John 18:22

22 At these words, one of the guards standing by slapped Yeshua in the face and said, "This is how you talk to the cohen hagadol?"

John 18:22 Meaning and Commentary

John 18:22

And when he had thus spoken
What was so right and reasonable, in so becoming a manner, without heat or passion:

one of the officers which stood by;
it may be one of those who had been sent to him and had been a hearer of him, whom Jesus might look wistfully at, or point unto, when he said the above words, at which he might be provoked: and therefore

stroke Jesus with the palm of his hand;
or gave him a rap with a rod, or smote him with a staff, as some think, is the sense of the phrase; though the Syriac, agreeably to our version, reads it, he smote him, (yhwewl le) , "upon his cheek"; gave him, what we commonly call, a slap on the face; and which is always esteemed a very great affront, and was a piece of rudeness and insolence to the last degree in this man:

saying, answerest thou the high priest so?
This he said, as well as gave the blow, either out of flattery to the high priest, or to clear himself from being a favourer of Christ; which, by what had been said, he might think would be suspected: some have thought this was Malchus, whose ear Christ had healed; if so, he was guilty of great ingratitude.

John 18:22 In-Context

20 Yeshua answered, "I have spoken quite openly to everyone; I have always taught in a synagogue or in the Temple where all Jews meet together, and I have said nothing in secret;

21 so why are you questioning me? Question the ones who heard what I said to them; look, they know what I said."

22 At these words, one of the guards standing by slapped Yeshua in the face and said, "This is how you talk to the cohen hagadol?"

23 Yeshua answered him, "If I said something wrong, state publicly what was wrong; but if I was right, why are you hitting me?"

24 So `Anan sent him, still tied up, to Kayafa the cohen hagadol.