John 19 - NIV First Century Study Bible
19:5 Here is the man! Pilate’s words unintentionally echoed the Messianic imagery of Zec 6:12. Even so, it’s difficult to be certain about Pilate’s intention. Pilate appears to have believed Jesus was innocent, yet it was at Pilate’s command that Jesus was mocked, brutally beaten and eventually handed over to the execution unit. Pilate’s words might have been an open mockery of Jesus’ royal claims. There is evidence that the phrase “Behold the man” was used to acclaim the emperor at his coronation. (Flusser, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity, 600–603.) If this is the backdrop, the notoriously cruel Pilate appears to have been participating in the mock coronation of Jesus, which also mocked the Jewish aspirations of his accusers (see note on Mk 15:1–38).
19:19 The sign. The titalus, as it was called in Latin, functioned like a poster for the crime, warning onlookers of the consequences of defying Rome (see note on Mk 15:26).
19:30 It is finished. This may echo the final verse of Ps 22, the first verse of which Jesus quoted from the cross (see Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34; see also second note on Lk 23:34).
19:31 Did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath. See notes on Mk 15:43; Lk 23:50–56.
19:34 Blood and water. This reminds the reader of the Passover sacrifice and of Moses’ wilderness provision of water. According to the Mishnah, the Passover lamb was slaughtered in very specific ways. After the priest had killed the lamb, “he . . . slit the heart and let out its blood.” (Mishnah Tamid 4:2.) For the early Christians, blood and water were richly symbolic of baptism and the Eucharist (see 1Jn 5:6–8). Tertullian wrote, “How mighty is the grace of water . . . Never is Christ without water . . . He is Himself baptized . . . willingly crosses the sea [of Galilee] . . . Onward even to the passion does the witness of baptism last: while He is being surrendered to the cross, water intervenes; witness Pilate’s hands: when He is wounded, forth from His side bursts water; witness the soldier’s lance!” (Tertullian, On Baptism, 9, quoted in Roberts and Donaldson, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 3:673.)
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