34. To Pilate's question, Christ replies: Sayest thou this of thyself, from thy own knowledge or suspicion of My having taken part in seditious practices, or is it merely because of what others, through envy and jealousy, have now told thee of Me? These words were, doubtless, intended to remind Pilate that, although Governor of Judea during all the time of Christ's public life (Luke iii. 1), he had no reason from his own personal knowledge to find fault with Jesus. Hence, he ought to suspect the charges that had been made.
| 35. Respondit Pilatus: Numquid ego Iudaeus sum? Gens tua et pontifices tradiderunt te mihi: quid fecisti? | 35. Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me: what hast thou done? |
35. Pilate impatiently replies, signifying that as he was not a Jew, he might easily be ignorant of Christ's guilt, while it would be well known to Christ's countrymen who now accused Him.
| 36. Respondit Iesus: Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo: si ex hoc mundo esset regnum meum, ministri mei utique decertarent ut non traderer Iudaeis: Nunc autem regnum meum non est hinc. | 36. Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence. |
36. In response to Pilate's question: “What hast thou done?” Jesus proceeds to explain that His is not that [pg 325] mighty temporal kingdom for which the Jews had hoped, and which the Romans might well fear; if it were, His followers would surely have striven that He should not be delivered to the Jews; but in truth it was not a temporal kingdom.
My kingdom is not from hence; i.e. is not of this world, not a temporal kingdom. In this world it was, and is; but of this world it is not. See xvii. [15], [16].
| 37. Dixit itaque et Pilatus: Ergo rex es tu? Respondit Iesus: Tu dicis quia rex sum ego. Ego in hoc natus sum, et ad hoc veni in mundum, ut testimonium perhibeam veritati: omnis qui est ex veritate, audit vocem meam. | 37. Pilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world: that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. |
37. Art thou a king then? Pilate asked; to which Jesus replied: “Thou sayest it” (Matt., Mark, Luke); or, as here, “Thou sayest that I am a king,”[119] meaning thou sayest truly, what is the fact. That this is the sense of the phrase, see Matt. xxvi. 64, and compare with Mark xiv. 61. Then, having made this admission, Jesus at once proceeds to point out the spiritual character of the kingdom which He had come to establish. That kingdom is His Church, which was established, not amid the clash of arms or din of battle, but by the preaching of the truth, and to which all belong, whether Jew or Roman, who hear the truth.
| 38. Dicit et Pilatus: Quid est Veritas? Et cum hoc dixisset, iterum exivit ad Iudaeos, et dicit eis: Ego nullam invenio in eo causam. | 38. Pilate saith to him: What is truth? And when he said this he went out again to the Jews, and saith to them: I find no cause in him. |
38. At the mention of “the truth,” Pilate asks: What is truth? (ἀλήθεια, without the article). The question was not asked for information, for Pilate went out without waiting [pg 326] for an answer, but impatiently or sneeringly, as if he said: “Yes, but what is truth?” Then Pilate went out again to the Jews, and told them that he could find in Jesus no reason for condemning Him.