CHAPTER 27

(A.D. 33)

JESUS SENT TO PILATE

¹When the morning was come (referred to Wednesday morning; Jesus would be crucified in a matter of hours; He was not crucified on Good Friday as many claim!), all the Chief Priests and Elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death (the morning session was that of the entire Sanhedrin; it followed the unofficial meeting in the High Priests house [26:57]):

²And when they had bound Him, they led Him away (refers to His Hands being tied behind His back with a rope), and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor (he held this office for some ten years, at the end of which time he was removed for cruelty and extortion, and banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he committed suicide).

JUDAS KILLS HIMSELF

³Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned (refers to what the religious leaders had done to Jesus and their brutal treatment of Him; in fact, he probably saw Jesus, and was sickened by what he saw), and repented himself (in the Greek, means to have a deep remorse at the consequence of sin, but not deep regret at the cause of it; the word is never used of genuine Repentance to God), and brought again the thirty pieces of silver (the price he had been given) to the Chief Priests and Elders (concerns the blood money, and the religious leaders with blood on their hands),

⁴Saying, I have sinned (presents him confessing this sin to man, an evil man at that, but not to God) in that I have betrayed the innocent blood (the emphasizes that the Blood of Christ was the only truly innocent blood that has ever been). And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that (they knew that Jesus was innocent, but did not care!).

⁵And he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple (presents him flinging the shekels onto the marble floor), and departed, and went and hanged himself (he probably hanged himself with his own sash, which was wound around his waist; tradition says that the limb broke from the tree to which the sash was tied, and he fell heavily to the rocks below, where a passing wagon, unable to stop, crushed and disemboweled him).

⁶And the Chief Priests took the silver pieces (represents the blood money now in their hands where it rightfully belonged all the time!), and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood (it is ironic! they were gagging at a gnat and swallowing a camel).

⁷And they (the Sanhedrin) took counsel (institutionalized religion opposed Christ from the very beginning; it still does!), and bought with them (the thirty pieces of silver) the potters field, to bury strangers in (Gentiles a place on the south of Jerusalem, across the valley of Hinnom).

⁸Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day (was not the name given it by the religious leaders of Israel, but others! up to the mid 1800s, it was still being used for this purpose, the burying of the unhonored dead of Jerusalem).

⁹Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the Prophet (although the Scriptures do not say, this was probably originally spoken by Jeremiah, and done so by the Holy Spirit, but not written down; it was then repeated and recorded by that same Spirit in Zech. 11:12-13 or else a copyist made a mistake in copying it from the original text; no original text remains), saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was valued, Whom they of the Children of Israel did value (this was the price of a slave; it is given in this manner by the Holy Spirit in order to emphasize the fact that this was the price or worth that Israel placed upon her Messiah);

¹⁰And gave them (thirty pieces of silver) for the potters field, as the Lord appointed Me (appointed the Messiah; did not the religious leaders of Israel know about this Prophecy?).

JESUS BEFORE PILATE

¹¹And Jesus stood before the governor (speaks of Pontius Pilate): and the governor asked Him, saying, are You the King of the Jews? (In reality, Jehoiachin, who reigned some six hundred years before, was the last King recognized by God, to sit on the Throne of Judah [II Chron. 36:9-10].) And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest (in effect, says, I am the King of the Jews; as far as is recorded, this is the first time Jesus had made such a claim; John added more of the answer of Christ, with Jesus saying, My Kingdom is not of this world [Jn. 18:36]; consequently, Pilate knew that His claims were spiritual and, therefore, not of this world).

¹²And when He was accused of the Chief Priests and Elders, He answered nothing (He would not defend Himself before people who cared nothing for the truth).

¹³Then said Pilate unto Him, Do You not hear how many things they witness against You? (Pilate was somewhat confused as to why Jesus did not defend Himself against these accusations.)

¹⁴And He answered him to never a word (fulfilling Isaiah 53:7); insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly (Pilate was astonished that Jesus defended Himself not at all against these accusations, seeing that they could lead to His Death).

