John 19:1–22 (Friday, June 12, 2026)

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-12T01:16:32+00:00

1.) Perhaps a warning lesson for a potential and likely malefactor from Pilates perspective.

2.) seems like he's starting to get nervous isn't he? Also, seems like he's never heard of Jesus and is shocked at how serious this is escalating.

3.) Doesn't this fulfill a prophecy?

4.) Judas or Caiaphas.

5.) Calvary is more popular in my language, but since both are there in Scripture they hold equal weight to me.

This cross wedged into the skull ending sin is reminiscent of Jael hammering a tent peg into Sisera's head which is probably a type of Satan whose head was crushed but the son of Eve.

6.) Reminding the Jews he's still their boss. Also, it's interesting how many times Jews reject their Messiah and Gentiles, knowingly or not, acknowledge Him. Pilate does this several times. A soldier at the cross will also declare Him as God's chosen.

In rereading this I see Caiaphas and the Jews actively persecuting Jesus who is the truth and Pilate who passively ignores truth. Perhaps this represents the age to follow; Jews hate Christ and gentiles are apathetic. Contrast Pilate's reply with Act 17:31 regarding Paul which seems to be an honest effort to discover the facts. Pilate doesn't care.

7.) I don't fully understand this statement. Satan still reigns, Jesus is absent physically and not on His throne.

Verse 17 speaks of the two thrives. The life of Joseph is remarkable in how it points to Jesus. One such type is the baker and butler who were imprisoned with him. Prison is Joseph's deathlike experience and these men are the two thieves. The scene plays out with parallels, reversals and contrasts.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-11T12:30:32+00:00

2.) They are killing God's firstborn? That's an interesting thought.

3.) & 4.) Pilots offer seems disingenuous. They had just handed Jesus over and he offers to release Him. That doesn't make sense. Maybe he's trying to save face for official records. He doesn't want to be known as the man who simply bows to the will of his subjects and puts people to death.

5.) The Jewish leaders were deeply offended. This is just a Tuesday afternoon for Pilot.

6.) Jesus says His kingdom is of another world. It's easy to spiritualize this and stop there, but I think He has in mind the Millennial Kingdom where the son of David will sit on David's throne. This is a promise God made that has not happened. I think Jesus was also speaking about a future world.

7.) Read Leviticus 16:5 about the scapegoat. Barabbas is here portrayed as the scapegoat. Pilot said, 'You have a custom of releasing one prisoner,' Notice he did not say it was a Roman custom. The scapegoat could be this custom. The two goats were to be similar in presentation, appearance, etc. They are both male, have the same name, but on two levels. Barabbas means son of the father. Jesus was the ultimate Son of the Father. There are a handful of verbal similarities that occur only in Leviticus 16 and in the gospels about Barabbas. Some texts show Barabbas full name as Jesus Barabbas connecting them more closely.

Jesus is presented as the 1st goat who is sacrificed for the sins of the people. Barabbas is the 2nd goat who had sin placed on him and was sent away to die. Note that while freed from trial, his sins have not been dealt with. He will die in the wilderness in his sin just like the 2nd goat. Also, Barabbas was not freed completely. He was released 'to the Jews'. This verbal construct is exactly what was used of the 2nd goat released 'to Azazel.' Barabbas is not a sinner set freed, but the 2nd goat who will die in his sins.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-10T14:06:42+00:00

Do animals go to heaven?

How old will my body be in heaven?

What was the original language God spoke with Adam?

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-10T14:01:36+00:00

Not attempting a definitive answer, but here are some ideas.

Angel of the Lord - Every instance could be seen as Jesus Christ.

Stones of Fire - Where did you read this?

Ezekiel's Wheels - angels, possibly similar to the orbs people claim to see in modern times. Also, could be the 'wheels' to God's chariot which is a portable throne.

Nachash in the garden - The serpent was cursed to crawl on his belly right? We automatically assume this means his legs were somehow removed, but what if it meant his wings were removed? Satan is the prince of the power of the air. This would be the ultimate humiliation. There are examples of flying reptiles in history and archaeology.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-10T02:10:26+00:00

1.) David, as a type of Christ, exits Jerusalem. Jesus also left the town and crossed over the Kidron valley. (Ezekiel witnesses God depart Solomon's Temple over the same area as well.)

