Lk. 23:13 Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the elders, the rulers and the people,
Lk. 23:14 Said to them, “You have brought this man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you have accused Him;
Lk. 23:15 No, neither did Herod; for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing worthy of death has been done by Him.”
Lk. 23:16 “I will therefore chastise Him and release Him.”
Mt. 27:15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished.
Mk. 15:6 Now at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whom ever they requested.
Lk. 23:17 (For it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast.).
Jn. 18:39a “But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at Passover.”
Three of the Gospels all state unequivocally that there was a custom at Passover during which the Roman governor would release a prisoner of the crowd’s choice. The corresponding verse in Luke 23:17 is not present in the earliest manuscripts and may be a later gloss to bring Luke into conformity. The Gospels differ on whether the custom was a Roman or Jewish custom. An ancient Roman celebration called Lectisternium (which the Roman historian Livy reports first occurred in the year 399 B.C.E., and which lasted well into the Christian era, which involved feasting and sometimes the temporary removal of the chains from all prisoners in Jerusalem). No custom of releasing prisoners in Jerusalem is recorded in any early document other than the Gospels. The Jubilee was an ancien Jewish custom held every fifty years. Part of the festivities included cancelling debt and releasing prisoners. Pilate may have offered to free Yeshua in order to honor this tradition.
Mt. 27:16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
Mk. 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow insurrectionists; they hd committed murder in the resurrection.
Lk. 23:19 Who had been thrown into prison for a certain insurrection made in the city, and for murder.
Jn. 18:40b Now Barabbas was a robber.
Mk. 15:8 Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them.
Mt. 27:17 Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “What do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Yeshua who is called the Messiah?
Mk. 15:9 But Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
Lk. 23:18 And they all cried out at once, saying, “Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas!”
Jn. 18:39b “Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
Jn. 18:40a Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!”
Mt. 27:18 For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him.
Mk. 15:10 For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.
Mt. 27:19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife set to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with this just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.”
Mt. 27:20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Yeshua.
Mk. 15:11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them.
Mt. 27:21 The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!”
Mt. 27:22a Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Yeshua who is called Messiah?”
Mk. 15:12 And Pilate answered and said to them again, “What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
Lk. 23:20 Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Yeshua, again called out to them.
Mt. 27:22b They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”
Mk. 15:13 So they cried out again, “Crucify Him!”
Lk. 23:21 But they shouted, saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
Mt. 27:23 Then the governor said, “why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”
Mk. 15:14 Then Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has He done?” And they cried out more exceedingly, “Crucify Him!”
Lk. 23:22 And he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.”
Mt. 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”
Lk. 23:23 But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and the chief priests prevailed.
Mt. 27:25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
This must not be taken as a curse being placed on the Jewish people for all time, but on those people present there and on their children, the next generation. That curse would be fulfilled in 66 C.E.- 73 C.E. during the First Jewish Revolt when over 1,300,000 Jews would lose their lives or be taken into captivity. It is estimated by Josephus that 1,100,000 Jews died in the city of Jerusalem alone in 70 C.E. Most of the rest of the population was dispersed throughout the world.
Lk. 23:24 So Pilate gave sentence that it should be they requested
Mt. 27:26 Then he released Barabbas to them.
Mk. 15:15 So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them.
Lk. 23:25a And he released to them the one they requested, who for insurrection had been thrown into prison.
Mt. 27:26b And when He had scourged Yeshua, he delivered Him to be crucified.
Mk. 15:15b And he delivered Yeshua, after He had been scourged, to be crucified.
Lk. 23:25b But he delivered Yeshua to their will.
Jn. 19:1 So then Pilate took Yeshua and scourged Him..
