John recorded two incidents that happened following Jesus' death and before His resurrection. They both deal with the treatment that His dead body received.
This pericope is unique to the fourth Gospel.
19:31 The "day of preparation"was Friday, the day before the Sabbath (Saturday, cf. v. 14; Mark 15:42). The Jews considered sundown the beginning of a new day. In this case the new day was a Sabbath. This Sabbath was an extra special day because it fell during Passover week. The Jews wanted to get the bodies down off their crosses so they would not defile the land. The Mosaic Law instructed the Jews to allow no one to remain hanging on a gibbet overnight because this would defile the land. Such a person was under God's curse (cf. Deut. 21:22-23; Josh. 8:29). To allow someone to remain overnight on a Sabbath would be specially offensive.
Normally the Romans left victims of crucifixion hanging until they died, which sometimes took several days. Then they would leave their corpses on their crosses until the birds had picked the flesh off them. If they had to hasten their deaths for some reason, they would smash their legs with an iron mallet. This prevented the victims from using their legs to push themselves up to keep their chest cavities open allowing them to breathe. Death by asphyxiation, loss of blood, and shock would follow soon.600Archaeologists have found the remains of a victim of crucifixion with his legs smashed in Israel.601
19:32-33 The Roman soldiers therefore broke the legs of the two terrorists whom they had crucified with Jesus because they were still alive. They did not break Jesus' legs since He was already dead.
19:34 What led the soldier to pierce Jesus' side with his spear (Gr. longche) is unclear and unimportant. Perhaps it was just another senseless act of brutality, or he may have wanted to see if he could get some reaction from Jesus.
It is also unclear why the wound produced a sudden flow of blood and water (cf. 1 John 5:6). Probably the spear pierced Jesus' heart and its surrounding pericardial sac that contains water. The fluids could have drained out as John described if the spear had entered the body near the bottom of the chest cavity.602Apparently the soldier pierced Jesus' side before His blood congealed into a solid. This eyewitness testimony stresses the fact that Jesus really did die and that He was a genuine man (cf. 1:14).
By the end of the first century when John wrote this Gospel, docetism and gnosticism were on the rise. Both of these heresies denied that Jesus was a real man. Docetists claimed that Jesus only seemed (Gr. dokeo, "to seem,"therefore the name "docetist") to be fully human. Muslims take a similar view of Jesus.603
Some interpreters have suspected that John was alluding to the Lord's Supper and baptism when he mentioned this blood and water.604However, there are no clues in the text that this was John's intention. Others have seen the blood and water as symbolic of the life and cleansing that metaphorically flow from Jesus' death.605Again it would be hard to prove or disprove that this was in John's mind from what he wrote. Several hymn writers have, however, developed this symbolism.606Other non-literal interpretations see the water as an allusion to Exodus 17:6.607Still others view it as referring to the Holy Spirit. However these are at best interpretations that rest on similarities.
19:35 Lest the reader miss the point of verse 34, John explained that he had personally witnessed what he narrated and that he was not lying. Furthermore the purpose of his reliable eyewitness testimony was that his readers might believe what he wrote and what it meant, namely that Jesus was God's Son (cf. 20:30-31; 21:24).
Some commentators suggested that the eyewitness was someone different from John. Suggestions range from the soldier who pierced Jesus' side, to an unknown eyewitness whom John did not identify, to an unknown editor, to Jesus, and to God the Father. However the most reasonable solution is to identify John himself as the eyewitness in view of the context and the parallel statements that follow (20:30-31; 21:24; cf. 1:14; 12:23).
19:36-37 "These things"refer to the facts that the soldiers did not break Jesus' bones but did pierce His side. Here were two more fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy.
In verse 36, John could have had any of three passages in mind: Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; and or Psalm 34:20. The first two specify that the Israelites were not to break the bones of their Passover lambs. Elsewhere Paul and Peter described Jesus as the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:19), and this figure is prominent in John's Gospel as well (cf. 1:36; et al.). Psalm 34:20 describes the righteous man by saying that God would not allow anyone to break his bones (cf. Luke 23:47). The first passage seems best since its fulfillment was more literal, though admittedly it involves the Passover typology.
This quotation has spawned the theory that Jesus died at the same time the Jews were slaying their Passover lambs. This view seems untenable since all the evangelists presented the Last Supper as a Passover meal. There have been several attempts to harmonize these views and to explain how there could have been two Passovers on successive days.608None of these explanations is convincing to me. It seems better to view the Passover meal as happening on Thursday evening, Thursday being the 14th of Nisan, which was the normal day for the Passover. Even though Jesus' death fulfilled the Passover typology it apparently did not coincide exactly with the Jews' sacrifice of their lambs for their Passover meals. That happened the afternoon before Jesus died.
