Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate - Roman Governor

JOHN 19 COMMENTARY ◄
John 19:6-11 Crucify Him

John 19:12-16 Pontius Pilate

John 19:17-18 Golgotha

JOHN 19:12 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.”

When Pontius Pilate sought to release Him, what did the Jews cry out?
"If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar" (John 19:12).

Why would that touch Pilate's raw nerve?
Pontius Pilate had been close to Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the commander of Caesar's bodyguards - the Praetorian Guard - who had maneuvered himself to become the second most powerful man in Rome. About a year earlier, news reached Pilate that Sejanus had been executed for plotting against Tiberius Caesar, and many of Pilate's other friends had been executed as well in the ensuing purge. Against that backdrop, Pilate realized that as much as he wanted to release Jesus, he couldn't risk word reaching Rome that he had spared a man who "speaks against Caesar" and was therefore no longer "Caesar's friend" (John 19:12).

Does Pontius Pilate give into the Jews?
See below.

JOHN 19:13-16 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Look at your King!” 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!” 16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

What is striking about the declaration, "We have no king but Caesar!" (John 19:15)?
It would have been outrageous for any Jew to call his king a pagan emperor who called himself god. Yet this was being shouted by the chief priests of Israel in front of a Jewish crowd.

What did Pilate do after delivering Jesus to "be crucified" (John 19:16)?
He washed his hands: "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.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:24-25).

What did Pilate and "the people" mean by what they did and said?
Pilate washed with water to symbolically wash away any sins he may bear for his role, and the Jews were telling him not to worry, that those sins will wash up on them and their children when Jesus' blood is shed.

Who was right?
Neither, since it is the blood of Jesus that washes away sins.

What ended up happening to Pilate?
He was recalled to Rome in 36 AD and committed suicide in 39 AD.