John Bengel Commentary - John 19:14 - 19:14

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John Bengel Commentary - John 19:14 - 19:14


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Joh 19:14. Ἦν δὲ, now it was) This assigns the reason why both the Jews and Pilate were anxious that the proceeding should be brought to an issue. The Preparation was close at hand. So ἦν, “it was a feast,” in ch. Joh 5:1. Every Friday or sixth day of the week is called “the Preparation” [Mar 15:42; Luk 23:54 : whence with the Rabbins, the whole day which is succeeded by the Sabbath is called the evening (of the Sabbath): Harm., p. 557]; and as often soever as the Passover fell on the seventh day, it was “the Preparation of the Passover.” [But in this passage, when the Passover fell on the Friday (sixth day) itself, the παρασκευὴ, or Preparation, was not a preparation for the Passover, or before the Passover, but rather on the Passover, a preparation for the Sabbath (as Luther rightly renders it). Mark and Luke, in the passages quoted above, carefully guard against our understanding it of the Preparation for the Passover; and even John himself, expressly mentions the παρασκευή, Preparation for the Sabbath, Joh 19:41-42 (with which comp. Joh 19:31). The Passover fell at one time on this, at another time on that day of the week; but then, just as in the exodus from Egypt, according to the testimony of the most ancient of the Hebrews, the Passover fell upon the beginning of the Friday (the sixth day, which began on Thursday evening), so, as often soever as the Passover claimed to itself this day of the week (the sixth day), the fact was considered worthy of note. Christ is our Passover: the first Passover in Egypt, and the Passover of the Passion of Christ, have such a correspondence with one another (in falling on the same day of the week, the sixth), as was worthy to be marked by John by means of this very phrase. Comp. Ord. Temp., p. 266 (ed. ii., p. 230).-Harm., p. 557, et seqq].-τρίτη, third) Most copies read ἓκτη, the sixth, which is unquestionably an error; that it is an error, is acknowledged by that most learned person, Charl. Gottlob Hofmann in his “Introductio Pritiana N. T.,” pp. 370, 377. The Evangelists everywhere mention hours of the same kind, and so also John; and in this passage especially, where he is treating of the παρασκευή, the Jewish kind of hour must be meant. Now the Jews did not use or apply the name to any other hours than those of which the first was in the early morning, the twelfth in the evening; so Joh 11:9, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” whence the sixth, seventh, and tenth occur, Joh 4:6; Joh 4:52; Joh 1:39. The third hour was decidedly the hour in which our Lord was crucified; and afterwards, from the sixth to the ninth hour, darkness prevailed; Mar 15:25; Mar 15:33.[388] We acknowledge with pious and grateful feelings, O Lord Jesu, the lengthened continuance of the time that Thou didst drink the cup of suffering to the dregs, hanging on the cross!-καὶ λέγει, and he saith) Pilate did not say this in derision, and yet at the same time he did not believe; but in every way tried to move the Jews to pity.

[388] LX and second-rate authorities alone support τρίτη. The Chron. Alex. alleges that “the accurate copies contain it, as also the autograph of the Evangelist himself preserved at Ephesus.” Nonnus (fifth cent.), Severus of Antioch (sixth cent.), Ammonius of Alexandria (third cent.), and Theophylact (eleventh cent.), support τρίτη; the last three say that transcribers confounded the numeral ς (or ἕκτη) with γ (or τρίτη). But AB Vulg. and all the Versions have ἕκτη, which sets aside the notion of ἕκτη coming from transcribers. Besides, the very difficulty of the reading, according to Bengel’s own canon, proves it is not an interpolation. The sixth hour in John is no doubt six o’clock in the morning. St John begins the day as the Romans did, at midnight; but counted the hours, as the Asiaties about Ephesus, where he was Bishop, did, after the Macedonian method, which came into use there through Alexander’s conquests. See Townson’s Harm., viii. § 1, 2, 3, where he shows the probability that the hours are so to be understood in ch. Joh 1:39, Joh 4:6-7, Joh 4:52-53, in opposition to Bengel.-E. and T.