JOHN 19:33 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:”
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs — The soldiers' discovery that Jesus is already dead (hoti ēdē tethnēken) spares him the leg-breaking. This is historically plausible: death on the cross could come more quickly through various factors (shock, exhaustion, possible asphyxiation). Yet John presents this as providential: no bones are broken, fulfilling Psalm 34:20 (and Exodus 12:46, no bone of the Passover lamb broken).
Church Fathers on John 19:33
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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