Third section the judgment upon the church itself second picture of judgment

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The counsel and the treachery on the morning of the feast1. The counsel and treachery: (a) An act of treachery from a resolution of council; (b) a counsel which was perfected by an act of treachery2. On the morning of the feast: (a) The morning thought; (b) the festival thought, of the rulers of Israel.—The abominable display of the high-priest and the chief council on the festal morning.—Christ’s murder disguised under an imposing act of worship rendered to God.—The great display of fanaticism, in its historic import to the world.—Blessed are they who can resist the currents of the time.—The mad pomp with which the Jews abandon their long-looked for King to the Gentiles.—Judaism in the act of involving the Gentile world in the guilt of Christ’s murder: the opposite of the promise: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” Isaiah 53—The effects of magnificent display: 1. Its power; 2. its weakness.—Jesus abandoned by His own nation to the Gentiles.—The second betrayal the sentence of death pronounced upon the first betrayal (Now when Judas saw).—The repentance of Judas the completion of his guilt, as seen: 1. In its beginning; 2. its means; 3. its end.—The repentance of Judas compared with Peter’s, 2 Corinthians 7:10.—To render due satisfaction, we must begin at God’s throne.—(Against Thee only have I sinned.) Ezekiel 33:15-16.—That innocent blood, which he had betrayed, would have saved him, had he known its full value.—Judas’s testimony to the innocence of Jesus a significant fruit of his discipleship: 1. The spoiled fruit of a reprobate or deserter; 2. the important testimony of a deserter.—The unwilling testimony of the unbelieving and despairing to the glory Jesus.—Behold how heartlessly the wicked abandon the instruments of their guilt! “See thou to that.”—The confession of a bleeding conscience is unheard by the hierarchical superintendents of the confessional.—How soon is the friendship of the wicked at an end!—They hurl one another mutually into destruction.—The fruitless attempts of Judas to silence his conscience.—The end of Judas; or, suicide the sign of finished unbelief.—The conscientious scruples of the unscrupulous: “It is not lawful.”—The charitable institutions of a hardness of heart which cloaks itself under the garb of piety: 1. Their occasion,—the committal of a crime; 2. their spring,—superstition and selfishness; 3. their form,—monuments of a proud, unloving spirit.—The price at which the world valued Christ sufficed to purchase an old, exhausted clay-pit (“loam-pit or sandhole”).—The fulfilment of the prophet’s word; or, the burying-ground of pious pilgrims—i.e, of believers—bought with the purchase money of Jesus.—The field of blood of despairing Judaism converted into a burial-field (a field of peace) for the believing Gentile world.—They who delivered Christ over to the Gentiles have had to yield their land likewise to the Gentiles.

Starke:—We should be up early, not to injure our neighbor, but to praise God, Psalm 108:2-3, and to attend honestly to our calling, Psalm 104:23.—Zeisius: Christ has been bound that He might free us from the bonds of sin, death, the devil, and hell.—He also thereby sanctified and blessed the bonds of our afflictions, especially those endured for the gospel.—Canstein: Satan blinds the eyes to precipitate man into sin; and then he opens them again, that despair may seize the sinner.—Do not be such a fool as to commit a sin to gain the world’s favor; for it will draw its head out of the noose, and leave thee to be hanged.—Quesnel: There is a kind of hirelings and false shepherds, to whom it is of no consequence whether their sheep stray and are lost or not.—Zeisius: Do but see how far greed will lead a man.—Canstein: The anguish of an evil conscience deprives a man of his judgment, so that he is no more his own master; for when he thinks by self-murder to free himself from: torment, he only plunges himself into eternal torment.—Thou canst find many a companion in sin; but when thy poor conscience will have comfort, thou art forsaken by them all.—Hast thou sinned deeply, despair not; arise, and repent truly.—Nova Bill. Tub.: Christ has given the grave money for our burial, and has purchased for us, poor pilgrims who have nothing of our own, a resting place.—Canstein: The wicked themselves must assist in establishing divine truth.

