The interpretation timeline

John 19:6

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

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Patristic before A.D. 750
John Chrysostom · A.D. 347–407 A.D. 407
“(Hom. lxxxiv. 2) Pilate saw then that it was all in vain: Pilate saith unto them, Take ye Him, and crucify Him. This is the speech of a man abhorring (ἀφοσιούμενον) the deed, and urging others to do a deed which he abhors himself. They had brought our Lord indeed to him that He might be put to death by his sentence, but the very contrary was the result; the governor acquitted Him: For I find no fault in Him. He clears Him immediately from all charges: which shews that he had only permitted the former outrages, to humour the madness of the Jews. But nothing could shame the Jewish hounds: The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 19:6-8 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗
Augustine of Hippo · A.D. 354–430 A.D. 430
“(Tr. cxvi) Lo, another greater outbreak of envy. The former was lighter, being only to punish Him for aspiring to a usurpation of the royal power. Yet did Jesus make neither claim falsely; both were true: He was both the Only-begotten Son of God, and the King appointed by God upon the holy hill of Sion. And He would have demonstrated His right to both now, had He not been as patient as He was powerful.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 19:6-8 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗
305 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet

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