JOHN 19:31 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken so that their bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that sabbath was a great day — The request to break legs (skelokopia, hastening death by preventing use of legs as support) seeks to fulfill Deuteronomy 21:23's prohibition against leaving bodies exposed overnight. The irony: in seeking to honor the Sabbath's sanctity through rapid burial, the leaders unwittingly ensure Jesus is not buried before Sabbath begins, forcing his lying in the tomb on the holy day—foreshadowing the resurrection.
Church Fathers on John 19:31
The Jews who strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel after their audacious wickedness, reason scrupulously about the day: The Jews therefore because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath.
the sixth day was so called because the children of Israel prepared twice the number of loaves on that day. For that Sabbath day was an high day, i. e. on account of the feast of the passover.
Not in order to take away the legs, but to cause death, that they might be taken down from the cross, and the feast day not be defiled by the sight of such horrid torments.
Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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