him on oath: “Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” To this Jesus answered, “The words are yours. But I tell all of you: from this time on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven.” It seems it was this conjunction of two messianic passages—Dan 7:13–14 and Ps 110:1—that prompted Caiaphas to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. “Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, you have just heard his blasphemy” (Matt 26:65).6
(c) Ratification of the council’s decision very early in the morning (Friday) by the whole Sanhedrin (Matt 27:1–2; Mark 15:1; Luke 23:1).7 This involved a rehearsing of the discussion that had taken place on Thursday night and also a reformulation of their religious indictment in political terms appropriate for Pilate (Luke 23:2). Having resolved to take action against Jesus and have him executed, they bound him and handed him over to Pilate to obtain his confirmation of their death sentence as was required (John 18:31b, “we are not permitted to execute anyone”) and so that Jesus would die by crucifixion, not stoning (Luke 23:21, 23, 25).
2. The Roman Trial
Here, too, we can isolate three stages in the proceedings.
(a) Pilate interrogates Jesus (Matt 27:11–14; John 18:28–38). This began “early (in the morning),” during the fourth “watch,” 3 to 6 a.m. Probably some prior arrangement with Pilate enabled this very early start (5 a.m.?); the Jewish hierarchy may have anticipated a crisis precipitated by Jesus’ arrest. When Pilate surprises the Jewish leaders by demanding a formal indictment, they reply (somewhat insolently) that if Jesus were not a criminal they would not have handed him over. Jesus replies to the governor’s blunt question, “Are you the king of the Jews?” by pointing out the radical difference between his kingdom and any earthly kingdom. “My kingdom comes from elsewhere.” He cannot deny his kingship but he divorces it from any political, seditious, or earthly sense. “So, then, you are a king?” Pilate concludes. But Jesus must distance himself from all the implications of kingship in Pilate’s mind. “You are saying that I am a king” or “‘King’ is your word.” Jesus proceeds to link his kingship with his declaration of truth, but this exasperates Pilate who tries to dismiss the case by saying to the Jews gathered there, “I find no basis for a charge against him.”
(b) Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas who questions Jesus (Luke 23:6–12). This is part of the Roman trial in the sense that Pilate initiated this action during the trial when he heard that Jesus was a Galilean and therefore under Herod’s power. Herod was in his palace in Jerusalem (a mere ten-minute walk from Pilate) for Passover, probably as a religious and political gesture. Pilate may have had two motives for his action—to pass over to Herod, or at least to share with Herod, the responsibility for condemning Jesus; and to mend relations with Herod (cf. Luke 13:1–2; 23:12).
At first Herod was excited to see Jesus in person and plied him with many questions. But when Jesus did not respond and his Jewish accusers repeated the charges they had made before Pilate, Herod’s demeanor changed and he joined his soldiers in ridiculing Jesus (Luke 23:11). Like Pilate before him, Herod had found no ground for condemning Jesus to death (Luke 23:14–15).
(c) Pilate’s remonstrance with the Jewish leaders and the crowd (Matt 27:15–26; Mark 15:6–15; Luke 23:13–25; John 18:39—19:7, 12–16). On three separate occasions Pilate declared Jesus’ innocence (Luke 23:4, 14–15, 22; John 18:38; 19:4, 6) and he made four attempts to avoid sentencing Jesus to death: he suggested the case could be tried in Jewish courts (John 18:31); he sent Jesus to Herod Antipas (Luke 23:6–12); he appealed to the custom of releasing one prisoner at Passover (John 18:39–40); and he had Jesus flogged (John 19:1). In spite of all this, the chief priests and their officials, along with the crowds incited by them, incessantly demanded that Pilate order Jesus to be crucified. Their repeated cry, “Crucify! Crucify!” without an object expressed (John 19:6) had become a simple slogan, calling for Pilate’s urgent action. The Jewish leadership realized that if Jesus was crucified (rather than stoned) he would be totally discredited in the eyes of his fellow-Jews, since “anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse” (Deut 21:23). Under Pilate’s further questioning, this time about his origin, Jesus remained silent, knowing that Pilate would not understand a straightforward reply.
After Pilate had made further unspecified efforts to set Jesus free (John 19:12), the tactics of the Jewish hierarchy change. No longer do they level a religious charge against Jesus, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God” (John 19:7). They use their “trump card.” “If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor’s. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes the Emperor” (John 19:12). For Pilate to protect—or to be reported to Rome as protecting—a rebel against the Emperor would be disastrous for his tenure as prefect of Judea. And later, after he had paraded Jesus and announced, “Here is your king!” the chief priests declare, “The Emperor is the only king we have,” thus rejecting their status as God’s people with God as their king. Exasperated, Pilate lets them have their way and delivers Jesus into the custody of the soldiers of the execution squad.
A possible time-line for the twelve hours from 9 p.m. on Thursday to 9 a.m. on Friday shows the urgency with which the Jewish authorities acted after the arrest of Jesus.
• Prayer in Gethsemane: 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday
• Arrest: about midnight
• Before Annas: about 1 a.m.
• Before a council of the Sanhedrin: between 2 and 4 a.m.
• Before the whole Sanhedrin: about 5 a.m.
• Before Pilate: 5 to 6 a.m.
• To Herod and back to Pilate: 7 to 8 a.m.
• Jesus sentenced to be crucified: 8 a.m.
• Crucifixion: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
1. In Luke 22:44 (“[Jesus], being in anguish . . .” ) we find the only New Testament use of the word ἀγωνία (agōnia) which refers to anguish in the face of impending ills (BDAG 17b). The verse also indicates that Jesus’ sweat became “like (ὡς, hōs) drops of blood that fall to the ground.” The word “like” shows this was not a case of “bloody sweat” (hematidrosis, a hemorrhage into the sweat glands), as is sometimes suggested.
2. Harris, Prepositions and Theology, 65, 247.
3. In John 18:3 λαβών (labōn, literally, “having taken”) refers to Judas’s guidance of the arrest party to the garden where he knew Jesus and his disciples would be gathered (cf. Luke 22:39, 47); Acts 1:16 mentions that Judas “served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.” This participle does not imply Judas assumed military control of the group; indeed, λαβών may simply mean “with” (BDF §418 [5]).
4. Σπεῖρα (speira) is technically a “cohort” (six hundred Roman soldiers) but here denotes either a “maniple” (two hundred soldiers) or simply “a band/detachment of soldiers.”
5. The word “first” (πρῶτον, prōton) or “to begin with” (BDAG 893b) in John 18:13 hints at a later trial, the one conducted before Caiaphas ([1(b)] in the text) as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke (who all omit any mention of the earlier trial before Annas).