Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus CIII-CXVI

that he believes in Christ by Christ's gift?

5. Pilate said to Him: What is truth? Nor did he wait to hear the answer; but when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them: I find no case in Him. But you have a custom that I should release one to you at the Passover; do you wish, then, that I release to you the king of the Jews? I believe that, when Pilate had said, What is truth?, there came at once into his mind the custom of the Jews by which one used to be released to them at the Passover; and therefore he did not wait for Jesus to answer him what truth is, so that there should be no delay, since he had recalled the usage by which He could be released to them for the Passover; which it is plain that he greatly wished. Yet it could not be torn from his heart that Jesus was king of the Jews, as though truth itself, about which he had asked what it was, had fixed this there, as in the title. But when this was heard, They all cried out again, saying: Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. We do not reproach you, O Jews, for setting free a guilty man for the Passover, but for killing an innocent one; and yet unless this were done, the true Passover would not be done. But the shadow of the truth was held by the erring Jews, and by a wonderful dispensation of divine wisdom the truth of that same shadow was fulfilled through deceitful men; because, so that the true Passover might be done, Christ was sacrificed as a sheep. From here follow the insults that Pilate and his cohort heaped on Christ; but they are to be treated in another discourse.

Tractate 116. On what follows, Then therefore Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him; up to, And they took Jesus, and led Him out. Chapter 19, verses 1-16.

1. When the Jews had cried out that they wished to have released to them by Pilate for the Passover not Jesus but Barabbas the robber; not the saviour, but the slayer; not the giver of life, but its taker: Then Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him. Pilate must be believed to have done this for no other reason than that the Jews, sated with the injuries done to Him, might think it enough for themselves, and might cease to rage as far as His death. To this belongs the fact that the same governor also allowed his cohort to do what follows; or perhaps even ordered it, although the Evangelist has been silent on this. For he has said what the soldiers did next; yet he has not said that Pilate ordered it. And the soldiers, he says, plaiting a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and put a purple garment around Him. And they came to Him and said: Hail, king of the Jews. And they struck Him with their hands. Thus were fulfilled the things that Christ had foretold of Himself; thus were martyrs formed to bear all things whatsoever the persecutors should please to do; thus, His dread power being for a little while hidden, the patience to be imitated was first commended; thus the kingdom which was not of this world was overcoming the proud world not by the ferocity of fighting, but by the humility of suffering; thus that grain which was to be multiplied was being sown in horrible disgrace, that it might spring up in wonderful glory.

2. Pilate went out again, and says to them: Behold, I bring Him out, that you may know that I find no case in Him. Jesus therefore went out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he says to them: Behold the man.

Hence it appears that these things were done by the soldiers not without Pilate's knowledge, whether he ordered them or permitted them; for the reason, namely, which we stated above, that His enemies might most gladly drink in these mockeries of Him, and thirst no further for His blood. Jesus goes out to them wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment, not illustrious in command but full of reproach; and it is said to them, Behold the man: if you envy the king, spare Him now, since you see Him cast down; He has been scourged, He has been crowned with thorns, He has been clothed in a mocking garment, He has been derided with bitter insults, He has been struck with blows; the ignominy is hot, let the envy grow cold. But it does not grow cold; rather it flares up and increases.

3. 'When therefore the chief priests and the officers had seen Him, they cried out, saying: Crucify, crucify Him. Pilate says to them: Take Him yourselves, and crucify Him; for I find no cause in Him. The Jews answered him: We have a Law, and according to the Law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.' Behold another, greater envy. For that one seemed small, as being envy of a royal power aspired to with unlawful daring: and yet Jesus falsely usurped neither for Himself; but both are true, both that He is the only-begotten Son of God, and that He was appointed king by Him upon Sion, His holy mountain: and both would be shown now, were it not that the more powerful He was, the more patient He preferred to be.

4. When therefore Pilate had heard this word, he feared the more; and he entered the praetorium again, and says to Jesus: Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. This silence of our Lord Jesus Christ is found, when the narratives of all the Evangelists are compared, to have been kept not once, but before the chief priests, and before Herod, to whom, as Luke indicates, Pilate had sent Him to be heard, and before Pilate himself (Matt. 26:63, 27:14; Mark 14:61, 15:5; Luke 23:7–9, and John 19:9): so that not in vain had the prophecy gone before concerning Him, As a lamb before its shearer was without voice, so He did not open His mouth (Isa. 53:7); that is, at those times when He did not answer His questioners. For although He often answered certain questions, yet because of those in which He would not answer, the likeness of the lamb was given for this purpose, that in His silence He might be held not guilty but innocent. When therefore He was being judged, wherever He did not open His mouth, He did not open it as a lamb; that is, not as one conscious of wrongdoing who was being convicted of his own sins, but as one meek who was being sacrificed for the sins of others.