Gossner:—“See thou to that:” such is their absolution.

Gerlach:—It was a remarkable circumstance in the passion history of Christ, that He must be delivered up to the Gentiles. Not the Jews only were to reject and crucify the Son of God, but the Gentiles also; and His blood crieth for mercy on behalf of Jews as well as Gentiles.

Heubner:—The witness of Judas. He was the spy whom Satan had been permitted to place among the confidential friends; he was Satan’s appointed fault-finder, who should pay attention to discover any fault that might be committed. But he had to confess he had betrayed innocent blood.—That Judas might have gained pardon, if he had believed, is acknowledged by, e. g, Chrysostom, in Sermon 1 on Repentance, and by Leo the Great, in the 11 th Sermon on the Passion.—Even the most glorious opportunities of virtue and religion, even the companionship and conversation of the most holy and most lovable of men, are perverted to its own ruin by a corrupted spirit.—An evil germ, small at first, but nourished and tended, produces fruits ever more and more poisonous.—They care for the bodies of dead foreigners, but let the souls of the living perish.—The perpetuation of sinful acts through memorials, names, etc, against the will and expectation of evil-doers.—How are the children of God, yea, Christ Himself, valued in this world! To how many are philosophers, artists, heroes, or millionnaires far more precious!

Braune:—Common minds become small criminals, great characters great criminals, as men judge: the former are base, the latter more wicked. (Still the deed of Judas was the very depth of baseness.)—He seeks to clear himself only before his own conscience and his accomplices, not before God, and that he would do without Jesus. He wanted faith, and hence he prayed not and sought not.—Themselves they have stained, God’s treasury they would not defile.—Schulz: The end of Judas: 1. His despair; 2. his ruin.

[Burkitt:—Behold! a disciple, an apostle, first a traitor, then a self-murderer. Behold! all ye covetous worldlings, to what the love of that accursed idol has brought this wretched apostle. Behold! Judas, once shining in the robes of a glorious profession, now shining in the flames of God’s eternal wrath and vengeance. Lord! how earnest ought we to be for thy preserving grace, when neither the presence, the miracles, the sermons, the sacraments of Christ, could preserve and secure a professor, a disciple and apostle from ruinous apostasy. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.—Doddridge:—The irresistible force of conscience in the worst of men.—The testimony of the traitor to the innocence of Jesus.—The wrath of man shall praise the Lord.—D. Brown:—The true character of repentance is determined neither by its sincerity nor by its bitterness, but by the views under which it is wrought. Judas, under the sense of his guilt, had nothing to fall back upon; Peter turned toward Jesus, who was able and willing to forgive. In the one case we hare natural principles working themselves out to deadly effect; in the other, we see grace working repentance unto salvation.—Wordsworth:—Judas, a type of the Jews, in his sin and end (?).—P. S.]

Footnotes:

FN#1 - Matthew 27:2.—[Τῷ ἡλεμόνι, here=ἐπίτροπος, procurator, which was the proper official character and title of Pilate; but ἡλεμών is a more general term which applies to proconsuls, legates, or procurators. Hence governor may be retained. Vulgate and Beza translate: præsidi (but this title belonged to the President of Syria ( Luke 2:2), Pilate’s superior); Castalio: prœtori (in the wider acceptation of early Roman history); Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, Genevan, Bishops: deputy (but this is used for ἀνθύπατος, proconsul, in Acts 13:7-8; Acts 13:12; Acts 18:12; Acts 19:38); Campbell: procurator (correct, but not so generally intelligible as governor); Luther: Landpfleger; Ewald and Lange: Statthalter.—P. S.]

FN#2 - Matthew 27:3.—Παραδούς according to B, L, cursive MSS, Lachmann, [and Tregelles. Tischendorf and Alford retain the usual reading: παρα δι δούς.]

