JOHN 18:38 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”
Pilate asked him, 'What is truth?' After he said this, he went out to the Jews again and said, 'I find no case against him.' — Pilate's famous question—"What is truth?" (ti estin alētheia)—appears without answer in John's narrative. The irony: truth himself stands before Pilate (14:6), yet the prefect asks abstractly as if truth were mere epistemology rather than person. Pilate's finding "no case" (ouk heuriskō en autō aitian) represents his legal judgment: the political charge cannot be substantiated. Yet Pilate will crucify the innocent.
Church Fathers on John 18:38
Pilate, wishing to rescue Him from the hatred of the c Jews, protracted the trial a long time. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall, and called Jesus.
i.e. Apart, because he had a strong suspicion that He was innocent, and thought he could examine Him more accurately, away from the crowd: and said to Him, Are you the King of the Jews?
Wherein Pilate shows that the Jews had charged Him with calling Himself King of the Jews.
Read all 30 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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