Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 18:12 - 18:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_18:12-14. Οὖν ] Since no further attempt at resistance dared be made. In the complete statement: the cohort and the tribune ( ὁ χιλίαρχος τῆς σπείρης , Act_21:31), and the servants, any special design (Luthardt: the previous occurrence, Joh_18:6, had for its result that now all helped, in order to secure Him) is not to be supposed, since ἡ σπείρα , κ . τ . λ ., is the subject not merely of συνέλαβον and ἔδησαν , but also of ἀπήγαγον . Tholuck’s remark, however, is erroneous: that the soldiers had now first again (?) united with the Jewish watch.
συνέλαβον , κ . τ . λ .] A non-essential variation from Mat_26:50, where the capture takes place before the attempt at defence made on Peter’s part. For ἔδησαν , see on Mat_27:2.
On Annas, see on Luk_3:1-2. To him, which circumstance the Synoptics pass over, Jesus was at first ( πρῶτον ) brought, before He was conducted to the actual high priest, Caiaphas (Joh_18:24). An extrajudicial preliminary examination had first to be gone through. And Annas had been selected for this purpose because he was father-in-law of the actual high priest ( ἦν γὰρ πενθερὸς , κ . τ . λ .); thus they believed it to be most certain that he would act beforehand[209] for his son-in-law, who then had to conduct the proper judicial process in the Sanhedrin, with sufficient care for the object in view. Ewald’s assumption (Gesch. Chr. p. 562), that Annas was at that time invested with the office of superior judicial examiner ( ãÌÄéï àáé áéú ), does not correspond to the fundamental statement of John, which merely adduces the relation of father-in-law; and therefore, also, we are not to say with Wieseler and others (see also Lichtenstein, p. 418 f.), that Annas was president, Caiaphas vice-president of the Sanhedrin; or that the former still passed as the proper and legitimate high priest (Lange); or even that John conceived of an annual exchange of office between Annas and Caiaphas (Scholten; comp. on Joh_11:49). Quite arbitrarily, further, do others suppose: the house of Annas lay near to the gate (Augustine, Grotius, and many), or: Jesus was led, as in triumph, first to Annas (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and several others).
Joh_18:14 points back to Joh_11:50, on account of the prophetic nature of the saying, which had now come so near its fulfilment. Hence also the significant τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἐκείνου is repeated.
[209] Comp. Steinmeyer, Leidensgesch. p. 115 f.