John 19 Study Notes

19:19 The inscription on Jesus’s cross specified the crime for which he was executed, probably to discourage others from committing similar acts.

19:20 On the place . . . was near the city, see note at v. 17. Aramaic was the language most widely understood by the Jewish population of Palestine; Latin was the official language of the Roman occupying force; and Greek was the “international language” of the empire, understood by most Diaspora Jews as well as Gentiles. The trilingual inscription ensured that virtually anyone could read the crimes with which Jesus was charged.

19:21-22 Pilate was unwilling to give in to further Jewish pressures. For John, the inscription unintentionally confirmed Jesus’s true kingship.

19:23 The seamless tunic may recall Joseph’s robe (Gn 37:3,23). Similar to several later events at the crucifixion (Jn 19:28-37), the soldiers’ division of Jesus’s clothes and their casting of lots fulfilled Scripture (Ps 22:18). On other fulfillment quotations, see note at Jn 12:38-40.

19:24 The quotation is from Ps 22, a lament psalm ascribed to David. This is the first of several references to Jesus as the righteous sufferer in keeping with the experience of the psalmist (Jn 19:28,36-37). The soldiers did not want to tear Jesus’s tunic because it was woven of one cloth. John may have purposefully shaped his account of Jesus’s crucifixion in a way that highlighted the parallels and fulfillments between the experiences of David and Jesus. For instance, Ps 22:15-18 mentions the sufferer’s thirst (v. 15), his pierced hands and feet (v. 16), and the preservation of all his bones (v. 17).

19:25 On Jesus’s mother, see 2:1-5 and note at 19:26-27. His mother’s sister may be Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee mentioned in Matthew and Mark. On Mary the wife of Clopas, see Lk 24:18. On Mary Magdalene, see 20:1-18 (cp. Lk 8:2-3).

19:26-27 In keeping with biblical injunctions to honor one’s parents (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16), Jesus made provision for his mother, who was almost certainly widowed and probably in her early fifties, with little or no personal income. On the word woman, see note at 2:4. On the disciple he loved, see the notes at 13:23; 20:1-21:25; 21:7-8; 21:24.

19:28-29 The reference to Scripture being fulfilled builds on v. 24 (see note there), most likely in allusion to Ps 69:21: “They gave me vinegar to drink” (cp. Mt 27:34,48; see Ps 22:15). Soldiers and laborers used sour wine to quench their thirst (Mk 15:36). It is different from the “wine mixed with myrrh” Jesus refused on the way to the cross (Mk 15:23). Hyssop was a plant classified in 1Kg 4:33 as a humble shrub. It was used for the sprinkling of blood on the doorpost at the original Passover (Ex 12:22).

19:30 Gave up may echo “willingly submitted to death,” which was prophesied of the Suffering Servant (Is 53:12).

19:31 On preparation day, see note at v. 14. That Sabbath was . . . special because it was the Sabbath of Passover week. For the Jews, bodies of hanged criminals were not to defile the land by remaining on a tree overnight (Dt 21:22-23; cp. Jos 8:29).

19:31-33 The legs of crucifixion victims were broken to hasten death. This prevented them from pushing themselves up with their legs to open the chest cavity and thus breathe better. Since the victims would now have to pull themselves up by the arms instead, suffocation occurred once their arm strength failed. See note at v. 36.

19:34 The flow of blood and water proved that Jesus was dead (1Jn 5:6-8). The passage may also allude to Ex 17:6: “Hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink” (cp. Nm 20:11). The spear was about three and one-half feet long and consisted of an iron spearhead joined to a shaft of wood.

19:35 On John’s witness about Jesus, see notes at 5:31-47; 13:23; 21:24.

19:36 After vv. 24 and 28-29 (see notes there), this is the third scriptural proof that shows that Jesus’s death fulfilled Scripture (Ex 12:46; Ps 34:20). Jesus escaped having his legs broken since he died so quickly, and the spear did not damage any of his bones.

19:37 The Roman soldiers again fulfilled prophecy without knowing it: “They will look at me whom they pierced” (Zch 12:10; also cited in Rv 1:7).

19:38 Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Jewish ruling council (Mt 27:57), asked Pilate for Jesus’s body. Thus Jesus was killed alongside criminals and was buried in a rich man’s tomb. This fulfilled another Scripture: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death” (Is 53:9).

19:39-40 The amount of aromatic spices brought by Joseph and Nicodemus—about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes—was considerable (2Ch 16:14). Myrrh was a fragrant resin used by Egyptians in embalming; aloes were a powder of aromatic sandalwood; the mixture cloaked the smell of decay.

19:41 On the place where he was crucified, see notes at vv. 17,20. The garden was apparently somewhat elaborate; note the mention of a gardener in 20:15. Garden burials are recorded in the OT (Manasseh in 2Kg 21:18; Amon in 2Kg 21:26).

19:42 On the Jewish day of preparation, see note at v. 14. Sabbath was rapidly approaching, when all work ceased, including that of carrying spices or transporting a corpse. Thus we may see it as an instance of divine providence that the tomb was nearby (see note at 20:1).