The Sign of the Ear and the Timing of the Passion

Fathers will be numbered with sons. The cutting off of a servant-priest's ear was thus a sign of the darkness of deafness cast upon them; and regarding the restoration of the ear, one might say it signifies the later restoration of the understanding of Israel which is now spoken of, when they will understand the one they ignored and may perhaps hear the one preaching, Elijah; for then the hearts of the fathers will be restored to the sons according to Micah (Micah 7:6).

It seems John clearly intends to demonstrate what has been clearly revealed by the other evangelists regarding the day of the passion; for he has related that the supper was before the Passover feast, from which time after rising he was handed over, lest the Passover be eaten, at the very moment when the time of the slaughter of the lamb and the death of Christ was being drawn together. For the time was evening, in which 'the Spirit delivered over' (John 18:28) the true Lamb at the ninth hour of the day, and the slaughter of the lamb is also in the evening according to the law, so that by the same day and hour the event was prefigured to be fulfilled.

And the Jews were not able to escape, not that they would fulfill the event during the feast, even though they were keeping watch and saying, 'Not during the feast, lest there be a disturbance' among the people. Therefore, it is possible to understand also regarding the other evangelists that they call the first of the Unleavened Bread the one before the Unleavened Bread, that is, the thirteenth, and that a Passover was prepared for them by the disciples in this way, but the supper was not the eating of the Passover; for in this they coincide with John, and most especially the voice of Matthew coincides, whom he remembered after the Lord said: 'Know that in two days the Passover takes place, and the Son of Man is handed over to be crucified' (Matthew 26:2), as regarding this day both the Passover would be offered and he would be crucified.

He says he himself will prove the Truth to men and through his own knowledge grant salvation to them, but they stand only at the threshold of the matter.er.

He says that the sin of the betrayer is greater (John 19:11) because, according to the prophet, 'those whom you struck down, they themselves persecuted' and as it is elsewhere foretold concerning the betrayer, 'instead of which he did not remember to do mercy, but persecuted a man, poor and wretched, and whose heart was set on killing.' For it is a terrible thing to impose a burden of pain and tribulation in time upon one who does no wrong, instead of the righteous and good; for he to whom it was necessary to suffer, to him, having added pains, stands against God.

They lead him away as if they had conquered, but the Lord, being led, conquers, carrying upon his shoulder the beginning or the instruction, as one might interpret the prophecy of Isaiah saying, 'whose beginning was upon his shoulder' (Isaiah 53:7). It is instruction, because he bore the instruction on our behalf, according to: 'the instruction of our peace is upon him' (Isaiah 53:5); and it is the beginning, because he reigns over the captives under death and under sin, enduring on the wood the death on the wood instead of them (John 19:16). He says this forgiveness from above as glory; but he says it as a man, for according to the word, the one giving and forgiving was the Word of God and was God (John 19:16).

Many still dare to do the same as the soldiers, those scattering the church of Christ and seeking each one his own profit, doing whatever he might take (John 19:16). This was the work of the heresies of the impious. The antichrist will desire to tear apart the whole church just like the tunic; for indeed a people is depicted as being around the stumbling block of God, which is made manifest in those regarding Jeremiah where it was said, 'just as the girdle clings to the waist of a man, so I joined the house of Israel and all the house of Judah' (Jeremiah 3:3); but the true girdle of Christ remains, being neither torn apart nor alienated (John 19:23).

He who accepted all unmercilessness on our behalf and, drinking vinegar, says 'it is finished' (John 19:30), was demonstrating the intention of the visitation and the purpose of all things occurring therein; for on account of completion, all these things occur, for I speak not only of the completion of the prophetic words, but also of all virtue practiced among men remaining incomplete without Christ, and of all the providence which comes from God concerning men, enjoying its completion in the salvation through Christ (John 19:30). As he breathed his last, 'the veil of the temple was torn' (John 19:30). Since it was not necessary for the harmony of the bones to be divided, this does not happen (John 19:33–34).