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The Significance of Golgotha
In John 19 we’re told that Pilate delivered Jesus over to the chief priests who led him out of the city to the place of crucifixion. If the chief priests were basically in charge at this point, where might they have taken Jesus? The book of Hebrews gives us a hint when it says that Jesus suffered “outside the camp” (13:12), which turns out to be a specific location mentioned in the Old Testament as well as in a variety of second Temple sources. On this episode the hosts will discuss the meaning and significance of Golgotha in our continuing series through the Gospel of John.
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. (John 19:1-16)
Show Quote:
Shane Rosenthal:What do you think is John’s purpose in emphasizing this point, that it was the chief priests who led Jesus to his death?
Adriel Sanchez:You think back to the very beginning of the Gospel of John were John the Baptist sees the Lord and he says in John chapter 1 verse 29, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That’s who Jesus is. And who sacrifices him? Well, in one sense here, it’s the chief priests. They’re the ones who are delivering him over to death. And so I think that could be part of what John is trying to get here.
Term to Learn:
“Redemptive History”
This concept can be defined by the German word Heilsgeschichte, literally meaning “salvation-history.” The term was coined in the eighteenth century and used in the nineteenth century by certain theologians who rejected Schleiermacher’s attempt to rest theology upon religious feeling and emphasized the primacy of the biblical historical revelation. One way that this term is used today is to insist that the total history of revelation and salvation is connected with real events in actual history, of which Christ is both the center and the culmination. From all the variety of the New Testament elements there emerges one picture of the Christ-event from preexistence to parousia. This view does not make the Christian religion dependent upon the vicissitudes of historical research; it is faith in Christ which makes sense of the witness of the biblical records, and faith is essential to the right understanding of their historical content. The stress is upon the acts of God in history.
(Adapted from A Dictionary of Christian Theology, s.v. “Heilsgeschichte.”)
(This podcast is by White Horse Inn. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)