John 18:19

The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The high priest then asked Jesus.—Comp. Notes on John 18:15. By the “high priest” is probably-meant Caiaphas, though this preliminary investigation was held before Annas, and in his house, or that part of the high priest’s palace occupied by him.

Of his disciples, and of his doctrine.—This was the general subject of a series of questions. He asked, we may think, about the number of Christ’s followers; the aim they had in view; the principles which He had taught them. The object of the questions was apparently to find some technical evidence in Christ’s own words on which they may support the charges they are about to bring against Him in the legal trial before Caiaphas.

Benson Commentary

John 18:19-27. The high-priest then asked Jesus — As he stood before him; of his disciples, and of his doctrine — What it was that he taught, and with what view he had gathered so many followers. In these questions there was a great deal of art. For, as the crime laid to our Lord’s charge was, that he set himself up for the Messiah, and deluded the people, they expected he would claim that dignity in their presence, and so, without further trouble, they would have condemned him on his own confession. But, to oblige a prisoner to confess what might take away his life, being an unjust method of procedure, Jesus complained of it with reason, and bade them prove what they laid to his charge, by witnesses. Jesus answered, I spake openly, &c. — What I have taught has been delivered in the most public manner. I ever taught in the synagogue — As I had opportunity; and in the temple, whither the Jews resort — In the greatest numbers; and in secret have I said nothing — Even to my most intimate friends, but what has been perfectly agreeable to the tenor of my public discourses. Why askest thou me — Whom thou wilt not believe? It was greatly to the honour of our Lord’s character, that all his actions were done in public, under the eye even of his enemies; because, had he been carrying on any imposture, the lovers of truth and goodness would thus have had abundant opportunities to have detected him. With propriety, therefore, in this defence, he appealed to that part of his character; nevertheless, his answer was thought disrespectful. For, when he had spoken, one of the officers — Belonging to the court; struck Jesus, saying, Answerest thou the high- priest so? — With so little reverence? Jesus answered — With his usual mildness; If I have spoken evil — Any thing false or improper; bear witness of the evil — Show wherein it lies; but if well, why smitest thou me — Can reason be answered by blows? Or, can such a sober appeal to it deserve them? Thus Jesus became an example of his own precept, (Matthew 5:44,) bearing the greatest injuries with a patience that could not be provoked. Now Annas had sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest — The evangelist mentions that Jesus was sent to the high-priest, because he had before said that he was sent first to Annas, the high-priest’s father-in-law. Moreover, he takes notice that he was sent bound, to show the inhumanity of the officer who struck him in that condition. Of what took place while Jesus stood before the high-priest, see the notes on Matthew 26:59-68.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:13-27 Simon Peter denied his Master. The particulars have been noticed in the remarks on the other Gospels. The beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water. The sin of lying is a fruitful sin; one lie needs another to support it, and that another. If a call to expose ourselves to danger be clear, we may hope God will enable us to honour him; if it be not, we may fear that God will leave us to shame ourselves. They said nothing concerning the miracles of Jesus, by which he had done so much good, and which proved his doctrine. Thus the enemies of Christ, whilst they quarrel with his truth, wilfully shut their eyes against it. He appeals to those who heard him. The doctrine of Christ may safely appeal to all that know it, and those who judge in truth bear witness to it. Our resentment of injuries must never be passionate. He reasoned with the man that did him the injury, and so may we.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples - To ascertain their number and power. The charge on which they wished to arraign him was that of sedition, or of rebellion against Caesar. To make that plausible, it was necessary to show that he had made so many disciples as to form a strong and dangerous faction; but, as they had no direct proof of that, the high priest insidiously and improperly attempted to draw the Saviour into a confession. Of this he was aware, and referred him to the proper source of evidence - his open, undisguised conduct before the world.