5. Pilate therefore says to Him: Speakest Thou not to me? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and I have power to release Thee? Jesus answered: You would have no power at all against Me, unless it had been given to you from above: therefore he who handed Me over to you has the greater sin. Behold, He answered; and yet wherever He did not answer, He did not open His mouth as one guilty or deceitful, but as a lamb, that is, as one simple and innocent. Accordingly, where He did not answer, He was silent as a sheep; where He answered, He taught as a shepherd. Let us learn therefore what He said, which He also taught through the Apostle, that there is no power except from God (Rom. 13:1); and that he sins more who out of malice hands over an innocent man to the power to be killed,

than the power itself, if it kills from fear of another, greater power. For God had given Pilate such power that he was also under the power of Caesar. Wherefore, He says, "you would not have any power against Me", that is, however little you have, "unless" this very thing, whatever it is, "had been given to you from above". But since I know how great it is (for it is not so great that it is in every way free for you), "therefore he who handed Me over to you has the greater sin". For he handed Me over to your power out of envy, whereas you are about to exercise that same power upon Me out of fear. Indeed, not even out of fear ought a man to kill a man, especially an innocent one; but yet to do it out of zeal is a much greater evil than to do it out of fear. And therefore the truthful Master does not say, "He who handed Me over to you, he has sin", as though the other did not have it; but He says, "has the greater sin", so that he might understand that he too has it. For that one is not on that account nothing, because this one is greater.

6. "From thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him." What is this that is said, "from thenceforth", as if he had not been seeking it before? Read what precedes, and you will find that he had long been seeking to release Jesus. "From thenceforth", therefore, is to be understood as "On account of this", that is, for this reason: that he might not have sin by killing an innocent man handed over to him, although sinning less than the Jews, who had handed Him over to him to be killed. "From thenceforth", then, that is, so that he might not commit this sin, not now for the first time but from the beginning, "he sought to release Him".

7. "But the Jews cried out, saying: If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. For everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." They thought that, by frightening him about Caesar, they were thrusting a greater fear upon Pilate, so that he would kill Christ, than earlier when they said, "We have a Law, and according to the Law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." For he did not fear their Law so as to kill; rather he feared the Son of God, so as not to kill. But now he could not so disdain Caesar, the author of his power, as he had disdained the Law of a foreign nation.

8. Yet the Evangelist still continues, and says: "Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus outside, and sat down on the judgement seat, in the place which is called Lithostrotos, but in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour." At what hour the Lord was crucified, since a great dispute is wont to arise on account of the testimony of the other evangelist, who said, "Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him" (Mark 15:25), we shall discuss, as best we can, if the Lord wills, when we have come to the very place where He is narrated to have been crucified. When, therefore, Pilate had sat down on the judgement seat, "he says to the Jews: Behold your king. But they cried out: Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate said to them: Shall I crucify your king?" He still tries to overcome the terror about Caesar that they had thrust upon him, wishing to break them by means of their own disgrace, by saying, "Shall I crucify your king?", since he had not been able to soften them by means of the disgrace of Christ; but he is soon overcome by fear.

9. For the chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar. Then therefore he handed Him over to them to be crucified. For he would seem to be going most openly against Caesar if, when they were professing that they had no king but Caesar, he wished to thrust another king upon them by letting go unpunished the One Whom they had handed over to him to be killed on account of these acts of daring. He therefore handed Him over to them to be crucified. But was he wanting anything different even before, when he said, Take Him yourselves, and crucify Him; or even earlier, Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your Law? Why, moreover, were they so very unwilling, saying, It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death (John 18:31), and pressing in every way that He should be killed not by them but by the governor, and for that reason refusing to take Him to be killed, if now they take Him to be killed? Or if this does not happen, why has it been said, Then therefore he handed Him over to them to be crucified? Or is there some difference? Plainly there is a difference. For it was not said, Then therefore he handed Him over to them that they might crucify Him; but, to be crucified, that is, that He might be crucified by the judgement and authority of the governor. But the Evangelist said that He was handed over to them in order to show them entangled in the crime from which they were trying to keep themselves clear: for Pilate would not have done this except to fulfil what he saw that they desired. As for what follows, And they took Jesus, and led Him out, it can now be referred to the soldiers, the governor's attendants. For afterwards it is said more plainly, The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Him (John 19:23): although even if the evangelist attributes the whole of it to the Jews, he does so rightly; for they themselves received what they had most eagerly demanded, and they themselves did whatever they had extorted to have done. But these following things are to be treated in another sermon.