John 19:31
It was the day of Preparation, and the next day was a High Sabbath. In order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed.
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.
Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
The Jews therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Related passages
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, grouped by the word they explain.
- because
- John 19:14, 42; Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42
- that the
- Deuteronomy 21:22, 23
- that sabbath
- Leviticus 23:7–16
- their
- Lactantius says that it was a custom to break the legs of criminals upon the cross; which was done, we are told, at the instep with an iron mallet; and appears to have been a kind of coup de grace, the sooner to put them out of pain.
- John 19:1; Proverbs 12:10; Micah 3:3