Pilate saith unto them
As one astonished at their choice: he could not have thought they
would have asked the life of so vile a wretch, that had been
guilty of such capital crimes, crimes to be abhorred by all men:
what shall I do then with Jesus, which is called
Christ?
Surely you would not have me put him to death, and that for no
other reason but this, because he is called either by himself or
others, Christ, or the Messiah, or the king of the Jews!
they all say unto him, let him be crucified;
which was a Roman punishment, inflicted on the meanest and worst
of men; as wicked servants, thieves, robbers, and cut-throats
F15; and so was not only a torturing
and painful death, but a very shameful and ignominious one; yea,
an accursed one: in this they all agreed, being instigated to it
by the chief priests and elders.