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In Jesus’ conversation with Pilate in John 19:11, responding to his question, “Don’t you know that I have the authority….to crucify you?” Jesus answers:
“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.” (ESV)
οὐκ εἶχες ἐξουσίαν κατ’ ἐμοῦ οὐδεμίαν εἰ μὴ ἦν δεδομένον σοι ἄνωθεν· διὰ τοῦτο ὁ παραδούς μέ σοι μείζονα ἁμαρτίαν ἔχει. (NA28)
I’m having trouble understanding the logical connection between these two sentences. ‘Therefore’ (διὰ τοῦτο) seems to indicate that this qualification of Pilate’s authority has as its result the fact that greater sin is attributed to the other (Caiaphas? Judas? – a topic for another question). But ‘the other’ has somehow more unqualified authority?
This is further complicated by the fact that ‘what was given from above’ appears to not refer to ‘authority’ in Greek, although it seems to in English (to this reader). The participle in the periphrastic verbal construction is neuter: unless it were having been given, where ‘it’ refers to some item with grammatically neuter gender (not evident (to me) proximately; ‘authority’ is feminine) or a concept without an explicit antecedent (I suppose).
- What is the connection between these two sentences?*
- What is here ‘given from above’?
*In my mind, this is a re-statement of the title question, but if not feel free to answer that one too.
