1. By the words “Look! The man!” Pilate was referring to Jesus as being what?

“LOOK! THE MAN!” With those historic words the Roman governor Pontius Pilate presented to the crowd of hostile Jews gathered before his palace in Jerusalem the most famous man in all human history. It was the Jew named Jesus Christ, then arrayed in a garment of royal purple and with a crown of thorns upon his head, all of this in mockery of his claim to being the promised Messianic King. (John 19:5-15) However, by the words “Look! The man!” Pilate was referring to Jesus as the most outstanding figure among all humankind, one not deserving to be rejected. This was indicated by Pilate’s use of the Greek word anʹthro·pos (Hebrew, geʹber), meaning a human being of the male sex.

 4. When Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd, how was his appearance different from that on the day of his ride into Jerusalem, and why should Pilate have been impressed?

⁴ However, now, to turn back to that memorable Passover Day of the year 33 CE, when the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, presented the scourged and humiliated Jesus to that evil-intentioned crowd in front of his palace and exclaimed: “Look! The man!” Jesus was certainly then quite a spectacle! He had taken on an appearance far different from what he had displayed earlier in that selfsame week. This was when he made a triumphal ride into Jerusalem as a king-elect on his way to his coronation in the capital city. This was in a miniature fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, where we read: “Be very joyful, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Look! Your king himself comes to you. He is righteous, yes, saved; humble, and riding upon an ass, even upon a full-grown animal the son of a she-ass.” (Matthew 21:1-9; John 12:12-16) Later, on Passover day, what a masterly display of manly qualities Jesus had to make, to take all the mistreatment and abuse uncomplainingly, in full submission to the will of the Most High God, his heavenly Father! How could Governor Pilate do otherwise than be profoundly impressed by the sturdy, unflinching manliness of this Jew toward whom the eyes of the whole universe were then turned?

 5, 6. (a) Why do lovers of life in paradise have in Jesus Christ a perfect example as to their course of action? (b) According to Paul’s description, how did the course of Adam and that of Jesus Christ affect mankind in different ways?

⁵ All lovers of life in human perfection on a paradise earth in the approaching future have, in that manly human being, an example worthy of imitation, one on which to keep their eyes fixed. Like the first man, Adam, when his Creator put him in the garden of Eden, the full-grown Jesus was a perfect human being. But Jesus did not spoil the image of God in which he had been put on earth; he never disfigured the human likeness of God according to which he had been brought up as a man. (Genesis 1:26, 27) So, how dissimilarly the disobedient course of Adam and the loyal, submissive course of Jesus Christ have affected all mankind!