The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.

[8] According to Scottish Free Church minister William Nicoll, the scourging was meant as a compromise by Pilate, undertaken "in the ill-judged hope that this minor punishment might satisfy the Jews".

[12] This additional wording reflects the insertion ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν (ērchonto pros auton) in many early texts, but which was missing in the Textus Receptus.

Karl Lachmann, Constantin von Tischendorf, Meyer and Westcott and Hort all adopt the additional wording.

"Behold the Man": Ecce homo in Vulgate Latin; in the original Greek: Ἴδε ὁ ἄνθρωπος, (Ide ho anthrōpos).

Lutheran commentator Johann Bengel argues that John quotes this passage "for the sake of its allusion to the piercing [not for that to the looking]".

[41] Bengel notes that Nicodemus, who had shown his faith in dialogue with Jesus in chapter 3, here "manifested [it] by an altogether distinguished work of love".