And from there on Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend: whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.
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Alcuin of York
AD 804
Parasceve, i.e. preparation. This was aname for the sixth day, the day before the Sabbath, on which they prepared what was necessary for the Sabbath; as we read, On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread. As man was made on the sixth day, and God rested on the seventh; so Christ suffered on the sixth day, and rested in the grave on the seventh.
The Jews thought they could alarm Pilate more by the mention of Caesar, than by telling him of their law, as they had done above; We have a law, and by that law He ought todie, because He made Himself the Son of God. So it follows. But the Jews cried out, saying, you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend; whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.
Pilate was before afraid not of violating their law by sparing Him, but of killing the Son of God, in killing Him. But he could not treat his master Caesar with the same contempt with which he treated the law of a foreign nation: When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgments eat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
Why then does Mark say, And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him? Because on the third hour our Lord was crucified by the tongues of the Jews, on the sixth by the hands of the soldiers. So that we must understand that the fif...
And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him. He had sought to do so before. But he now more especially did Song of Solomon , after he had heard that He was the Son of God; fearing to incur the vengeance of God on condemning Him. The fear of Cæsar, however, prevailed over the fear of God. The Gentiles reckoned many sons of the gods, whom they worshipped as demigods. See S. Cyril in loc.
The exclamation of the Jews afflicts Pilate with panic, and sharpens the keenness of his caution, and makes him pause before putting Him to death. For they shouted out, that that very prisoner had made Himself the Son of God, Whom Pilate had been most anxious to release from all danger, and to acquit of every false accusation, having this fear at heart. The Israelites saw this, and returned to their original falsehood, saying, that Jesus had courted the people, and transgressed against Caesar's power, and, so far as His power went, had waged war against the rule of Rome, for He had made Himself a king. See how laborious and passionate was the attempt of His accusers against Him! For, first of all, they cried out with one accord, miserable wretches that they were, and asserted that He had ventured to assail Caesar's power. But when they did not meet with much success, Christ declaring that His Kingdom was not an earthly kingdom, they alleged, even unto Pilate, who sat in a Roman tribuna...
But how can you prove this? By His purple, His diadem, His chariot, His guards? Did He not wall; about with His twelve disciples only, and every thing mean about Him, food, dress, and habitation? .
He went outto examine into the matter: his sitting down on the judgment seat shows this.
Pilate, despairing of moving them, did not examine Him, as he intended, but delivered Him up. And he says to the Jews, Behold your King! .
A speech that should have softened their rage; but they were afraid of letting Him go, lest He might draw away the multitude again. For the love of rule is a heavy crime, and sufficient to condemn a man. They cried out, Away with Him, away with Him. And they resolved upon the most disgraceful kind of death, Crucify Him, in order to prevent all memorial of Him afterwards.
They voluntarily brought themselves under punishment, and God gave them up to it. With one accord they denied the kingdom of God, and God suffered them to fall into their own condemnation; for they r...
For when they profited nothing by bringing charges drawn from their own law, they wickedly betook themselves to external laws, saying,
Every one that makes himself a king speaks against Cæsar.
And where has this Man appeared as a tyrant? Whence can you prove it? By the purple robe? By the diadem? By the dress? By the soldiers? Did not He ever walk unattended, save by His twelve disciples, following in every point a humble mode of living, both as to food, and clothing, and habitation? But O what shamelessness and ill-time cowardice! For Pilate, deeming that he should now incur some danger were he to overlook these words, comes forth as though to enquire into the matter, (for the sitting down showed this,) but without making any enquiry, he gave Him up to them, thinking to shame them. For to prove that he did it for this purpose, hear what he says.
Slay Him, saying to Pilate, when he was desirous to dismiss Him, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children; ".
and, "If thou dismiss him, thou art not a friend of Caesar; ".
"-the clamour whereby it had extorted His surrender to the cross.
Some suppose it tobe a fault of the transcriber, who for the letter y, three, put s, six.
As if to say, See the kind of Man whom you suspect of aspiring to the throne, a humble person, who cannot have any such design.
