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).