And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:2 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pitate the governor. "For," as S. Jerome says, "it was the Jewish custom to bind and deliver to the judge those they had condemned to death." Here then was Samson bound by Delilah, Christ by the Synagogue. Origen says truly, "They bound Jesus who looseth from bonds; who saith to them that are in bonds, I Go forth" ( Isaiah 49:9); who looseth the fetters, and saith, "Let us break their bands asunder."" For Jesus was bound that He might set us free by taking on Himself the bonds and the punishment of our sins.
They brought. Caiaphas, i.e, and all the other members of the Council, to crush by the weight of their authority both Jesus and Pilate alike. For if Pilate refused to ratify their sentence, they would be able to accuse him of aiming at the sovereignty of Juda, and being thus an enemy of Csar, and so force him in this way, even against his will, to condemn Him to death.
Delivered to Pontius Pilate. Why? Some think from what is said in the Talmud that the Jews were forbidden to put any one to death. But see Deuteronomy 21:23; Numbers 25:4; Joshua 13:29; 2 Samuel 21:6-9.
But the fact was that the Romans had taken away from the Jews the power of life and death ( John 18:31). Ananus was deposed from the High-Priesthood for killing James the Lord"s brother and others, without the consent of the Roman governor. The stoning of S. Stephen was only an outbreak of popular fury.
There were also other reasons1. To remove from themselves the discredit of His death, as though it had arisen merely from envy2. To dishonour Him as much as they could, by getting Him condemned by Pilate to the ignominious death of crucifixion, the punishment of rebels. They themselves had condemned Him of blasphemy, which was punished by stoning (Lev. xxiv16). 3. To dishonour Him the more by causing Him to be put to death as a profane person, by one, too, who was himself profaning the holy feast of the Passover (see S. Chrysostom, Hom. lxxxvi in Matt.; S. Augustine, Tract. cxiv. in John; and S. Cyril, Lib. xii in Joan. cap6).
But a retaliatory punishment was inflicted on the Jews; for as they delivered up Christ to Pilate, so were they in turn delivered up to be destroyed by Titus and Vespasian (S. Cyril on John , cap. xviii.; Theophylact, and Victorinus on Mark xiv.).