His doctrine - His teaching. The sentiments that he inculcated. The object was doubtless to convict him of teaching sentiments that tended to subvert the Mosaic institutions, or that were treasonable against the Roman government. Either would have answered the design of the Jews, and they doubtless expected that he - an unarmed and despised Galilean, now completely in their power - would easily be drawn into confessions which art and malice could use to procure his condemnation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19-21. The high priest … asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine—probably to entrap Him into some statements which might be used against Him at the trial. From our Lord's answer it would seem that "His disciples" were understood to be some secret party. (Also see on [1895]Mr 14:54.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Questions about sedition or rebellion belonged not to the judge of this court, but fell under the cognizance of the Roman governor, they being now a conquered people, and tributary to the Romans; who, though themselves heathens, granted the Jews their liberty as to religion, and courts in order there unto; as also a liberty of courts for civil causes: the high priest therefore saith nothing to Christ about his being a King, but only inquires of him about his doctrine. What particular questions he propounded to him we do not read; only in general he inquired about the doctrine he had preached, and the disciples he had sent out, which was one and the same cause, to see if he could bring him under the guilt of a false prophet; for that, and blasphemy, and idolatry, were three principal causes that fell under the cognizance of this court, as appeareth from Deu 13.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The high priest then asked Jesus,.... Being now brought from Annas to Caiaphas, who was the high priest and mouth of the sanhedrim, and to whom it appertained to hear and try a cause relating to doctrine. And what he did was by putting questions to him, instead of opening the charge against him, and calling for witnesses to support it. The person he interrogated was a greater high priest than himself; was that prophet Moses spoke of, to whom the Jews were to hearken, and no other than the Son of God, and King of Israel; who, when at twelve years of age, asked the doctors questions, and answered theirs, to their great astonishment. He first inquires

of his disciples, not so much who they were, and what they were, and how many they were, and where they were now, as for what purpose he gathered them together; whether it was not with some seditious views to overturn the present government, and set up himself as a temporal prince; and this he did, that he might be able to send him, with a charge against him, to the Roman governor: he did not ask for his disciples to come and speak on his behalf, if they had anything to say for him, which, by their canons (p), was allowed and encouraged:

"if any of the disciples (of the person accused) says, I have a crime to lay to his charge, they silence him; but if one of the disciples says, I have something to say in his favour, they bring him up, and place him between them; nor does he go down from thence all the day; and if there is anything in what he says, , "they hearken to him".''

The Jews indeed pretend (q) that after Jesus was found guilty, a herald went before him forty days declaring his crime, and signifying, that if anyone knew anything worthy in him, to come and declare it; but none were found: but this is all lies and falsehood, to cover their wickedness; no disciple of his was allowed to speak for him. The high priest next asked Jesus

of his doctrine; not for the sake of information and instruction, nor to see whether it was according to the Scriptures; but if it was a new doctrine, and his own, and whether it tended to idolatry or blasphemy, and whether it was factious and seditious, that so they might have wherewith to accuse him; for though they had got his person, they were at a loss for an accusation; and yet this self-same man that put these questions, and was fishing for something against him, had before given counsel to put him to death, right or wrong: all this was doing, and these questions were put to Jesus, whilst Peter was denying him.

(p) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 40. 1. Maimon. Hilch. Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 8. (q) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 43. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

{8} The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine.

(8) Christ defends his cause, but only slightly, not that he would withdraw himself from death, but to show that he was condemned as someone who was innocent.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 18:19-21. Οὖν] Again connecting the narrative with John 18:13-14, after the episode of Peter.

περὶ τ. μαθητ. αὐτ. κ. π. τ. διδαχ. αὐτοῦ] Annas[213] then put general questions, in keeping with a private hearing of the kind, but well planned, so as to connect something further according to the eventual reply.

Jesus, as far as possible, not to inculpate His disciples (John 18:8-9), replies, in the first instance (and further questioning was broken off, John 18:22), only to the second point of the interrogation, and that by putting it aside as something entirely aimless, appealing to the publicity of His life.

ἘΓῺ ΠΑΡΡΗΣΊᾼ, Κ.Τ.Λ.] I, on my part, have frankly and freely (comp. John 7:4, John 11:54) spoken to the world; παρρησ. is to be taken subjectively, without reserve, not: openly, which it does not mean, and which is first contained in τῷ ΚΌΣΜῼ. The ΚΌΣΜΟς is the whole public, as in John 7:4, John 12:19.

ἐν συναγ. κ. ἐν τ. ἱερῷ] in synagogue (see on John 6:59) and in the temple. He appeals to His work of teaching not merely in Jerusalem, but as He has always carried it on, though He does not mean by πάντοτε to deny His public discourses in other places (in the open air, etc.), but only to express that He never, in the course of His teaching, withdrew Himself from synagogues and from the temple.

ὍΠΟΥ ΠΆΝΤΕς, Κ.Τ.Λ.] refers to the temple.

καὶ ἐν κρυπτῷ ἐλάλ. οὐδέν] By which, of course, the private instructions given to His disciples (comp. also Matthew 10:27) are not denied, since it is the ministry of the Teacher of the people that is here in question; and besides, those private instructions do not fall under the category of that which is secret.

τί-g0- με-g0- ἐρωτ-g0-.] For what object dost thou, ask me? μέ does not bear the emphasis; otherwise ἘΜΈ would have been used.

