Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him,
All Commentaries on John 18:12 Go To John 18
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Bound Him. By Whom they should have wished to be set free. And maybe they were of the number of those who, when afterwards set free by Him, said, "Thou hast burst my bonds in sunder" ( Psalm 116:14), says S. Augustine. Christ, had He so willed, would have broken all the bonds of the Jews more easily than Samson burst the hempen bonds of Delilah ( Judges 15:9). But He would not—(1.) In order to expiate the sin of Adam which he committed with His hands. For since the first Adam too readily stretched forth his hands to the forbidden fruit, Christ the second Adam was willing to be bound in order to expiate the sins of Adam and his posterity, which are most commonly wrought with the hands.
(2.) To fulfil the type: for Isaac, who was a type of Christ, was bound when about to be offered by Abraham. For the victims were bound, lest they should struggle against being offered (Gen. xxii9).
(3.) That by having taken on Him these bonds from love of us, He might bind us with the cords of love, as is said (Hos. xi4), "I will draw them with cords of a Prayer of Manasseh , with bands of love."
Moreover, it is clear that the Jews firmly and cruelly bound Christ, both from the intense hatred with which they, and their masters the Chief Priests, burnt against Him, as wishing to avenge their ignominious fall which they had suffered at His hands, and the violence of St. Peter towards Malchus and themselves. See notes on Matt. xxv55.
