John 18 - CSB Tony Evans Study Bible

18:1 The Kidron Valley lay between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.

18:2 Notice that Jesus wasn’t hiding from his enemies. He went to a location where he knew Judas could find him. Jesus was ready to complete his mission in obedience to the Father.

18:5-6 The Greek words behind the translation I am he can simply be rendered as “I am”—the divine name, the self-designation that God revealed to Moses (see the note on 8:58). Jesus is no mere man. He’s the Word who was with God, was God, and became flesh (see 1:1, 14). Jesus spoke the divine name using the same voice that had spoken the world into existence. And it knocked the betrayer and his accomplices off their feet.

18:8-9 When Jesus intervenes to protect you, his intervention is always effective.

18:10 Though John doesn’t tell us anything further about the servant’s injury, we learn in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus healed his ear before they led him away (see Luke 22:50-51).

18:11 Jesus rebuked Peter for stepping between him and God’s will: Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?

18:12 Since the soldiers and Jewish officials had been knocked over by Jesus’s mere words and then watched him reattach a severed ear, you might assume that they would be rethinking their plans to arrest him. But apparently they were so determined to do evil that nothing else mattered.

18:13 Though Caiaphas was the high priest, Annas was the former high priest and thus retained the title.

18:15-16 This unnamed disciple was John, the author of this Gospel. John never identifies himself by name but typically calls himself “the disciple Jesus loved” (see 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; also see the introduction).

18:18 The Greek word translated charcoal fire appears only one other time in John’s Gospel. When it shows up in 21:9, it will be significant.

18:19-20 Annas wanted Jesus to tell him what he had been doing to get everyone so riled up (18:19). But Jesus wasn’t about to recount everything he’d done and said. After all, he had spoken openly both in the synagogue and in the temple. He had done nothing in secret, nor did he lead any secret organization (18:20).

18:21-23 If this trial were to be legitimate, they would have to bring forward witnesses to testify about what he had done wrong. Jesus requested that the high priest do so (18:21). Instead, someone simply hit him! They had no interest in justice. They wanted blood (18:22-23).

18:25-27 By this point, Peter had already denied a direct question about whether he was a disciple of Jesus (see 18:17). Here he denies twice more having any relationship with Jesus. One of those who accused him of being with Jesus was a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off (18:26; see 18:10). Surrounded by the stares of an inquisitive crowd, Peter was asked in essence, “Aren’t you the one who drew my kin’s blood?” In spite of his former boasting that he would die for Jesus, Peter wasn’t ready to put his life on the line. And immediately after his third denial, a rooster crowed (18:27)—just as Jesus had predicted (see 13:38).

18:28 The Jewish officials had rejected God’s Messiah and were seeking to put to death an innocent man, but they were worried about being made ceremonially unclean by entering the Gentile governor’s headquarters! They couldn’t see that their wicked actions had already made them filthy.

18:29 Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor over Judea. Typically, he governed in Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean Sea. But during the Passover, when large crowds were present in Jerusalem, Pilate was on the scene to squelch any Jewish disturbances. He was a ruthless man with no affection for the Jews, and they had no fondness for him either. But since the Romans alone had the power of execution, the Jewish leaders needed Pilate to condemn Jesus.

18:32 Clearly, Jesus was not a victim of fate; he is the sovereign Lord who proceeded toward his death according to plan.

18:36-37 In saying, My kingdom is not of this world (18:36), Jesus essentially answered, “Yes, I’m a King. But not from here.” So, was he the King of the Jews? Of course. He was also King of the Romans. In fact, he is King of the entire world. But the source of his kingship and authority is in heaven.

18:38 Pilate’s question is repeated by our postmodern world today. Many in our culture reject the notion of absolute truth. “Truth” to them is relative—that is, what’s true for one person isn’t necessarily true for another. But this is preposterous. Truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured. It’s not something that changes based on feelings or perspective. A person can deny that gravity is true, but if he decides to jump off a building to prove it, he’s going to find that truth doesn’t care about his feelings or perspective. Truth exists whether you embrace it or not.

18:40 Barabbas was an insurrectionist who had created havoc for Rome because he wanted the Jews out from under Roman rule. Don’t miss that the leaders preferred a criminal who had fought for physical deliverance from Rome because that’s all they cared about. They wanted political deliverance from Gentile rule, when what they needed was spiritual deliverance from sin.