FN#3 - Matthew 27:3.—[It is worth while to mark in the translation the difference between μεταμέλομαι, to change one’s care, and μετανοέω, to change one’s mind or purpose, and thus between the repentance of Peter, who abhorred the cause, his sin, and the remorse of Judas, who shrunk back from the effect; or the godly sorrow which lends to life, and the worldly regret which leads to death.—P. S.]

FN#4 - Matthew 27:4.—In place of ἀθῶον (innocent) some manuscripts and translations read δίκαιον (righteous), which has too little authority.

FN#5 - Ver4—[So in accordance with the concise earnestness of the Greek, and the state of Judas. “The fewer words the better.” Similarly Ewald: Ich sündigte übergebend [better: verrathend] unschuldiges Blut, and Conant: I sinned, etc. But Lange: Ich habe gefehlt, etc, I erred; Luther: Ich habe übel gethan, I did evil, which draws a nice distinction between blundering and sinning, and is perhaps better suited to the case of Judas, who, like Cain and Saul, had no real sense of sin itself in its horrible guilt and enormity, and hence no true repentance, but shrunk back in dismay from the consequences of sin. The Greek π̔́ μαρτον, however, admits of both translations. Comp. Lange’s Exeg. Notes, Coverdale correctly omits the article before innocent, but the other older English Versions unmeaningly profix it.–P. S.]

FN#6 - Matthew 27:5.—[Lange lays stress on ἀνεχώρησε, and translates: zog sich surück (einsiedlerisch in die Oede), See his Exeg, Notes—P. S.]

FN#7 - Cod 22 is an inferior MS. of the eleventh century, and can therefore hardly claim any authority On the difficulty of the true reading, see the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

FN#8 - Matthew 27:9.—[So Conant, who substitutes priced for valued, to retain the verbal correspondence between price and priced as in the Greek τήν τιμήν τοῦ τετιμημένου. Comp. Ewald, who translates: den Schatz des Geschätzten, weichen schätzten, etc.—P. S.]

FN#9 - Matthew 27:10.—[Ευνέταξέμοι, either appointed to me, as Scrivener and Conant propose, or commanded me, as Coverdale has it. The appointed me of the Authorized Version is susceptible of another meaning. Thus correct Matthew 28:16.—P. S.]

FN#10 - Comp. Crit. Note on Matthew 27:3, p501.—P. S.]

FN#11 - So Dr. Lange translates in his Version: Ich habe gefehlt. See the Critical Note on Matthew 27:4, p501.—P. S.]

FN#12 - Adopted by Alford: “The citation is probably quoted from memory and inaccurately.” He refers to similar mistakes in the apology of Stephen, Acts 7:4; Acts 7:16, and in Mark 2:26. Wordsworth cuts the Gordian knot in a manner directly opposite, though equally unsatisfactory, viz.: by the bold dogmatic assert on that the name of Jeremiah is here purposely substituted for that of Zechariah to teach us that all prophecies proceed from one Spirit, and that the prophets are merely channels, not sources, of the Divine truth. But this object could have been reached much better by substituting the Holy Spirit or the Scripture for the name of the writer —P. S.]

FN#13 - Dr. Lange might have added a sixth attempt to solve the difficulty, viz.: that the book of Jeremiah, being actually arranged by the Jews as the first of all the prophets (Bava Bathra) gave its name to the whole body of their writings. So Lightfoot and Scrivener.—P. S.]

FN#14 - Gottesacker, also Friedhof, is the German name for grave-yard.—P. S.]

Verses 11-31

NINTH SECTION

JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS, BEFORE PILATES’S BAR; OR, CHRIST EXAMINED BY THE CIVIL AUTHORITY; INSULTINGLY PUT BESIDE BARABBAS; STILL MORE INSULTING REJECTED, AND, IN SPITE OF THE MOST DECISIVE PROOFS OF HIS INNONENCE, CONDEMNED, DELIVERED TO BE CRUCIFIED, MOCKED

Matthew 27:11-31

( Mark 15:2-20; Luke 23:2-25; John 18:28 to John 19:16.)

