Why did Jesus give Pilate "no answer" to the question “Where are You from?” (John 19:9)?

Question

• John 19:8-9 NKJV - Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

The thing is that Jesus answers Pilate's very next question:

• John 19:10-11 NKJV - Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

  Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

Jesus was initially silent, but then chose to speak.

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It seems to be a rather simple question so why did Jesus not answer Pilate's question?

Why didn't Jesus stay silent?

Answer 1

John's narrative seems to harken back to an episode in chapter 7, where the people say:

Could the authorities have realized that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” 28 So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.

John's is the prototypical "high theology" in which Jesus' parentage and place of birth are irrelevant. This gospel does not tell us anything about his birth, but instead begins with his eternal existence as the Word. (John 1) It then skips to John the Baptist's testimony about Jesus. His home town is named only to frame the famous question "can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46)

In chapter 7 Jesus refutes those who point out his lowly origins by emphasizing that he comes from God, rather than being associated with any particular town or region. His response to Pilate is along the same lines: after refusing to answer the question about his earthly origins, Jesus says: “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.”

The Book of Hebrews (7:3) displays a similar attitude when it compares Melchizedek and Christ:

Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

Conclusion: Jesus declines to answer Pilate about his place of origin, because in this particular Gospel this information is irrelevant. Jesus comes from heaven - from God. Those who seek information about his birthplace are missing the point.

Answer 2

I believe that reading Matthew Henry's commentary provides one of the best understandings of Jesus' silence to the first question.

1. It's an act of patience and a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7: "as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth"
2. It was prudent as Pilate wouldn't have had the context of Jewish scripture, having no notion of the Messiah. He did give an answer to the Chief Priests who did have that context (Mark 14:61-62).

Finally, Jesus does answer both questions by referring to the power "from above". As others have mentioned, Pilate is in a fearful state about interacting with a deity in his ignorance.

If Christ had avowed himself a God as plainly as he avowed himself a king, it is probable that Pilate would not have condemned him (for he was afraid at the mention of it by the prosecutors); and the Romans

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jhn/Jhn_019.cfm?a=1016009

Answer 3

Raymond E. Brown mentions two possible reasons for Pilate's question to Jesus: "Where are you from?"

The first possibility follows from the accusation that he claimed to be the Son of God: Pilate may be asking if he is from heaven or if he is human. If this was Pilates question, then understandably Jesus is not going to explain to him, a Roman, what even Nicodemus and the other jewish scholars still had not comprehended.

The second (and IMHO more likely) possibility is that this is still part of Pilates attempt to evade the responsibility for judging and executing Jesus that the Jewish leaders have been forcing on him by exploiting a legal loophole. If Jesus were from the Galilee than Pilate could use that as an excuse to send him to Herod, which is exactly what we see Pilate do in Luke 23 (John apparently left that part out of his gospel). In this case, again, Jesus may just have felt that there was no point in trying to explain the subtleties of whether and how he was from Galilee and/or heaven.