In verse 37, the prophecy in view is clearly the one in Zechariah 12:10 (cf. Rev. 1:7). Jesus quoted this verse in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:30). There He stressed a different part of it. The piercing of God's coming Shepherd happened when Jesus died on the cross (cf. 10:11). The Gentile nations will look on Him whom they have pierced when He returns at His second coming (cf. Rev. 1:7). Both Jews and Gentiles were responsible for Jesus' death.
19:38 All four evangelists mentioned Joseph of Arimathea but only with Jesus' burial. The Synoptics tell us that he was a godfearing rich member of the Sanhedrin who was a follower of Jesus and who had not voted to condemn Jesus. Only John identified him as a secret disciple who feared the Jews, namely the unbelieving Jewish leaders. Jesus had warned His disciples about trying to hide their allegiance to Him (12:42-43). Finally Joseph "broke his cover"by courageously requesting Jesus' body from Pilate.
Normally the Romans placed the bodies of crucified offenders, whose bodies they did not leave to rot on their crosses, in a cemetery for criminals outside the city.609Family members could not claim the bodies of people who had undergone crucifixion as punishment for sedition.610Thus Jesus' corpse would have ended up in the grave of a common criminal but for Joseph's intervention. Pilate probably granted his request for Jesus' body because he realized that Joseph wanted to give Jesus' an honorable burial. That would have humiliated the Jews further.
Joseph's courageous act doubtless alienated him from many of his fellow Sanhedrin members. We do not know what the ultimate consequences of his action were for himself. Evidently it was Jesus' death that made him face up to his responsibility to take his stand for Jesus.
19:39 Only John mentioned that Nicodemus also played a part in burying Jesus (cf. 3:1-15). He was also probably a member of the Sanhedrin (cf. 3:1). He, too, was now taking a more visible position as a disciple of Jesus (cf. 7:50-52). Nicodemus brought about 65 pounds (100 litrai, cf. 12:3) of spices with which to prepare Jesus' body for burial. This was a large quantity and reflected Nicodemus' great respect for Jesus. Evidently these two wealthy rulers decided to honor Jesus together. They divided their responsibilities, with Joseph securing Pilate's permission and Nicodemus preparing the spices.
Myrrh was a fragrant resin that the Jews turned into powder and mixed with aloes, which was powdered sandalwood.611The purpose of covering a corpse with this aromatic powder was to dry it out and to lessen the foul odor that putrefaction caused.
19:40 The burial custom of the Jews was to place the corpse on a long sheet with the feet at one end. They would then fold the cloth over the head and back down to the feet, which they would tie together. They would also tie the arms to the body with strips of cloth.612Normally a separate cloth covered the face.613John's interest was not in the manner of the burial as much as the honor that Joseph and Nicodemus bestowed on Jesus by burying Him in linen cloth (Gr. othonia). Their work had to be hasty because sunset was approaching quickly and all work had to cease when the Sabbath (Saturday) began.
The NIV translation of othoniaas "strips of cloth"has seemingly contradicted the view that Joseph and Nicodemus buried Jesus in a single piece of cloth, which the Synoptics suggest (Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53). However this Greek word does not necessarily mean narrow strips of cloth. It can describe one or more large pieces of cloth.614The burial customs of the Jews are still obscure enough that it is unwise to insist dogmatically that Jesus had only one shroud covering Him.615
19:41 John is the only evangelist who recorded that there was a garden and an unused new tomb near the place of Jesus' crucifixion. The tomb was probably an artificial cave in the limestone, many examples of which are observable in Palestine. Matthew noted that the garden and its tomb belonged to Joseph (Matt. 27:60). John's mention of the garden prepares for his reference later to a gardener (20:15). His reference to the tomb being new and unused prepares for the Resurrection in which no other corpse was in the tomb (20:8, 12).
"The fall of the first Adam took place in a garden; and it was in a garden that the second Adam redeemed mankind from the consequences of Adam's transgression."616
The site was probably not the "garden tomb"near Gordon's Calvary since Jesus' tomb would have been closer to the crucifixion site that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now covers. Jesus' tomb could have been quite similar in appearance to this "garden tomb,"however.
19:42 John implied that the burial of Jesus was hasty. Mark and Luke presented the same picture by writing that three of the women came to anoint Jesus' corpse, on Sunday morning, with additional spices that they had prepared (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56). Joseph and Nicodemus' work had necessarily been swift because the day of preparation before the Sabbath (i.e., Friday) was about to end with sundown.
John did not mention the fact that some of the women visited Jesus' tomb late Friday afternoon (cf. Matt. 27:61-66; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55-56). He also omitted that Joseph rolled a stone over the mouth of the tomb (Matt. 27:60; Mark 15:46). What follows in chapter 20 assumes these facts. John did not mention either that Pilate sealed the tomb and posted soldiers to guard it (Matt. 27:62-66).
