Mark 15:8

8 The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

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 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested.

7 One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising.

8 The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

9 “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked.

10 (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.)