JESUS CONDEMNED; BARABBAS RELEASED

¹⁵Now at that feast (the Passover) the governor was wont (accustomed) to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would (in other words, the people could choose, and the one chosen would be released; Pilate thought he had found a way out of his dilemma; he knew that Jesus was innocent).

¹⁶And they had then a notable prisoner (should have been translated notorious), call ed Barabbas (Mark said that Barabbas was a murderer, and had led an insurrection against Roman authority [Mk. 15:7]).

¹⁷Therefore when they were gathered together (Pilate and Jesus standing on the porch of the hall, before the people below), Pilate said unto them, Whom will you that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? (In some manuscripts, Barabbas is referred to as Jesus Barabbas. So the people were faced with a choice, Jesus Barabbas, the murderer, or Jesus Christ, the Giver of Eternal Life.)

¹⁸For He knew that for envy they had delivered Him (they envied the respect given Him by the people, and His Miracles).

¹⁹When he was sat down on the judgment seat (a chair on a raised platform in front of the praetorian), his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just Man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him (her name was Claudia another name Procula; tradition says that she ultimately became a Christian; what her dream was, the record does not say; however, in all of the account of the sufferings of Christ this last week before His Death, she, a Gentile is the only one, it seems, who gave Him a kind word).

²⁰But the Chief Priests and Elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas (asked for the release of Barabbas the murderer; consequently, murderers have ruled them from then until now, even unto this hour, considering the bombings in Israel), and destroy (kill) Jesus.

²¹The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the two will you that I release unto you? (Presents no alternative but Jesus or Barabbas.)They said, Barabbas.

²²Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? (The greatest question ever asked. The answer to it decides the eternal destiny of the human soul.) They all say unto him, Let Him be crucified (they specified crucifixion, because such a death would cause all the people, they thought, to turn against Him; the Law of Moses condemned anyone hanged upon a tree as being cursed by God [Deut. 21:23]).

²³And the governor said, Why, what evil has He done? (He had done no evil. He was perfect! He had never sinned.)But they cried out the more, saying, Let Him be crucified (proclaims them offering no answer to the question of Pilate, because they had no answer; as the morning sun begins to break over Olivet, it will dawn on a day of infamy such as the world has never seen before or since).

²⁴When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made (he feared that if he did not give in to their demands, a riot might occur, with him then being accused before Rome of refusing to punish a pretender to the Jewish Throne), he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude (by this act, he attempted to clear himself of guilt, and to cast the guilt upon the people, as if the administration of Justice lay with them and not with him), saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it (him saying it here, did not make it so! he didnt have the courage to do what was right; one cannot take a neutral position as it regards Christ).

²⁵Then answered all the people, and said, His Blood be on us, and on our children (the malediction they invoked upon themselves and upon their children rests upon them still, and was, and is, a malediction of appalling horror and suffering).

²⁶Then released he Barabbas unto them (proclaims the choice of the people): and when he (Pilate) had scourged Jesus (a punishment so horrible, that sometimes it killed the victim before the act of crucifixion could be employed [Isa. 50:6]), he delivered Him to be crucified (Isa., Chpt. 53).

JESUS CROWNED WITH THORNS

²⁷Then the soldiers (Roman soldiers) of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers (about two hundred men, which was the third part a cohort).

²⁸And they stripped Him (referred to His Robe, not the inner garments), and put on Him a scarlet robe (either a worn-out officers cloak or else a cast-off garment from the wardrobe of Herod).

²⁹And when they had platted a crown of thorns (called victors thorns and which grew up to six inches in length), they put it upon His head (the Greek word for crown is stephanos, and means a victory crown; even though they meant it for shame and mockery, by this crown of thorns, the Lord portrayed the Victory of the Cross and its certitude, even before Jesus actually died), and a reed in His right hand: and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! (At the coming Great White Throne Judgment, these same soldiers will once again stand before Christ, and once again bow the knee to Him. But this time, it will not be in mocking tone.)