Scourging entailed a very cruel form of punishment. It involved a whipping of many lashes with a whip composed of a number of leather straps. At the end of each leather strap was a piece of metal or glass or a nail. With the forty lashes the skin would tear away off of the flesh and even the bones would be exposed. In fact, many would die as a result of the scourging, never living long enough to be crucified. The Mishnah gives some description of how scourging was done by the Jews. “And he lays one-third of the lashes in front of him (on the chest) and two-thirds behind him; and he must not scourge him when the victim is standing or siting, but only when he is bending over. He number of lashes that may be assessed for him must be divisible by three.” The Mosaic Law gives this restriction: “Forty stripes he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with man blows above these, and your brother is humiliated in your sight. What we have to remember is that it was not the Jews that scourged Yeshua, but the Roman soldiers, and they were not bound by any Jewish law. A the end of this scourging, Yeshua was barely recognizable as a man. This was in fulfillment of Isaiah 52:13-15.
Source: Deut. 25:3; Isaiah 52:13-15; M:Makkoth 3:10, 11
Jn. 19:2 And he soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.
Jn. 19:3 Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands.
Jn. 19:4 Pilate then went out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”
Jn. 19:5 Then Yeshua came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man.”
Notice in Matthew 27:28 that Yeshua wears a scarlet robe and in Mark 15:17 and John 19:2 it was purple. We can never ignore the differences between John and the other Gospels. If John differs from the other Gospels it is not because of ignorance or lack of information. The fact is that he tells us much of which the others have nothing to say. John, again and again, will provide extra little details that read like the memories of one who was there. There is, indeed, much information in John that is not found in the other Gospels and frequently is much more detailed and/or specialized. The differences are not due to a lack of knowledge but rather to be understood by the fact that in all possibility he had more knowledge. As regards to the robe – was it scarlet or purple? We would probably do well to trust John’s account, and purple was known throughout the Roman Empire as the color of royalty.
I cannot help but wish that Yeshua would have shed His humanity for a minute and stood before the chief priests and elders in all His holy glory so they could see who they were really messing with. But then, the thought came to my mind that if He did that, He wouldn’t be able to go any further to the cross and suffer even greater humility and agony for us. This whole situation of His illegal trial before the Sanhedrin is numbing my mind right now. It is really hard for me to comprehend this situation, and yet I know that this was God’s plan to save our souls from a devil’s hell.
Jn. 19:6 Therefore, when he chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him!”
Jn. 19:7 The Jews answered Him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
This is itself a lie, for they knew that the Messiah was the Son of God. They had no such law against that. They had been waiting for the Messiah for several hundred years., and now that He had come, they wanted to murder Him.
Jn. 19:8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid.
Jn. 19:9 And went again into the Praetorium, ans said o Yeshua, “Where are You from? But Yeshua gave no answer.
Jn. 19:10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have the power to crucify You, and the power to release You?”
Jn. 19:11 Yeshua answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Jn. 19:12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”
Pontius Pilate tried five times to release Yeshua, confirming that He was innocent of any charge, but the chief priests threatened him with words. “If you release Yeshua, you are no “friend of Caesar’s.” The background of the story had to do with a club of inner circle notables who were called the Amici Caesaris or Friends of Caesar. The elite fraternity of imperial advisors was open only to the equestrians high in the imperial service. Pilate’s patron in Rome named Sejanus, who led the Imperial Guard, took advantage of any who were not loyal to the emperor and sent their names to Tiberius to be convicted and executed for treason. Unfortunately for Pilate, his association with Sejanus might have put him in disrepute with Caesar since future emperors Caligula and Claudius had just framed Sejanus and Tiberius executed him. Historians Philo and Josephus mentioned a list of five other incidents, which Pilate blundered which might along with any mistake in the case of Yeshua, might have caused him to lose his rank as a “Friend of Caesar” and be executed by the emperor. The other gaffes made by Pilate included the time he permitted his troops to march into Jerusalem carrying medallions with the emperors image, which provoked the Jews to threaten a demonstration of anger. The image was a violation of the Jewish law which forbade honoring images (Exodus 20:4). Josephus noted that Philo brought in the images to Caesarea under the cover of night knowing that it violated Jewish law (War 2.9.3 174). The Jews protested by laying on his grass motionless for five days before he threatened them with death if they did not remove themselves from his property. When Pilate agreed to meet in the theater at Caesarea to reason with them, the Jews stuck out their necks for the soldiers to use their swords. Pilate was impressed with their faith, which he called superstitions. He then had the images removed from Jerusalem. Later, Pilate built an aqueduct from Solomon’s Pool in Bethlehem to improve Jerusalem’s water supply and used funds he had persuaded he aristocratic Jewish leadership to help him obtain from he Temple treasury. The Jews rioted again and even though Pilate had cautioned his troops at first not to use their swords, several Jews were outspoken and directly insulted Pilate. Finally, when it appeared the crowd was out of control he dressed a number of soldiers as average citizens with hidden daggers under their clothing. As they moved among the disrespectful crowd Pilate gave a signal and his undercover troops killed many of the peaceful as well as the rebellious Jews.
