Mark 15:8

8 When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favor,

Mark 15:8 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 15:8

And the multitude crying aloud
The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, and when the "multitude", or "people went up", to the place called the pavement, where the judgment seat was; and so it is read in Beza's most ancient copy; but the former reading is to be preferred:

began to desire [him to do] as he had ever done to them:
that is, release a prisoner to them, as he had done at every passover, since he had been a governor over them.

Mark 15:8 In-Context

6 At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for.

7 At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot.

8 When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favor,

9 he asked them, "Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?"

10 He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.