³⁰And they spit upon Him, and took the reed, and smote Him on the head (driving the thorns deeper, which no doubt caused His head to swell).

³¹And 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 (Crucifixion is supposed to have been invented by Semiramis, Queen of Nimrod, who founded the Babylonian system of mysteries).

³²And as they came out (on the way to Calvary), they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name (Alexander and Rufus were the sons of Simon [Mk. 15:21; Rom. 16:13]): him they compelled to bear His cross (it was not the entire Cross, but probably the patibulum, or the cross bar; it would have weighed not much short of a hundred pounds; in His weakened condition, Jesus could not bear that load).

THE CRUCIFIXION

³³And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull (tradition says that Adam was buried here, and that his skull was found here),

³⁴They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink (this was a stupefying potion, given to help alleviate sufferings; Christ refused it).

³⁵And they crucified Him, and parted His garments (this was their extra pay for serving this ghastly duty), casting lots (they drew straws, so to speak): that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots (Ps. 22:18).

³⁶And sitting down they watched Him there (made sure that friends didnt come and take the condemned One down, before He died);

³⁷And set up over His head His accusation written (this pertained to the crime for which the accused was condemned), THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS (it is said that this was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; they printed this in mockery, but no words were ever more true).

³⁸Then were there two thieves crucified with Him (Isa. 53:12), one on the right hand, and another on the left.

³⁹And they who passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads (for the most part, these were the religious leaders of Israel [Ps. 109:25]),

⁴⁰And saying, You who will destroy the Temple, and build it in three days (Jesus never said that! He did say, that His physical Body would be destroyed, and in three days He would raise it up, which is exactly what happened), save Yourself (He didnt come to save Himself, but rather others). If You be the Son of God, come down from the Cross (had He come down from the Cross, no one wouldve ever been saved, and those in the prison of Paradise, would have remained there forever).

⁴¹Likewise also the Chief Priests mocking Him, with the Scribes and Elders, said (this is religion at work!),

⁴²He saved others (that He did, but the others did not include these religious leaders, because they would not accept Him); Himself He cannot save (the actual truth, Himself He will not save). If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe Him (blasphemers are also liars!).

⁴³He trusted in God (Ps. 22:8); let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him (they wouldnt have Him, but God would): for He said, I am the Son of God (represents exactly what He said!).

⁴⁴The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth (they both did at first, but a little later, one repented, recorded by Luke 23:42).

THE DEATH OF JESUS

⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour (12 Noon) there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour (3 p.m. for these three hours, God would literally hide His Face from His Son; during this time, Jesus did bear the sin penalty of mankind [II Cor. 5:21]. This darkness was not the result of an eclipse, for then the moon was full; it was brought on by God in that He could not look upon His Son, as He did bear the sin penalty of the world).

⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice (showing He didnt die from weakness, but rather laid down His Own Life [Jn. 10:17-18]), saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? (The question as to why God had forsaken Him was not asked in a sense of not knowing, but in a sense of acknowledging the act. God didnt deliver Him, even as He always had, because, to have done such, would have forfeited Redemption for mankind. Incidentally, Jesus spoke in Aramaic, which was commonly used by the Lord.)

⁴⁷Some of them who stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calls for Elijah (this would have referred to Jews, because Romans would have known nothing about Elijah).

⁴⁸And straightway (immediately) one of them ran, and took a sp onge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink (the evidence is, it touched His lips, and He died; it had nothing to do with His Life or Death).

⁴⁹The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him (said in mockery!).

⁵⁰Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost (He freely laid down His Life, meaning that He didnt die from His wounds; as well, He didnt die until the Holy Spirit told him to do so [Heb. 9:14]).

