Originally Posted by
alanmolstad
One time i was in a youth Bible study, way back in about 1975 i think, and we were looking at this section of the Scriptures, and the teacher was going on and on about how the "from Above" wording was pointing to god, and how God had given Pilate the power over Christ.....
But I looked at this argument, and found it seemed to be an answer that did not really fit the context....
The main point we take from this verse is that Jesus talks about the greater sin of this other unnamed person.
Jesus says the the person who "delivered Me to you has the greater sin."...
The cl*** was asked "Who is this person?"
Many in the cl*** pointed to Judas , but my thinking was that Judas did not actually turn Jesus over to the Romans.
the person who did that was Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Caiaphas actually had authority, whereas Jesus points out that Pilate was simply carrying out the rule of Rome at the time.
In other words, Jesus remarks that He knows that Pilate was just a middle-man.
Now when you look at the sentence Jesus makes, you note that Jesus is pointing to something else too..
Lets look at the verse again.
""You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."
Do you see the "for this reason" part?
I think this is the key to understanding the thing Jesus was pointing to.
What is 'this reason"?>......
What do you think it is?