The second τί, quid, depends on ἐρώτησον.

ἐρώτ. τ. ἀκηκ.] “Hoc jubet lex, a testibus incipi,” Grotius.

ΟὟΤΟΙ] The ἈΚΗΚΟΌΤΕς, not pointing to John and Peter (Ewald).

[213] Not Caiaphas. Hengstenberg imagines the situation: “Annas presides, as it were (?), at the examination, but Caiaphas might not hand over to him the properly judicial function.” So also Godet.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 18:19. Ὁ οὖν ἀρχιερεὺς ἠρώτησε … “The high priest then interrogated Jesus about His disciples and about His teaching,” apparently wishing to bring out on what terms He made disciples, whether as a simple Rabbi or as Messiah. But Jesus answered: Ἐγὼ παρρησίᾳ ἐλάλησα … οὐδέν. The high priest’s question was useless. Jesus had nothing to tell which He had not publicly and frequently proclaimed. Similarly Socrates replied to his judges (Plato, Apol., 33), “If any one says that he has ever learned or heard anything from me in private which the world has not heard, be assured he says what is not true”. παρρησίᾳ “without reserve,” rückhaltslos, Holtzmann. τῷ κόσμῳ, “to everybody,” to all who cared to hear; cf. Socrates’ δημοσίᾳ. “I always taught in synagogue and in the temple”; the article dropped as we drop it in the phrase “in church”; “where,” i.e., in both synagogue and temple, πάντες “all the Jews assemble”.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. The high priest then] Rather, therefore (John 18:3), connecting what follows with John 18:13-14. Again we are in doubt as to who is meant by the high-priest (see on John 18:15), but it will be safest to consider that Caiaphas is meant throughout. Neither hypothesis is free from difficulty. If the high priest here is Caiaphas, the difficulty is to explain John 18:24 (see note there). But we may suppose that while Annas is conducting the examination Caiaphas enters and takes part in it.

of his disciples, &c.] It was hoped that some evidence might be obtained which would be of service in the formal trial that was to follow.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 18:19. Διδαχῆς, doctrine) The High Priest asks the question, just as if the doctrine of Jesus had crept in (spread gradually) in secret. So the world often wishes to make out of the truth a thing done in a corner. Jesus answers as to His doctrine: there was no need of His answering as to His disciples.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The οϋν connects the following incident with the thirteenth and fourteenth verses. The high priest. Hengstenberg, Godet, and Westcott here say that the high priest is Caiaphas, present i.e. at the examination over which Annas presides as the older man; but Renan, Meyer, Lange, Steinmeyer ('Passion and Resurrection History'), and Moulton, with many others, say Annas was here the high priest in question. Tholuck dismisses the idea of Annas altogether, and, by inverting the place of Ver. 24 or treating the ἀπεστείλε as pluperfect, suppose that Annas had sent the Lord to Caiaphas (so Calvin, De Wette, Hase, and others), who thus commenced his interrogatory. But the text of Ver. 24, now recovered, will not admit of this rendering. We find it far more satisfactory to accept this less formal examination, under the presidency of Annas, at which an attempt is made to put the Lord, if possible, to a test which will incriminate him. Keim says, "If Caiaphas were the acting high priest, and at the same time the soul of the movement against Jesus, it was for him and not for his father-in-law to take knowledge of the matter and report to the Sanhedrin." We must choose between two difficulties:

(1) Caiaphas is first spoken of as "high priest," who, as we know from the synoptists, conducted the examination-in-chief, and then that Annas, as conducting a preliminary examination, is also styled "high priest" without any explanation;

(2) or we must admit the supposition that after Caiaphas had asked these incriminating questions, Annas (who was not ἀρχιερεὺς), sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas the high priest. The former hypothesis is the easier. The high priest then asked Jesus concerning his disciples, the extent of his following, the number of his accomplices, the ramifications of the society or kingdom he professed to have founded, and concerning his doctrine, the secret teachings that held his followers together. He evidently knows the claims of Jesus well enough; his spies and officers have continually been dogging the steps of Jesus, and hitherto he has failed to gain evidence positively incriminating him. And as his representatives a few days ago were utterly foiled, notwithstanding their clever design, he hopes by his own ingenuity to entrap the Lord in his talk. Our Lord, anxious not to endanger his disciples, points to the publicity of his ministry, and appeals to all and sundry who have heard him. John 18:19

Vincent's Word Studies

Asked (ἠρώτησεν)

Or, questioned.

Doctrine (διδαχῆς)

Rev., better, teaching.