Acts 13:28

28 And [although they] found no charge [worthy] of death, they asked Pilate [that] he be executed.

Acts 13:28 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 13:28

And though they found no cause of death in him
That is, no crime that deserved death; they sought for such, but could find none; they suborned false witnesses, who brought charges against him, but could not support them; wherefore Pilate, his judge, several times declared his innocence, and would have discharged him:

yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain;
they were urgent and importunate with him, that he would order him to be put to death; the power of life and death being then in the hands of the Romans; the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, "that they might slay him"; and the Arabic version, "that he might slay him"; and the Ethiopic version renders the whole quite contrary to the sense, "and they gave power to Pilate to hang him"; whereas the power of putting him to death was in Pilate, and not in them: and therefore they were pressing upon him, that he would order his execution, notwithstanding his innocence.

Acts 13:28 In-Context

26 "Men [and] brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God--to us the message of this salvation has been sent!

27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, [because they] did not recognize this one, and the voices of the prophets that are read on every Sabbath, fulfilled [them] [by] condemning [him].

28 And [although they] found no charge [worthy] of death, they asked Pilate [that] he be executed.

29 And when they had carried out all the things that were written about him, they took [him] down from the tree [and] placed [him] in a tomb.

30 But God raised him from the dead,

Footnotes

• [a] *Here "[although]" is supplied as a component of the genitive absolute participle ("found") which is understood as concessive