Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 18:28-32

"They lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium: and it was early; and they themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover. Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If this man were not an evildoer, we should not have delivered him up unto thee. Pilate therefore said unto them, Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law. The Jews said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying by what manner of death he should die." — John 18:28-32 (ASV)

1. Now the Evangelist tells about Christ’s being handed over to the Gentiles. This involves three points:

1. We see him delivered to the governor.
2. Christ is examined by him: Pilate therefore went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
3. The governor declares that Christ is innocent: And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no fault in him” (John 18:38).

Regarding the first point, he does three things:

1. The place where Christ was delivered is stated.
2. The time is stated.
3. The way he was handed over is stated.

2. The place was the praetorium, for he says, they led Jesus to Caiaphas, to the praetorium. This is the place where judgment is given. In the army, the commander’s tent was known as the praetorium, and so this residence of the governor was also called a praetorium.

But how can Christ be led to Caiaphas in the praetorium?

One could say that Caiaphas had come ahead to the residence of Pilate to tell him that Jesus would be handed over to him. And so Jesus was led to Caiaphas when he was in the praetorium with Pilate. Or, one could say that since Caiaphas was the high priest, he had a dwelling so large that the governor lived there and made it his residence. Then the meaning is: they led Jesus to Caiaphas, that is, to his residence, and so to the praetorium.

Alternatively, one could say that the Greek text is better, which says, then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. This removes every difficulty.

3. The time is mentioned, it was morning, for their wickedness was so great that they could hardly wait to turn him over to Pilate to be killed: Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it (Micah 2:1); the murderer rises at the light (Job 24:14).

Here we find a difficult problem. The other three Evangelists say that early in the evening Christ was struck at the residence of Caiaphas and questioned by him: If you are the Christ, tell us (Luke 22:67), and in the morning Christ was led to Pilate. But John says that he was led to Caiaphas.

If we want to adhere to the letter of the text, we could say that Caiaphas first saw Jesus when he was at the house of Annas during the night, and at that time Christ could have been examined by him.

But there still remains the difficulty that they say Christ was struck at the residence of Caiaphas. This is solved by the Greek text which says that they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. This is because during the night he was led from the residence of Annas to the residence of Caiaphas, where he was struck and examined by him, and in the morning he was led from Caiaphas to the praetorium.

4. They did not go into the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. Here we see two things:

• Their useless superstition, because they would not go into the praetorium.
• The deference Pilate paid them, since he went out to meet them.

A problem arises about the first point: that they would not enter the praetorium so as not to be defiled. The other Evangelists say that Christ was seized in the evening on the day of the supper, and this would be the Passover meal: I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you (Luke 22:15). And then on the morning of the next day, he was brought to the praetorium. Why then do we read, so that they might eat the Passover, since it was the day after the Passover?

Some of the modern Greeks say that this was the fourteenth lunar day of the month, and that Christ was crucified on the day the Jews celebrated the Passover. They argue that Christ anticipated the Passover by one day, since he knew he would be killed on the day of the Jewish Passover. Thus, he celebrated the Passover on the evening of the thirteenth lunar day. And since the law commanded that the Jews should not have leavened bread from the fourteenth day of the first month to the twenty-first day, they say that Christ consecrated leavened bread.

5. This is not acceptable for two reasons.

1. The Old Testament has no instance where anyone was permitted to anticipate the celebration of the Passover. But if one was prevented, he could postpone it to the next month: If any man of you or of your descendants is unclean... he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. In the second month on the fourteenth day in the evening they shall keep it (Numbers 9:10). And since Christ never omitted any observance of the law, it is not true to say that he anticipated the Passover.
2. Mark states explicitly that Christ came on the first day of Unleavened Bread (Mark 14:12), when they sacrificed the Passover lamb. On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” (Matthew 26:17). So, we should not say that Christ anticipated the Passover.

6. Accordingly, Chrysostom explains this another way. He said that Christ fulfilled the law in all matters and did observe the Passover on the proper day, that is, the fourteenth day, in the evening. But the Jews were so intent on killing Christ that they did not observe it on the proper day, but on the day following, the fifteenth. Thus the sense is: that they might not be defiled, so that they might eat the Passover which they had neglected the day before.

