And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
And (or, 'Now') it was the preparation of the Passover. This is another of the passages from which it has been concluded that the regular Passover had not up to that time been kept, and consequently that our Lord, in celebrating it with His disciples the previous evening, had anticipated the proper day for its observance. To this question we have adverted pretty fully-at Luke 22:7-30, page 324; on Luke 22:1; and on Luke 18:28. As to the present passage, there is no evidence that "the preparation of the Passover" means the preparation for it. The day before every sabbath was called "the preparation" (Mark 15:42), from the preparations for its proper observance which were made on the previous day; insomuch that in enumerating the days of the week the Friday would be named 'Preparation' (day). But this was no ordinary 'preparation day.' It was 'the Passover preparation,' as the words of our Evangelist may be rendered; by which we understand that it was not only the Preparation Friday, but the Friday of the Paschal feast. Accordingly, it is called, in John 19:31 "an high day."
And about the sixth hour. As it cannot be conceived that our Evangelist meant to say here that it was already noon, according to Jewish reckoning-for Mark says (Mark 15:25) that the crucifixion itself took place at the third hour (nine o'clock, of our reckoning), and that is what we should naturally conclude from the progress of the events-two expedients have been resorted to for clearing up the difficulty, neither of which appears to us quite satisfactory. The one is to adopt the reading "third" instead of "sixth" hour, as Bengel, Robinson, Webster and Wilkinson do, and as Alford half inclines to do. But the evidence for this reading is so weak that it seems like a tampering with the sacred text to adopt it. The other way of solving the difficulty is to suppose that our Evangelist here adopts the Roman method of computation, and means that it was about six o clock, according to our reckoning. So Olshausen, Tholuck, Hug, etc. But as there is no ground to suppose that in other cases our Evangelist adopts the Roman divisions of time, so the hour which that reckoning brings out here can hardly be the right one; for it must have been considerably later than six in the morning when that took place which is here related. It remains then to understand the Evangelist to refer to the two broad divisions of the day, so familiar to the Jews, the third and the sixth hours; and to suppose that as the event occurred between the two, the one Evangelist specified the hither terminus, while the other takes the further one. So Ellicott and others.
And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! Having now made up his mind to yield to them, he takes a sort of quiet revenge on them by this irony, which he knew would sting them. This only re-awakens their cry to despatch His.