SEV Biblia, Chapter 18:31
Les dice entonces Pilato: Tomadle vosotros, y juzgadle segn vuestra ley. Y los judíos le dijeron: A nosotros no nos es lícito matar a nadie;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - John 18:31
Verse 31. It is not lawful for us to put any man to death] They might have judged Jesus according to their law, as Pilate bade them do; but they could only excommunicate or scourge him. They might have voted him worthy of death; but they could not put him to death, if any thing of a secular nature were charged against him. The power of life and death was in all probability taken from the Jews when Archelaus, king of Judea, was banished to Vienna, and Judea was made a Roman province; and this happened more than fifty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. But the Romans suffered Herod, mentioned Acts xii. 1, &c., to exercise the power of life and death during his reign. See much on this point in Calmet and Pearce. After all, I think it probable that, though the power of life and death was taken away from the Jews, as far as it concerned affairs of state, yet it was continued to them in matters which were wholly of an ecclesiastical nature; and that they only applied thus to Pilate to persuade him that they were proceeding against Christ as an enemy of the state, and not as a transgressor of their own peculiar laws and customs. Hence, though they assert that he should die according to their law, because he made himself the Son of God, chap. xix. 7, yet they lay peculiar stress on his being an enemy to the Roman government; and, when they found Pilate disposed to let him go, they asserted that if he did he was not Caesar's friend, ver. 12. It was this that intimidated Pilate, and induced him to give him up, that they might crucify him. How they came to lose this power is accounted for in a different manner by Dr. Lightfoot. His observations are very curious, and are subjoined to the end of this chapter.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 31. Then said Pilate unto them , etc.] Either ironically, knowing that they did not, or it was not in their power, to judge in capital causes; or seriously, and with some indignation, abhorring such a method of procedure they would have had him gone into, to condemn a man without knowing his crime, and having evidence of it: take ye him, and judge him according to your law ; this he said, as choosing to understand them in no other sense, than that he had broken some peculiar law of theirs, though they had otherwise suggested; and as giving them liberty to take him away to one of their courts, and proceed against him as their law directed, and inflict some lesser punishment on him than death, such as scourging, etc. which they still had a power to do, and did make use of: the Jews therefore said unto him, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death ; thereby insinuating, that he was guilty of a crime, which deserved death, and which they could not inflict; not that they were of such tender consciences, that they could not put him to death, or that they had no law to punish him with death, provided he was guilty; but because judgments in capital cases had ceased among them; nor did they try causes relating to life and death, the date of which they often make to be forty years before the destruction of the temple f687 ; and which was much about, or a little before the time these words were spoken: not that this power was taken away wholly from them by the Romans; though since their subjection to the empire, they had not that full and free exercise of it as before; but through the great increase of iniquity, particularly murder, which caused such frequent executions, that they were weary of them f688 ; and through the negligence and indolence of the Jewish sanhedrim, and their removal from the room Gazith, where they only judged capital causes f689 : as for the stoning of Stephen, and the putting of some to death against whom Saul gave his voice, these were the outrages of the zealots, and were not according to a formal process in any court of judicature. Two executions are mentioned in their Talmud; the one is of a priests daughter that was burnt for a harlot f690 , and the other of the stoning of Ben Stada in Lydda f691 ; the one, according to them, seems to be before, the other after the destruction of the temple; but these dates are not certain, nor to be depended upon: for since the destruction of their city and temple, and their being carried captive into other lands, it is certain that the power of life and death has been wholly taken from them; by which it appears, that the sceptre is removed from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet; and this they own almost in the same words as here expressed; for they say f692 of a certain man worthy of death, why dost thou scourge him? he replies, because he lay with a beast; they say to him, hast thou any witnesses? he answers, yes; Elijah came in the form of a man, and witnessed; they say, if it be so, he deserves to die; to which he answers, from the day we have been carried captive out of our land, ljqml atwr l tyl , we have no power to put to death. But at this time, their power was not entirely gone; but the true reason of their saying these words is, that they might wholly give up Christ to the Roman power, and throw off the reproach of his death from themselves; and particularly they were desirous he should die the reproachful and painful death of the cross, which was a Roman punishment: had they took him and judged him according to their law, which must have been as a false prophet, or for blasphemy or idolatry, the death they must have condemned him to, would have been stoning; but it was crucifixion they were set upon; and therefore deliver him up as a traitor, and a seditious person, in order thereunto.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 28-32 - It was unjust to put one to death who had done so much good, therefor the Jews were willing to save themselves from reproach. Many fear the scandal of an ill thing, more than the sin of it. Christ had said he should be delivered to the Gentiles, and they should put him to death hereby that saying was fulfilled. He had said that he should be crucified, lifted up. If the Jews had judged him by their law, he ha been stoned; crucifying never was used among the Jews. It is determine concerning us, though not discovered to us, what death we shall die this should free us from disquiet about that matter. Lord, what, when and how, thou hast appointed.
Greek Textus Receptus
ειπεν 2036 5627 V-2AAI-3S ουν 3767 CONJ αυτοις 846 P-DPM ο 3588 T-NSM πιλατος 4091 N-NSM λαβετε 2983 5628 V-2AAM-2P αυτον 846 P-ASM υμεις 5210 P-2NP και 2532 CONJ κατα 2596 PREP τον 3588 T-ASM νομον 3551 N-ASM υμων 5216 P-2GP κρινατε 2919 5657 V-AAM-2P αυτον 846 P-ASM ειπον 2036 5627 V-2AAI-3P ουν 3767 CONJ αυτω 846 P-DSM οι 3588 T-NPM ιουδαιοι 2453 A-NPM ημιν 2254 P-1DP ουκ 3756 PRT-N εξεστιν 1832 5904 V-PQI-3S αποκτειναι 615 5658 V-AAN ουδενα 3762 A-ASM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
31. Take ye him (labete auton umeiv). The A.V. obscures the emphatic force of uJmeiv, you. Pilate's words display great practical shrewdness in forcing the Jews to commit themselves to the admission that they desired Christ's death. "Take him yourselves (so Rev.), and judge him according to your law." "By our law," reply the Jews, "he ought to die." But this penalty they could not inflict. "It is not lawful," etc.
