Smoodock's Blog

From the time of Jesus’ arrest in the garden by the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem to the time they turned him over to Pilate by for execution (John 18:28) was a matter of about five to six hours.[1] During this time, John is decidedly brief in his account of what occurred, while Jesus was in the hands of the Jewish authorities. The Synoptics are much more informative. Why would John be so concise in this part of his narrative? I mentioned one reason could be he wasn’t present, and so used only the briefest of facts. After all, unless he was the other disciple with Peter (John 18:16), there were only two who could witness to what took place. Still, John could have added the witness of others, so what can be said of this?

Unlike today, when authors could simply add an additional page or two or even an additional chapter to included additional information he might wish to convey, authors in ancient times weren’t so free. They had to confine themselves to specific material and only this material, because they wrote on scrolls of specific lengths. What they had to say had to fit into one of these scrolls. A standard historical scroll was about 30 to 35 feet in length (Luke is about 32 feet in length and Acts is shorter but roughly the same length). John is a little over two-thirds the size of Luke and is about the standard size for a biography or about 22 to 24 feet in length. Therefore, the information John wished to convey to his audience left only a short space for additional material that would bring the reader from one main section to another. This, also, could be the reason for John’s brevity of material that recorded the Jewish authorities’ custody of Jesus.[2]

At about 5 AM as we measure time, the Jewish authorities brought Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, to be executed. However, because they wished to partake of the Passover Seder, they refused to go into the judgment hall, which would have made them ceremonially unclean and unable to partake of the memorial meal (John 18:28). Pilate, therefore, came out to them and asked what Jesus was accused of doing (John 18:29).

At first, it seems the Jewish authorities simply wanted Pilate to execute Jesus, simply because they said he had committed a capital crime. However, Pilate was a bigot and didn’t like the Jews, so, although he could be very cruel, he was in no mood to simply rubber stamp their wish to have Jesus crucified. He told them to judge him themselves according to their law. He didn’t want to be bothered with such triviality. Nevertheless, the Jewish authorities informed him that he had committed a capital offense, and they were deprived by Rome of carrying out an official execution (John 18:29-31), which fulfilled Jesus own prediction that he would be crucified (John 18:32; cp Matthew 20:19).[3]

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[1] If the meal was eaten at about 6 PM (as we measure time), and giving it an hour to complete, and the Upper Room Discourse took about one to two hours, this would put his departure to the Garden of Gethsemane somewhere between 8 and 9 PM. Furthermore, if Jesus prayed for about three hours before Judas arrived, this would mean he was in the hands of the Jewish authorities from about 11 PM or midnight to about 4 or 5 AM, and was turned over to Pilate about this time (4 to 5 AM).

[2] “Luke–Acts may be closer to standard forms of Greco-Roman historical writing than are the other Gospels, which resemble ancient biography. Whereas Matthew, Mark and John wrote forms of ancient biography, Luke’s second volume shows that he wrote history as well. Luke and Acts are each roughly the same length as Matthew, with Mark one-half and John two-thirds that length, indicating scrolls of standardized lengths (Matthew, Luke and Acts were each close to the maximum length for scrolls, between thirty-two and thirty-five feet).” [Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary : New Testament . Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.] Citation found at Christian Think-Tank.

[3] The official Roman method of execution was by crucifixion, while the Jewish method was stoning (cp. Acts 7:58).