During Jesus' trial before Pilate, John's Gospel reads in 19:13, "When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down (GR: ekathisen) on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha)." The word translated here "sat down" is the Greek word ekathisen. This word can be interpreted to mean either "Pilate sat on the judge's seat" OR "Pilate sat him (Jesus) on the judge's seat."

The synoptic gospels clearly have Pilate sitting on the seat, as do most translations of John. But John may be playing off the double meaning here. It is in keeping with the mockery of 19:1-3 and Pilate's taunting of the religious leaders in 19:4-5 for Pilate to seat Jesus on the judge's seat.

This lends a profound irony to this final scene of the trial of Jesus. Pilate intends to mock Jesus and the Jewish leaders by placing Jesus, their "king," on the judge's seat, but he unknowingly places Jesus in His rightful place as judge. (Other characters in John's Gospel unknowingly reveal truth about Jesus. See Caiaphas' statement in 11:50-51.) The world attempts to judge Jesus, but in the end, Jesus judges the world.