Sources: Exodus 20:4; Jos. War 2.9.3 174
Only five months prior to the trial of Yeshua, Pilate permitted golden shields with a dedicatory inscription to Tiberius to be displayed in Jerusalem. Although the shield did not have an image, it caused the Jews to protest. Pilate refused to remove the golden shields and the Jews, with the help of Herod Antipas, protested against Pilate to Emperor Tiberius. The emperor was displeased and issued a threat to Pilate to remove the shields to Caesarea and not to break the religious customs of the Jews. Pilate also killed many Galileans in an effort to put down a Samaritan Messianic leader (Ant. 18.4.1 85-87). This is probably the occasion mentioned by Luke as he wrote about “Pilate mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1). The story not told in the New Testament concerned a Samaritan Jew who gathered a crowd promising to show them sacred vessels on Mount Gerizim which reportedly were hid there by Moses. An armed group who believed the Samaritan Jew gathered and planned to climb the mountain together. Pilate, possibly fearing a new religious uprising, prevented the crowd from climbing he mountain with his soldiers blocking the road. Pilate’s men raided a nearby town of Tirathaba, killing some of the Samaritan leaders and taking many prisoners. The Samaritan senate sent an ambassador to the president of Syria accusing Pilate of Murdering Jews who were not revolting but trying to escape. Pilate was summoned to Rome to answer for his actions. The Samaritans to this day continue to sacrifice lambs on Mount Gerizim on their Passover. Other non-Biblical incidents include Pilate’s involvement in the trial concerning the seduction of a Chaste aristocrat who was a member of the Isis temple in Rome and the misappropriation of funds from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Isis incident resulted in the crucifixion of several priests and the destruction of the Isis temple (Antiquities18.3.4 65-80). The Jewish misuse of Temple funds occurred when four Jewish thieves defrauded a rich Jewish proselyte of money sent to the Jerusalem Temple. The four thieves fled to Rome because they had been accused of violating Jewish laws. While there they enticed a rich Jewish proselyte named Fulvia to send expensive purple cloth and gold to the Jerusalem Temple as an offering. The thieves spent it themselves and after a time Fulvia’s husband Saturninus requested that Emperor Tiberius to investigate his wife’s money. When Tiberius discovered the theft of the four thieves, he demanded the removal of all Jews from Rome. Four thousand were sent to the Island of Sardinia, while many were killed for refusing to become Roman soldiers (Ant. 18.3.5 81-84).
Sources: Luke 13:1; Jos. Ant. 18.4.1 85-87; 18.3.4 65-80; 18.3.5 81-84
Jn. 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Yeshua out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
Jn. 19:14 Now it was the Preparation Day of he Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King.”
Jn. 19:15 But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”
They have no king but Caesar. That means they have totally rejected YHVH (Yeshua) as their King and they will pay a horrible price for that rejection. The Mishnah describes their rejection this way: “Since the Temple was made desolate the Sages and the sons of the nobles have been ashamed and covered their heads. Since the day the House of the Sanctuary was made desolate there had been a wall of iron between Israel and their Father in Heaven.”
Source: M:Sotah10:15
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