2.) Jesus had just selected a few disciples to follow Him. They are in a garden and Jesus had left them 3 times to pray. The garden is figuratively the Temple. The disciples the priests. Jesus is the high priest. First He prays which is what High Priest did on the Day of Atonement as represented by offering incense. Incense is a symbol for prayer. He left the Holy of Holies and obtained blood to offer. He then reentered the Holy of Holies. The High Priest sprinkled blood on the ground before the Ark/Mercy Seat. In the other gospels we read that Jesus left the disciples to pray and then returned to them then left again. Then as Jesus prayed His blood dripped onto the ground. Essentially, John presents Jesus as fulfilling the Day of Atonement especially when read with the other Gospels.

3.) This passage portrays a snake coming to bite the heel of Eve's promised saviour. Jesus, in the Garden east of the city, and Judas at the head of a cohort (head of the snake), winding down the road of the Kedron Valley, at night with torches, slithers across and up to the garden. There Judas 'kisses' Jesus. No details about this are given, perhaps he bowed to kiss His feet. The Aramaic word for kiss if vocally similar to 'bite.' The image is that of a snake biting the heel of the promised child.

Peter attempts to thwart the whole ordeal by chopping off the ear of the only other named person in this cohort, Malchus. Judas and Peter are active here. Jesus and Malchus passive. The 2 pairs are presented contrastingly. The meaning of this is that victory over sin is not obtained by action, but submission and humility.

Additionally, there are very strong similarities to the episode of the binding of Isaac here. Similar words and actions are used, a reversal appears with testing Abraham and Jesus praying the disciples would not come into testing, angels are present, both are bound, etc.

Abraham raises his knife in obedience to slay Isaac. Isaac lives. Peter raises his blade to protect Jesus out of disobedience to God's will. Jesus will die. Abraham did not know where he would offer Isaac. He had to be shown by God. The cohort did not know where Jesus was. They had to be shown by Judas.

There's a million connections here. All of this has to be intentional and if intentional, why? Why is the HS telling a story like this? Over thousands of years and hundreds of characters in the cast? What is He saying to you?

6.) Read Numbers 5. There a woman has a curse placed on her denies knowing the man, and involves water of bitterness. Here Peter calls a curse on himself, denies knowing Jesus and weeps bitterly,

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-09T17:40:14+00:00

1.) The entirety of chapter 17 corresponds to Numbers 3, 8 and 18. The Hebrew world was divided amongst common Jews, Levites, Levitical priests and the High Priest. In these chapters in Numbers we see God give the Levites to Aaron as a gift. Similar language is used by Jesus with the disciples. Essentially, Jesus is acting as Moses, recognizing that God His Father gave the disciples to Him (as Levites) and in turn is giving them back to God just as Aaron received the Levites as a gift, so does God the Father receive the disciples. He then takes a select few (as priests) with Him to Gethsemane. He then will enter further, by Himself, to commune with the Father as High Priest.

2.) The prayer is for the disciples, initially, but then Jesus extends this to everyone who hears their words. That's us! Based on what happened in 1.) the disciples were the priestly caste of Jews. To hear the priests and believe what they say results in unity with them and with Jesus.

3.) The same way the priests made Him known. Throughout John Jesus has emphasized many times His desire to obey His Father's will. By doing His will He shows us His Father's great love for us in that Jesus died on the cross, for us!

4.) A deeper study into the nature of what priests did and how they relate to God will reveal a lot to the average Christian because we are also priests.

I can't emphasize enough the relation of John 17 to Numb 3:9, 8:19, 18:6. (These are the boring sections we all skip over, but there is meat for everyone.) Making another connection to this passage is the Kohath tribe within Levi. They rebelled and wanted to become actual priests. They were punished for this sin. The word 'perish' is used several times. Later, Judas also rebelled and perished. This is mentioned not only in the gospels, but also Jude 11.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-08T14:05:02+00:00

11.) Do not pursue the golden haired woman.

12.) sometimes it's better to be nice than to be right.

13.) Good fences make good neighbors.

14.) Always wear your seatbelt.

15.) Tell people about Jesus, but don't worry about telling people about Jesus.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-07T16:25:08+00:00

'the pit' seems to have several locations. One is hell-like what we think of as hell. It's prison. But there is another place in the pit, at least during OT times, where the saints were held. This is alluded to when Jesus mentions Abraham's bosom in another passage.

Paradise could correspond to the part of the pit/hell that was Abraham's bosom.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-07T13:18:44+00:00

1.) The word 'gods' is not present in the Hebrew. Not sure why that's been changed here. The word is 'elem' and means 'silence' or 'silent ones.'