This is not acceptable either, for in Numbers it is said that if anyone is prevented from eating the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, he is to eat it not on the following day, but on the fourteenth day of the second month (Numbers 9:10).

7. Therefore, we should say with Jerome, Augustine, and other Latin Fathers, that the fourteenth day is the beginning of the feast. But the Passover refers not just to that evening, but to the entire time of the seven days during which they ate unleavened bread, which was to be eaten by those who were clean. And because the Jews would have contracted uncleanness by entering the residence of a foreign judge, they did not enter so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover, that is, the unleavened bread.

See their wicked blindness, for they feared becoming defiled by a gentile man but did not fear to shed the blood of God and man. Those who laid you waste go forth from you (Isaiah 49:17).

8. Now we see the deference Pilate showed them when he says, So Pilate went out to them to take Christ, whom they were offering, and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” In this examination of Christ, we see two things:

1. How Christ is examined by Pilate before his accusers.
2. How Christ is examined by Pilate in private: So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus (John 18:33).

Concerning the first, he does two things:

• We have Pilate’s questioning.
• We have his generous concession to the Jews, You take him.

9. Concerning the first, we have the examination by Pilate and then the malicious reply of the Jews. When Pilate saw Jesus bound and brought by many who were seeking his condemnation, he said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” Their reply was, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you.” They are saying here: we have already examined and condemned him, and are now handing him over to you to be punished. They were regarding their own judgment as sufficient for Pilate. Yet they were not speaking truly when they said he was an evildoer, for he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). They were acting as the Psalm says, They requite me evil for good (Psalms 35:12).

10. Luke is different, for he says that the Jews accused Christ of many crimes: He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place (Luke 23:5).

I reply that, as Augustine says, the Jews said many things to Pilate at that time, and it could be that they first said what John reports and then said what Luke tells us.

11. The Evangelist now mentions Pilate’s generous concession: You take him. This involves three points:

1. We see this concession.
2. The Jews refuse it: The Jews said to him (John 18:31).
3. We see the reason for their refusal: so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled (John 18:32).

12. Pilate said, “You take him,” intending to do them a favor. Festus did the same to Paul: But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?” (Acts 25:9). Or, this could be said as a taunting remark. Since they had already examined and condemned Christ, Pilate wanted those who had condemned Christ as an evildoer to pass the sentence, because it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had an opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him (Acts 25:16). So the meaning is this: you want my judgment, but you take him and judge him according to your own law, for I will never be that kind of a judge.

13. The refusal of the Jews is mentioned when he says, The Jews therefore said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” This seems not to agree with Exodus: You will not permit a sorcerer to live (Exodus 22:18). And they regarded Jesus as a sorcerer.

According to Augustine, the meaning is, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death on a feast day, but it is lawful on other days. Or, according to Chrysostom, the Jews had lost much of their power, for they could not pass judgment on a crime against the state. But here they intended to condemn Christ especially for matters against the state: Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar (John 19:12). This is why they said, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death for crimes against the state, although we can do this for some sins against the law, for this kind of judgment was reserved to them.

Or, it could be said that some things are not lawful either because they are prohibited by divine law (and they were not prohibited from doing this by divine law), or because they are forbidden by human law. In this latter way, it was not lawful for them to put anyone to death, for such power was now in the hands of the governor.

14. There is another question: how then could they have stoned Stephen? (Acts 7:58).

Chrysostom answers this by saying that the Romans allowed the Jews to make use of their own laws, and because the punishment of stoning was part of their law, the Romans allowed them to do this. But in the law, death on the cross was abhorred: A man who is hung on a tree is accursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). And so they did not use this kind of death. The Jews, in their malice, were not satisfied just to stone Christ; they wanted to condemn him to the most disgraceful of deaths, as we see from Wisdom . Thus they now say, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death, meaning death on a cross.

Or, one could say that Stephen was stoned during a change of governors, when many laws were violated which were not violated before.

15. The Evangelist gives the reason the Jews refused when he says, so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was to die. The words might be fulfilled do not indicate the intention the Jews had, but the arrangement of God’s providence. For Jesus had said in Matthew that he would be crucified and killed by the Gentiles, but that he would be handed over to them by the Jews (Matthew 20:19). So, in order that this be accomplished, the Jews were unwilling to judge and kill him themselves.