Church Fathers Commentary John 18:33-38

"Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in him." — John 18:33-38 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Pilate, wishing to rescue Him from the hatred of the Jews, protracted the trial for a long time. Then Pilate entered the judgment hall and called Jesus.

Theophylact of Ohrid: That is, he called Him aside, because he had a strong suspicion that Jesus was innocent and thought he could examine Him more accurately away from the crowd. He said to Him, Are you the King of the Jews?

Alcuin of York: In this, Pilate shows that the Jews had charged Him with calling Himself King of the Jews.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, Pilate had heard this by report; and as the Jews had no charge to bring forward, he began to examine Him himself about the things commonly reported about Him.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He implies here that Pilate was judging blindly and without discretion. Jesus says, “If you are saying this on your own, bring forward proofs of my rebellion; if you have heard it from others, make a proper inquiry into it.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord indeed knew both what He Himself was asking and what Pilate would answer, but He wished it to be written down for our sakes.

St. John Chrysostom: He does not ask in ignorance, but in order to draw from Pilate himself an accusation against the Jews. Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He rejects the imputation that He could have said this on His own. Pilate says, Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me, adding, what have you done? By this, he shows that this charge had been brought against Him, for it is the same as saying, “If you deny that you are a king, what have you done to be handed over to me?” As if it were no wonder that He should be handed over, if He called Himself a king.

St. John Chrysostom: He then tries to persuade Pilate, who was not a very bad man, by proving to him that He is not a mere man, but God and the Son of God. Overturning any suspicion that He was aiming for a tyranny, which Pilate feared, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is what the good Master wished to teach us. But first, it was necessary to show the falsity of the ideas that both Jews and Gentiles had about His kingdom. Pilate had heard of this kingdom and thought it meant that Jesus was aiming at unlawful power—a crime punishable by death. He saw this kingdom as a source of jealousy for the ruling authorities, something to be guarded against as potentially hostile to either the Romans or the Jews.

If our Lord had immediately answered Pilate’s question, He would have seemed to be answering only the Gentiles, not the Jews. But after Pilate’s response, what Jesus says is an answer to both, as if He were saying, “Men—that is, Jews and Gentiles—I do not hinder your dominion in this world. What more do you want? Come by faith to the kingdom that is not of this world.”

For what is His kingdom but those who believe in Him? Of them He says, you are not of the world, although He wished for them to be in the world. In the same way, here He does not say, My kingdom is not in this world, but, is not of this world.

All people are “of the world,” created by God but born of the corrupt race of Adam. All who are born again in Christ are made a kingdom that is not of this world. Thus God has taken us out of the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His dear Son.

St. John Chrysostom: Or He means that He does not derive His kingdom from the same source that earthly kings do, but that He has His sovereignty from above, inasmuch as He is not a mere man, but far greater and more glorious. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. Here He shows the weakness of an earthly kingdom, which has its strength from its servants, whereas that higher kingdom is sufficient to itself and lacks nothing. And if His kingdom was thus the greater of the two, it follows that He was taken by His own will and delivered Himself up.

St. Augustine of Hippo: After showing that His kingdom was not of this world, He adds, But now My kingdom is not from here. He does not say, “Not here,” for His kingdom is here until the end of the world, having the tares mixed with the wheat within it until the harvest. But yet it is not “from here,” since it is a stranger in the world.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or He says “from here,” not “here,” because He reigns in the world, carries on its government, and arranges all things according to His will. But His kingdom is not from below; it is from above and before all ages.

St. John Chrysostom: Heretics infer from these words that our Lord is a different person from the Creator of the world. But when He says, My kingdom is not from here, He does not deprive the world of His government and superintendence, but only shows that His government is not human and corruptible. Pilate therefore said to Him, Are you a King then? Jesus answered, you say that I am a King.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He did not fear to confess Himself a King, but replied in such a way as to neither deny that He was a king, nor confess it in a sense that would suggest His kingdom was of this world. He says, you say, meaning, “You, being carnal, say it in a carnal way.”

He continues, To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. The pronoun here, in hoc, must not be dwelt on as if it meant in hâc re (in this matter), but should be read quickly, as if it were ad hoc natus sum (for this I was born), just as the next words are ad hoc veni in mundum (for this I came into the world). In this, it is evident He alludes to His birth in the flesh, not to that divine birth which never had a beginning.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, to Pilate’s question of whether He was a king, our Lord answers, To this end was I born—that is, to be a king. The fact that I am born from a King proves that I am a King.

St. John Chrysostom: If, then, He was a king by birth, He has nothing that He has not received from another. For this I came, that I should bear witness to the truth—that is, that I should make all people believe it. We must observe how He shows His humility here: when they accused Him as a malefactor, He bore it in silence; but when He is asked about His kingdom, He talks with Pilate, instructs him, and raises his mind to higher things. The phrase that I should bear witness to the truth shows that He had no crafty purpose in what He did.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But when Christ bears witness to the truth, He bears witness to Himself, as He said previously, I am the truth. But since not all people have faith, He adds, Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice. This means they hear with the inward ear; they obey My voice and believe Me.

The phrase Everyone that is of the truth refers to the grace by which He calls according to His purpose. Regarding the nature in which we are created, since the Truth created all things, all people are “of the truth.” But not all are given the grace to obey the truth.

For even if He had said, “Everyone who hears My voice is of the truth,” it would still be thought that such people were of the truth because they obeyed the truth. But He does not say this; instead, He says, Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice. A person, then, is not of the truth because he hears His voice; rather, he hears His voice because he is of the truth. This grace is bestowed upon him by the Truth.

St. John Chrysostom: These words have an effect on Pilate, persuading him to become a hearer and eliciting from him the short inquiry, What is truth?

Theophylact of Ohrid: For truth had almost vanished from the world and become unknown as a consequence of the general unbelief.