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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 18:33 - 18:33
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Again (palin). Back into the palace where Pilate was before.
Called (ephōnēsen). First aorist active indicative of phōneō. Jesus was already inside the court (Joh 18:28). Pilate now summoned him to his presence since he saw that he had to handle the case. The charge that Jesus claimed to be a king compelled him to do so (Luk 23:2).
Art thou the King of the Jews? (su ei ho basileus tōn Ioudaiōn). This was the vital problem and each of the Gospels has the question (Mar 15:2; Mat 27:1; Luk 23:3; Joh 18:33), though Luke alone (Luk 23:2) gives the specific accusation.
Thou (su). Emphatic. Jesus did claim to be the spiritual king of Israel as Nathanael said (Joh 1:49) and as the ecstatic crowd hailed him on the Triumphal Entry (Joh 12:13), but the Sanhedrin wish Pilate to understand this in a civil sense as a rival of Caesar as some of the Jews wanted Jesus to be (Joh 6:15) and as the Pharisees expected the Messiah to be.