John 18:29 - Exposition

Pilate therefore , because of their rooted national prejudice, went out £ unto them beyond his court, to some open space convenient for hearing the case. Pilate is introduced here without any preliminary statement or title, as though the position of the man were well known to his readers—another proof that the synoptic narrative is presupposed. This scrupulousness contrasts with the summary proceeding of Herod Agrippa ( Acts 12:1 , Acts 12:2 ), and with the conduct of the Roman authorities ( Acts 22:24 ). The very question he asks implies that something had conspired to provoke a certain sympathy on his part with Jesus, and to excite additional suspicion of the Jews. The statement of Matthew 27:19 may account for the former. The fact that he was ready to hear the case at this early hour shows that he must have been prepared for the scene, and even primed for it. Pilate (the manuscripts vary between Peilatos and Pilatos ) was the fifth governor of Judaea under the Romans, and held office from A.D. 26-36. He is represented by Philo ('Legatio ad Caium,' 38) as a proud, ungovernable man; and, in his conflicts with the Jews, he had especial reason to detest their obstinate ceremonial and religious prejudices. Philo speaks of Pilate's "ferocious passions," says that he was given to fits of furious wrath, and that he had reason to fear that complaints laid before Tiberius for "his acts of insolence, his habit of insulting people, for his cruelty, and murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never-ending inhumanity," might bring upon him the rebuke which ultimately the emperor gave him, in consequence of his endeavor to force from the Jews assent to his placing gilt shields in the palace of Herod. Josephus ('Ant.,' 18.2. 4) gives a better account of Pilate, and shows that a portion of his administration was not without beneficent purpose, thwarted by the fanatical opposition of the Jews. On this occasion he asked first of the mob of priests, What accusation do ye bring against this Man? He may have known, probably did know, but chose to give formality to the charge, and not simply to register their decrees.