Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? There was no sarcasm or disdain in this question, as Tholuck, Alford, etc., allege, else our Lord's answer would have been different. Putting emphasis upon "thou," his question betrays a mixture of surprise and uneasiness, partly at the possibility of there being, after all, something dangerous under the claim, and partly from a certain awe which our Lord's demeanour probably struck into him.
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king, х Su (G4771) legeis (G3004) hoti (G3754) basileus (G935) eimi (G1510) Egoo (G1473)] - or rather, 'Thou sayest [it], for a king I am.'
To this end was I ('have I been') born, and for this cause came I ('to this end am I come') into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. His birth expresses His manhood; His coming into the world, His existence before assuming humanity: the truth, then, here affirmed, though Pilate would catch little of it, was, that 'His Incarnation was expressly in order to the assumption of Royalty in our nature.' Yet, instead of saying He came to be a king, which is His meaning, He says He came to testify to the truth. Why this? Because, in such circumstances, it required a noble courage not to flinch from His royal claims; and our Lord, conscious that He was putting forth that courage, gives a turn to His confession expressive of it. It is to this that Paul is commonly understood to allude, in those remarkable words to Timothy: "I charge thee before God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession" х teen (G3588) kaleen (G2570) homologian (G3671)] (1 Timothy 6:13). But we have given our opinion (page 206, first column) that the reference is to the solemn confession which He witnessed before the supreme ecclesiastical council, that He was "THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE BLESSED," which the apostle would hold up to Timothy as a sublime example of the fidelity courage which he himself should display. These two confessions, however, are complements of each other. For, in the beautiful words of Olshausen, 'As the Lord owned Himself the Son of God before the most exalted theocratic council, so He confessed His regal dignity in presence of the representative of the highest political authority on earth.'
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Our Lord here not only affirms that His word had in it a self-evidencing, self-recommending power, but gently insinuates the true secret of the growth and grandeur of His kingdom: it is a KINGDOM OF TRUTH, in its highest sense, into which all souls who have learnt to live and count all things but loss for the truth are, by a most heavenly attraction, drawn as into their proper element; whose KING Jesus is, fetching them in and ruling them by His captivating power over their hearts.