⁵¹And, behold, the Veil of the Temple (that which hid the Holy of Holies; Josephus said it was sixty feet high from the ceiling to the floor, four inches thick, and was so strong, that four yoke of oxen could not pull it apart) was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (meaning that God alone could have done such a thing; it also signified, that the price was paid completely on the Cross; signified by the rent Veil; regrettably, some say, the Cross didnt finish the task with other things required; this Verse says differently); and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent (represented an earthquake, but had nothing to do with the renting of the Veil, which took place immediately before this phenomenon);

⁵²And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose (does not teach soul sleep as some claim, but rather that the bodies of the Sainted dead do sleep; not the soul and the spirit, which then went to Paradise, but since the Cross, at death, now go to be with Christ [Phil. 1:23]),

⁵³And came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city (Jerusalem), and appeared unto many (while all were delivered out of Paradise, and taken to Heaven, some, even many, stopped over in Jerusalem for a short period of time, and appeared unto many; how many there were, we arent told, and to whom they appeared, we arent told; Matthew alone gives this account).

⁵⁴Now when the centurion, and they who were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God (he was the first Gentile to render this testimony of Faith; tradition affirms that the Centurions name was Longinus, and that he became a devoted follower of Christ, preached the Faith, and died a martyrs death).

⁵⁵And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him (concerns those who came from Galilee, and were with Him unto the end):

⁵⁶Among which was Mary Magdalene (Jesus had delivered her [Mk. 16:9; Lk. 8:2]), and Mary the mother of James and Joseph (probably the wife of Cleophas [Jn. 19:25]), and the mother of Zebedees children (Salome [Mk. 15:40] the mother of James and John).

THE BURIAL OF JESUS

⁵⁷When the evening was come (referred to a period of time between 3 p.m. until sunset, the Passover Sabbath not the weekly Sabbath), there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph (he was a member of the Sanhedrin, but was no doubt, not present at the so-called trial of Jesus), who also himself was Jesus Disciple (he was a follower of Christ, which means that he had accepted Him as Lord):

⁵⁸He went to Pilate (proves that he had access to the governor), and begged the body of Jesus (it seems that his devotion to Christ had previously been in secret for fear of the Jews [Jn. 19:38]). Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered (proclaims the Roman Governor as the only one who could give such an order).

⁵⁹And when Joseph had taken the body (had taken it down from the Cross), he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth (this was the physical body, prepared by God, to be used as a Sacrifice, which it was, in order to redeem Adams fallen race [Heb. 10:5]),

⁶⁰And laid it in his own new tomb (which had never been used), which he had hewn out in the rock (it was cut out of solid rock): and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed (this is the same great stone that the Angel rolled away [28:2]).

⁶¹And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary (the wife of Cleophas, and the sister of Mary, the Mother of Jesus), sitting over against the sepulcher (all of this shows that none of them actually had any faith that Jesus would come from the dead; it seems that only Mary of Bethany actually believed such [26:6-13]).

THE TOMB SEALED AND GUARDED

⁶²Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation (refers to the High Sabbath and the Chief Day of the Passover Festival), the Chief Priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate (referred to the day after the Crucifixion),

⁶³Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again (their testimony here confirms that Jesus died and did not merely swoon as some modern unbelievers claim).

⁶⁴Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day (insures three days and three nights in the Tomb), lest His Disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead (by their actions, they will make the proof of His Resurrection irrefutable): so the last error shall be worse than the first (their claiming that the peoples belief in Him had been an error, and if they in any way thought He had risen from the dead, this would be an even greater error).

⁶⁵Pilate said unto them, You have a watch (referred to a guard of four soldiers which was changed every three hours, meaning that it was continuous): go your way, make it as sure as ye can (they not only had the soldiers at their command, but were free to do whatever else they saw fit to guarantee the security of the Tomb).

⁶⁶So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone (they passed a cord around the stone that closed the mouth of the sepulcher to the two sides of the entrance; this was sealed with wax or prepared clay in the center and at the ends, so that the stone could not be removed without breaking the seals or the cord), and setting a watch (the four soldiers took up their position at the mouth of the Tomb and in front of the Stone; His enemies made the proof of His Resurrection incontrovertible).