And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he said unto the Jews, Behold your King!
All Commentaries on John 19:14 Go To John 19
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
It was the preparation of the Passover. That is of the Paschal Sabbath, the Sabbath which fell in the octave. On this day great preparations were made for the following Sabbath, on which no work could be done. This was the only Sabbath which had its preparation-day. The Greeks explain it as being the day before the offering of the Paschal Lamb. But according to the other Evangelists Christ was crucified on the day after the Passover, which S. John terms the day before the Paschal Sabbath.
About the sixth hour. That Isaiah , says the Arabic version, six hours after sunrise. S. Mark says it was the third hour. Some consider that S. John should here be corrected by S. Mark. But all the MS. and versions read "the sixth hour."
2. S. Jerome (on Psalm 77.) thinks that S. Mark should be corrected by S. John. But here all the MS. of S. Mark agree in reading the third hour.
3. Euthymius (on Mark xv.) thinks that S. Mark mentions the third hour, because it was at that hour that the Jews demanded His death. But to demand His death, and actually to crucify Him, are very different things.
4. S. Augustine says that it was the sixth hour from the time that Jesus was preparing for death, i.e, the ninth of the previous night. But this is a somewhat "violent" mode of solving the difficulty (see S. Aug. in loc. in Ps. lxiii. and de Consens. Evang. iii13); and he says himself—
5. That it was in the third hour in the Jewish language, but at the sixth hour in the Latin tongue, and in Pilate"s sentence.
6. It was at the end of the third hour, and at the beginning of the sixth, the Roman and Jewish hours or watches being three of ours.
7. Ribera thinks it probable that at the third hour Pilate yielded to the clamour of the Jews, but that at the sixth hour the formal sentence was passed. S. Mark indicates the preparation for crucifixion, S. John the completion and carrying out of the sentence.
