When Pilate saw he could prevail nothing
That it was to no purpose to talk to them, and in favour of
Jesus; he saw they were determined upon his crucifixion, and that
nothing else would satisfy them:
but that rather a tumult was made;
there was an uproar among the people, and he might fear the
consequences of it, should he not grant their request; otherwise,
as Philo the F16 Jew says of him, he was,
(thn fusin akamphv kai meta tou
anyadouv ameiliktov) , "naturally inflexible, rigid, and
self-willed": but he knew the temper of these people, and had had
experience of their resoluteness, when they were determined on
any thing; as in the case of his introducing the golden shields
into the holy city, of which the same author speaks: and was then
obliged, though sore against his will, as now, to yield unto
them:
He took water, and washed his hands before the
multitude;
either in conformity to a custom among the Jews, whereby they
testified their innocence as to the commission of murder; see (
Deuteronomy 21:6
Deuteronomy 21:7 ) (
Psalms 26:6 )
, or to a Gentile one, used when murder was committed, for the
lustration or expiation of it F17:
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just
person;
though this did not clear him from all guilt in this matter: he
ought to have acted the part of an upright judge, and not have
yielded to the unrighteous requests of the people; he ought not
to have scourged an innocent man, and much less have condemned
and delivered him to be crucified, as he did; though in this he
bore a testimony to the innocence of Christ, and which is
somewhat remarkable in him; who was, as Philo says F18,
notoriously guilty of receiving bribes, of injuries, rapine, and
frequent murders of persons uncondemned:
see ye [to it];
you must be answerable for this action, and all the consequences
of it. The Syriac version renders it, "you have known"; and the
Persic version, "you know": and the Arabic version, "you know
better"; (See Gill on Matthew
27:4).
F16 De Legat. ad Caium, p. 1034.
F17 Vid. Ovid. Fast. l. 2. Anticlidis Redit. l. 74. Triclinius in Ajac. Sophocl. 3. 1.
F18 Ubi supra. (De Legat. ad Caium, p. 1034.)