| 8. Cum ergo audisset Pilatus hunc sermonem, magis timuit. | 8. When Pilate therefore had heard this saying, he feared the more. |
8. He feared the more. When Pilate heard that Christ claimed to be the Son of God, he became more afraid to interfere with or condemn Him. Already her dream which Pilate's wife had made known to him (Matt. xxvii. 19), and the majesty, serenity, and evident innocence of Jesus, must have greatly impressed the governor.
| 9. Et ingressus est praetorium iterum, et dixit ad Iesum: Unde es tu? Iesus autem responsum non dedit ei. | 9. And he entered into the hall again, and he said to Jesus: Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. |
9. Again, therefore, he entered the palace (πραιτώριον). Jesus, too, was led in, and Pilate [pg 334] questioned Him in reference to the accusation just made against Him. You have been charged with claiming to be the Son of God: Whence art thou? from heaven, or of earth, like other men? Pilate was unworthy of an answer, or else Jesus thought it useless to explain to one who would not understand or believe it His eternal generation from the Father, and accordingly He was silent.
| 10. Dicit ergo ei Pilatus: Mihi non loqueris? nescis quia potestatem habeo crucifigere te et potestatem habeo dimittere te? | 10. Pilate therefore saith to him: Speakest thou not to me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? |
10. Speakest thou not to me? In the original the pronoun, standing at the head of the clause, is emphatic. Speakest thou not to me, the representative of Roman power, who have authority (ἐξουσίαν) to liberate or crucify thee?
Knowest thou not that I have power, &c. The more probable order of the clauses is: “I have power to release thee, and I have power to crucify thee,” the motive of hope standing before that of fear.
| 11. Respondit Iesus: Non haberes potestatem adversum me ullam, nisi tibi datum esset desuper. Propterea qui me tradidit tibi, maius peccatum habet. | 11. Jesus answered: Thou shouldest not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above. Therefore he that hath delivered me to thee, hath the greater sin. |
11. Pilate's claim to unlimited power over Him makes Jesus again break silence. His words are an implicit admission that Pilate possesses power over Him, but at the same time a reminder that there was One greater than even a Roman governor, without whose permission Pilate could do nothing against Him.
Unless it were given thee from above. From the original, in which we have ἦν δεδομένον, not ἦν δεδομένη (datum, not data), it is clear that the verb has not “power” for its subject, but is to be taken impersonally: Unless it were given thee from above to have such power.