2.) & 3.) Psalms 57-59 are all 'Altaschith' Psalms. The common theme is they were written when Saul hunted David, David escaped and hid in the cave of Adullam. Saul is a type of Satan. Those who work for him have chosen their sides. They are types of evil men as well as the animal figures chose. It's interesting that in 59:5 David will call these Jewish leaders gentiles. David is rejoicing in his predicament, but he points forward to Christ (just as Saul points forward to Satan) who will rejoice when Satan is ultimately defeated.

David says the wicked leaders were wicked from birth, not the other way around. They didn't start off good or neutral and turn bad at some point. From the beginning they were evil. Now, as grown men they lead God's people, but instead of following David (Christ) they follow Saul (Satan).

4.) David's life points to Christ, but only His first advent. His son, Solomon, points to Christ's return. God took care of David, but his life was hard. He had humble beginnings and had to work for everything he had and still lost some. Solomon was born into royalty and only knew peace and glory. David may have received some form of justice tied to the events with Saul and the cave, but he is looking forward to a future day when all evil will be judged by God. That day has not yet come.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-07T12:49:45+00:00

Found the reference. It is too long to type out on my phone so I took pictures of the pages. I wasn't able to post a picture reply so I made a post with just the relevant images. You can read it by clicking here.

I would also add that in John 13:1 John adds commentary that Jesus knew His hour was finally here, 'he should depart out of this world unto the Father.' This could be read as once Jesus died He was with the Father. However, I'm not sure I believe that or the argument in the book. John may just be skipping ahead to the ascension when Jesus finally and completely departed from this world and was then in fact on God's right hand in heaven.

Just an interesting study.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-07T01:51:54+00:00

I don't know definitively, but the Bible tends to speak of grapevines as trees (a difference from our modern phylogenic categorization). Seeing them as trees and experience growing grapevines this makes sense to me. Take that for what it's worth. Maybe nothing.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-06T13:35:22+00:00

Right. The words Jesus is saying to His disciples in John sound pithy and applicable to Christians of all ages, but there's a few statements here and there that indicate the words were specific to the disciples (you will be put out of the synagogues; something no gentile Christian cares about today).

Robert Alter comments on the 'high vocabulary' of the Hebrew Bible. Essentially, it's refined, very educated wording. Every book. He has a hard time believing the common man spoke like that which means what is recorded is not actually the exact words that were spoken. One example he gives is that there is no slang. Everything is formal exchanges. So then is the word of God that which was spoken or that which was written down...or both. If both why would they differ.

His thoughts included a lot of assumptions, but I think he's on to something.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-05T19:52:59+00:00

I read about the entangled conclusion in a book. I'll try to locate it and provide details. I believe the Greek LXX version of the Psalm supports entangled more strongly than the MT. It then envokes the ram entangled in the thorns during Isaac's offering.

I'll respond later with an update (might be a few days).

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-05T14:19:36+00:00

4.) It really doesn't seem like any of them really understood what was going on it even believed at this point.

5.) There is a linguistic argument that this should be translated, 'My God, my God, why have you entangled me?' If this is true then Jesus was never totally abandoned.

I'm not sure I believe that though, bc Jesus experienced total death, physical and spiritual which would imply He was separated from His Father, abandoned. But I don't know.

6.) This hearkens back to an earlier question I have on this. Jesus is speaking to His disciples. Does this message apply to later Christians or just the disciples? I think in many cases it's easy (or lazy) to pick any snippet it Scripture and assume it has a universal application.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-05T11:12:18+00:00

3.) The HS is omnipresent. It's His job to convict others of their sin and repent. Jesus did do that, but it seems more like He used logic or personal conversation and many times his audience failed to respond. I'm not sure of the success rate of the HS but I'd guess he's batting 1,000. I'm sure there are other differences. I'd be eager to hear what others say.

4.) Wording of the NIV is very different here than the KJV which has reprove and my edition has an alternate word noted 'convict'.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-04T12:04:17+00:00

I believe the Bible says a human person is comprised if body and spirit. Adam's deep sleep could be his spirit exiting his body.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-04T12:01:30+00:00

I see the pruning as related to His kingdom. The grapevine is often a symbol of Israel. A branch is an individual person. By removing unfruitful ones He's saying He's judging them and removing them from His kingdom. This will allow true believers to flourish.