11And Jesus stood [was placed]^[FN15] before the governor: and the governor asked [questioned]^[FN16] him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest [it].^[FN17] 12And when he was accused of [by] the chief priests and [the] elders, he answered nothing 13 Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things14[what things, πόσα]^[FN18] they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word [and he answered him not a word];^[FN19] insomuch [so] that the governor marvelled15[wondered] greatly. Now at that [the] feast^[FN20] the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would 16 And they had then a notable [notorious ἐπίσημον],^[FN21] prisoner, called Barabbas.^[FN22] 17Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas,8 or Jesus which [who] is called Christ? 18For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

19When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things [much] this day in a dream because of him.

20But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask [for] Barabbas, and [should] destroy Jesus 21 The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain [Which of the two] will ye that I release unto you? They 22 said, Barabbas. Pilate said unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which [who] is called Christ? They all say unto him,^[FN23] Let him be crucified 23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

24When Pilate saw that he could prevail [avail] nothing,^[FN24] but that rather a tumult was [is] made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person:^[FN25] see ye to it. 25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children 26 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he [but Jesus he scourged and,τὸν δὲ Ἰησοῦν φραγελλώσας] delivered him to be crucified 27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall [Prætorium],^[FN26] and gathered unto him the whole band of 28, soldiers.^[FN27] And they stripped him,^[FN28] and put on him a scarlet robe 29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand:^[FN29] and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! 30And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head 31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

General View.—Matthew describes the sufferings of Christ chiefly from the theocratic point of view. Hence, under the general head of a theocratic reference, we would group the silence of Jesus before Pilate, after He had declared that He was the Messiah; His being put upon an equality with Barabbas; the testimony of the wife of Pilate, and the testimony of Pilate himself (following that of Judas); the cry of the Jews: “His blood,” etc.; and the detailed narration of the mocking Christ in His kingly nature, on the part of the soldiers. The events, according to the Evangelists, occurred in the following order:—At first Pilate wished to hand Jesus over to the Jewish court, that Isaiah, to receive a simple ecclesiastical censure. Then he sent Jesus to Herod, to get rid of the difficulty. Thereupon occurred the presentation of Christ along with Barabbas, and, after the failure of that device, the significant hand-washing. Then, the presentation of Jesus to the people, after He had been scourged: Ecce homo. Finally, the scornful treatment of the Jews by Pilate, designed to veil his own disgrace.^[FN30]

Matthew 27:11. Art Thou the King of the Jews?—For the circumstances leading Pilate to put this question, see John 18 Matthew 27:29 ff. From the same passage, Matthew 27:34-37, we learn that Jesus, before replying in the affirmative, asked whether Pilate used the expression, King of the Jews, in a Roman or a Jewish sense. The chief point for Matthew was, that Jesus, even before Pilate, the civil ruler, declared Himself explicitly to be the Messiah. Theophylact has, without reason, interpreted σὺλέγεις as an evasive answer.

Matthew 27:12. He answered nothing.—After He had, according to John 18:37, declared that He was the Messiah, and in what sense, He made no answer to the most diverse accusations and questions, and spake not till Pilate cast in His teeth the taunt, “Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?” John 19:10. The accusations were by His silence stamped as groundless, and this majesty of silence filled Pilate with wonder and amazement.

Matthew 27:15. Now at the feast.—Annually, at the Passover. The Passover was the Jewish feast κατ̓ἐξοχήν, and the connection shows that to this festival reference is here made. The antiquity of this custom is unknown. The Talmud makes no allusion to it; but that is in all likelihood an intentional over sight. Grotius says, this custom was introduced by the Romans for the purpose of flattering the Jews. Braune: “The Roman and Greek custom of releasing prisoners upon the birthdays and festive seasons of the emperors, and upon days of public rejoicing, had been undoubtedly introduced among the Jews before the time of Pilate, to soften the Roman yoke.” Meyer: “We must not overlook a reference to the significance of the Passover.” Hence our thoughts are carried back to the free escape of the Israelitish, first-born. Looked at in this light, the release of the prisoners at the Passover reminds us of the Good Friday dramas of southern Roman Catholic countries. The custom, as a Jewish custom, was improper, and was opposed to the law, especially in such a case as the present, Exodus 21:12. Barabbas had been arrested for sedition and murder, Luke 23:19.

