When he was sat down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:19 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day (this night) in a dream because of Him. This act of Pilate"s wife is a fresh effort to deliver Him. Her dreams were full of threats against her husband and herself, if he condemned Christ. Some suppose them to have been the work of an evil angel, wishing to prevent His death, lest sinners should be saved by Him. (See the Sermon on the Passion, apud S. Cyprian; S. Bernard, Serm. i. in Pasch; Lyranus, Dionys. Carthus, Rabanus, and others.)
Origen, S. Hilary, S. Chrysostom, S. Augustine, S. Ambrose, and others more correctly suppose that it was the work of a holy angel, and that the dream was sent to Pilate"s wife (not himself): 1. That both sexes (as well as all the elements afterwards) might witness to Christ"s innocence2. That she might make it publicly known by telling her husband3. Because she appears to have been a noble, tenderhearted, and holy woman. Origen, S. Chrysostom, and others consider that she was in this way brought to a true belief in Christ. S. Augustine (in Aurea Catena) says, "that both husband and wife bore witness to Christ;" "thus presaging," says S. Jerome, "the faith of the Gentiles." And S. Augustine (Serm. cxxi. de Temp.), "In the beginning of the world the wife leads the husband to death, in the Passion she leads him on to salvation." Joanna, too, the wife of Chusa, Herod"s steward, was one of those who ministered to Christ of their substance.
The Greek Menology terms her Procula; some suggest that she was Claudia ( 2 Timothy 4:21), as she probably remained at Rome when he was banished. S. Augustine implies that she converted him (Serm. iii. de Epiph). "The Magi came from the East, Pilate from the West. They accordingly witnessed to Him at His birth, he at His death, that they might sit down with Abraham, &c, not as their descendants in the flesh, but as grafted into them by faith." Tertullian, too (Apol. cap. xxi.), speaks of Pilate as a Christian.
But all this is at variance with what others say of his banishment and his self-inflicted death.
When Pilate then is termed a Christian, it must mean a favourer and protector of His innocence. He yielded, it is true, at last to the threats of the Jews; and so it was that by the just retribution of God he was himself the victim of the like false charge from the Jews, who caused him to be exiled.
