John 19 with Metaphysical Footnotes (ASV)

^19:1Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. ^19:2And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple garment; ^19:3and they came unto him, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they struck him with their hands. ^19:4And Pilate went out again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him out to you, that ye may know that I find no crime in him. ^19:5Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold, the man! ^19:6When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Take him yourselves, and crucify him:1 for I find no crime in him. ^19:7The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

^19:8When Pilate therefore heard this saying, he was the more afraid; ^19:9and he entered into the Praetorium again, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou?2 But Jesus gave him no answer. ^19:10Pilate therefore saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee? ^19:11Jesus answered him, Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above:3 therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath greater sin. ^19:12Upon this Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend: every one that maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

^19:13When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment-seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. ^19:14Now it was the Preparation of the passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold, your King! ^19:15They therefore cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. ^19:16Then therefore he delivered him unto them to be crucified.

1. Take him yourselves, and crucify him. the contest for supremacy between the intellectual forces, represented by Pilate, and the pseudospiritual, represented by the Jews, is portrayed in John 19. Both contenders realize that it is a momentous occasion, and they seek to shift the responsibility for the destruction of the coming King Jesus and His rule.
2. Whence art thou? The personal will (Pilate) is nonplused and fearful, when its efforts to exercise domination over the I AM (Jesus) are unavailing. Lacking spiritual understanding, the personal will does not understand the nature of its challenge to its domination that is made by Truth
3. Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above. The authority of the personal will, while absolute in degree, does not extend to the world of Spirit, in which the I AM dwells. God is the source of all power, and the attempts of the personal will to vanquish the I AM at the behest of the religious thoughts (Jews) represent a misuse of divine power.

^19:17They took Jesus therefore: and he went out, bearing the cross for himself, unto the place called The place of a skull,1 which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha: ^19:18where they crucified him,2 and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. ^19:19And Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. And there was written, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ^19:20This title therefore read many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city; and it was written in Hebrew, and in Latin, and in Greek.3 ^19:21The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. ^19:22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. ^19:23The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments4 and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat: now the coat was without seam,5 woven from the top throughout. ^19:24They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith,

They parted my garments among them,

And upon my vesture did they cast lots.

^19:25These things therefore the soldiers did.

But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ^19:26When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! ^19:27Then saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home.

^19:28After this Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst. ^19:29There was set there a vessel full of vinegar: so they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to his mouth. ^19:30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.6

1. place of a skull. The Crucifixion took place at Golgotha, "The place of a skull" (the front brain, the seat of the will and conscious understanding, the throne of the mind, where all ideas are tested and either enthroned or cast out). In the crucifixion of Jesus both Pilate and the Jews (both the intellect and the ruling spiritual ideas) unite in casting out the claim that man is the Son of God.
2. they crucified him. The crucifixion symbolizes the final and full erasure of personality from consciousness. When man is willing to surrender himself to the Christ Mind, he begins the crucifixion. Every time that he gives up a false belief in the name of Christ it is destroyed in his consciousness. When all the errors that constitute the carnal mind are destroyed, Satan is wholly cast out and Judas is redeemed.
3. it was written in Hebrew, and in Latin, and in Greek. The fact that the title, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS, was written in three languages signifies that the Jesus Christ Truth—life, perfection, immortality, expressed and demonstrated throughout man, even to his outer organism—must be recognized and acknowledged by man on all three planes of his consciousness. He must accept this Truth and the Christ must rule in his superconscious mind, his conscious mind, and his subconscious mind. The Hebrew language refers here to the spiritual, or superconscious phase of mind in man; Latin to the subconscious; and Greek to the conscious, reasoning mind.—MBD, Latin
4. The soldiers ... took his garments. The soldiers represent the thoughts that fight against the elemental forces: earth, air, fire, and water. The garments represent the thoughts that protect the body against those forces.
5. the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. Although Jesus (representing the spiritual man) was not allowed to establish His conscious rule in the front brain, He left a great unified doctrine of truth (represented by the seamless garment that the soldiers found they could not separate).
6. he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit. The popular thought, based upon theology, that Jesus died upon the cross for our sins, is not reasonable, nor true. It is a libel upon the goodness of God that He would demand the death of his beloved son in such a horrible manner, to appease His anger toward the balance of the sinners in the human family. Again, how could the death of one man atone for the sins of billions of others? Is the death of a criminal in any way an atonement for his crime, or does it help other men to be better? As we emerge from barbaric methods, we abolish capital punishment in all its forms.
   It is quite evident that theology has not understood the true character of Jesus' death. Instead of dying upon the cross like the two thieves that were crucified with him, he simply passed through the human consciousness of death and came out fully alive on the other side. Jesus became alive again, was glorified, and, as is plainly taught in the Scriptures, transcended to quickening life and substance for all who will eat it and drink it. This is a great mystery to the sense man, but he who sees beyond the veil knows positively that the body of Jesus is right here in our midst radiant with eternal life.
   Then Jesus did not die upon the cross to save men from their sins, but he lived. This is an important distinction, and clears up points that have always been stumbling blocks to those who wanted a reasonable theology. What we all need is a way to overcome death. We do not want anyone to die for us. There is, and always has been, enough of that sort of atonement. Thousands of men and women have heroically died for their friends and country. But who among them all has been so heroic and powerful as to master that great and “last enemy to be overcome,” death itself? None save Jesus.
   Then we should quit wailing over the agony of the cross; quit looking for the Master, like Mary in the tomb, quit talking about the death and departure of Jesus, and realize the Truth, that Jesus went through the appearance called death to demonstrate for us its powerlessness in the presence of one who had made the atonement with the Father.
   We are to take up our cross, square our likes by the rectitude of Truth, both in Spirit and in the material world, and then we shall follow Jesus in the crucifixion of the world, the flesh and the devil, and overcome as he overcame. This supreme attainment is not only possible to all men, but must be accomplished by all who expect to perpetuate their conscious existence.—Unity May 28, 1905

^19:31The 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,1 and that they might be taken away. ^19:32The soldiers therefore came, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him: ^19:33but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: ^19:34howbeit one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water.^19:35And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe. ^19:36For these things came to pass, that the scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.^19:37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.2

1. asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken. Crushing the bones destroyed the last vestige of life in the body.
2. They shall look on him whom they pierced. This whole Scripture reveals how those established in the intellect will seek to kill out the Christ, and also how they are ultimately defeated in His victory over death.

^19:38And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. ^19:39And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. ^19:40So they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. ^19:41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was never man yet laid. ^19:42There then because of the Jews' Preparation (for the tomb was nigh at hand) they laid Jesus.1

1. they laid Jesus. Arimathea represents an aggregation of thoughts of lofty character, a high state of consciousness in man. Joseph represents a state of consciousness in which we increase in character along all lines. We not only grow into a broader understanding but we also increase in vitality and substance. Jesus' resting in Joseph's tomb symbolizes the truth that Jesus was resting in the consciousness of vitality and substance, was growing into a broader understanding, and was in truth gathering strength for the great demonstration over death to follow.