Matthew 27:16. They had then a notorious prisoner.—The wardens of the jails, in which were confined those who had committed offences against the Roman laws.

Called Barabbas.—Several cursive MSS, versions, scholiasts, and also Origen, read Jesus Barabbas. See note appended to the text. Barabbas,=בַּר אַבָּא, which appears frequently, according to Lightfoot, in the Talmud, means “the father’s son.” Ewald says: “He was the son of a rabbi.” Theophylact saw in it an allusion to Antichrist, “the son of the devil.” On the contrary, Olshausen makes it refer to the Son of God, and finds in it a play of divine providence, according to the proverb: Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus. De Wette terms this a very improper play of pious wit; and yet he must acknowledge it to be possible that Barabbas, being a mover of sedition ( Luke 23:19), might have played the part of a false prophet, or a messiah. The objection, that he would not have committed a murder had he been representing himself as a messiah, is of no weight. Let us now conceive to ourselves the whole state of matters: a Jesus Barabbas, the son of the father, a pseudo-messiah, is presented to the Jews along with Jesus Christ. Surely in all this may easily be seen a striking sport of Song of Solomon -called “chance.” And why should the supposition that providence controlled the similarity and difference between the two names, be so senseless? It is conceivable, however, that the Christian tradition removed the name Jesus, out of reverence.

Matthew 27:17. When they were gathered together.—Pilate had by this time discovered how matters stood. In his crooked policy, accordingly, he calculated upon certain success, when he should place the notorious or distinguished criminal side by side with Jesus, for the Jews to choose which of the two should be released. Besides, he appears to have waited cunningly till the people had reassembled in very large numbers before his palace on the Antonia, after having gone and returned with the train which conducted Jesus to Herod. Because, according to Luke, this train had gone off before the events here recorded occurred. Pilate knew by this time how envious the members of the Sanhedrin were of Jesus, and must from this conclude that he stood high in the favor of the people.

Matthew 27:18. For envy.—The Evangelist mentions here, in a historical connection, envy as the cause of all the hostility manifested against Jesus, as if it were something well understood.

Matthew 27:19. When he was set down on the judgment-seat.—The people had a moment for consideration, and Pilate regards the issue as one of such certainty, that he ascends the seat of judgment to receive the decision of the people, and to pronounce judgment accordingly. The judge was required to pronounce judgment from a lofty seat of authority, from his chair of office. This stood usually upon a stone pavement (Lithostroton, in Hebrew, Gabbatha, John 19:13).^[FN31]

His wife sent to him.—This fact is found in Matthew only. As formerly, according to Matthew, the spirit of truth had in visions of the night borne witness for the new-born Jesus, and as the testimony of the heathen magi had in the day-season confirmed this witness, so on this occasion is the solemn, political testimony of Pilate on behalf of the suffering Jesus strengthened by a witness speaking out of the dream-life of his wife. Thus it is that each Evangelist selects out of the store of facts those which accord best with his views and purpose. From the time of Augustus, it became usual for the Roman governors to take their wives along with them into the provinces, though the custom was attacked down till the age of Tiberius: Tacit. Annal. iii33. Pilate’s wife, according to a tradition, given in Niceph. Hist. Eccles. 1:30, was called Claudia Procula or Procla, and was, according to the Gospel by Nicodemus, θεοσεβής, i.e, a proselyte of the gate, and perhaps one who revered Jesus. The Greek Church has canonized her.