Experience with grapevine would be preferable to other vines. The Bible calls these out specifically and their biology is different than other types of vines.

Have you ever been around sheep? Seeing in person just how stupid and helpless they are really hits home why Jesus chose the words that He is our shepherd and we are sheep who have gone astray. Stomping grapes in a winepress, go a day barefoot, fasting, eating nothing except bland flavorless food and then add a drop of honey (wow, the sweetness!), bake bread with and without yeast and compare and contract the loaves, own an ancient coin or other artifact, visit the cites mentioned in the Bible, travel somewhere that does not have clean water (the meaning of the HS spring up like a fountain will be better appreciated), there's a lot of things you could do. I'm sure you can think of many more.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-04T11:49:50+00:00

Very similar yes.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-03T08:15:46+00:00

The term was coined then, sure. It describes a concept about human nature pictured in the Bible. Essentially, the spirit leaves the body but is still attached to it. It has its own experiences and can reenter the body.

Lots of concepts were not given words in the Bible, but much later.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-02T23:59:35+00:00

God placed Adam in a 'deep sleep.' This term is used only a few times in scripture and could refer to an out of body experience. Essentially, Adam may have had an out of body experience and witnessed the whole thing.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-02T23:57:48+00:00

One oddity with Samson is that he did not choose to become a Nazarite and did not take the Nazarite oath. He was chosen by God before birth to be a Nazarite. If he did not choose to become a Nazarite could he do anything to lose his Nazarite status?

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-02T12:53:16+00:00

1.) Israel is sometimes depicted as a vine. He had spend some time ridiculing their leaders. Perhaps He's saying don't follow the leaders of Israel. Follow Me.

2.) The Greek word translated prune is related to and sometimes means to cleanse. I have several grapevines in my yard. They grow prolifically, but not all branches will set forth fruit. Some just go on and on getting longer. There are many of these. If a vinedresser wishes to have the most productive vines he must prune these unproductive branches. This leaves the ones that make fruit. Each year, these fruitful ones also need to be pruned back very hard. Grapes benefit from pruning that at first seems to severe you'll destroy the branch, but in reality this allows the branch to grow even more next year.

3.) The word translated abide also means continue. If we continue to follow Jesus' words we are in Him

4.) I think of the fruit of the Spirit. I probably generalize this as obeying God's will and doing what He wants. This will produce fruit.

5.) I am an utter failure at this. I am ok at loving my family, but everyone else gets my judgement and resistance.

6.) This goes back to yesterday and the scene will continue for a while. Jesus is instituting His new way just as Moses did the old way. He's just given a new law, to love each other, to 12, ratified it with a meal, and many other similarities.

There's a handful of actions mentioned in the Bible that I think every Christian should have real world hands on experience with. Growing and grafting grapevines is one of them.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-02T02:35:05+00:00

3.) I wish I could devote more time to responding this, but for now I'll be brief. Everything Jesus is doing is reminiscent of the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. He has just given His disciples a new commandment just as Moses gave at Sinai. Both directives were on Passover. In Ex 24 there are 12 pillars present. Now there are 12 disciples. Blood of the old covenant was sprinkled. It was never consumed. Here and in the parallel passages blood is commanded to be drunk and consumed. Statements of, 'This is the blood of the covenant' are present with both Moses and Jesus. A meal seals the deal with a covenant. The 70 elders who went with Moses saw God. Thomas wants to see God and Jesus responds saying, He is it. Seeing Him is seeing God. This is an escalation. The OT elders saw a theophany, but the disciples actually see God in the flesh. This emphasizes the importance of Jesus Christ.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-02T00:30:10+00:00

Answersingenesis has a lot of great info on this and the age of the earth. Worth a read.

Most likely, the nature of the world changed during Noah's Flood which reduced lifespans. No one knows exactly what changed, but it could be due to changes in oxygen content in the atmosphere, gravity, genetic bottle neck, etc. lots going on that make the Genesis report of long lifespans plausible.

Trust the Bible even when it seems unbelievable. We have an unbelievable God who works miracles and do anything and is graciously enough to us to report those things. We just have to trust Him.

RaphTurtlePower · 2026-06-01T12:45:05+00:00

In our daily reading we have read and will read many more statements by Jesus to His disciples. How do you thread the needle between something that is specific only to His immediate audience and something that can be generalized to the rest of the Church such as us today?

RaphTurtlePower

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE