Luke 23:5

And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.

The whole multitude of them arose; though it was so early in the morning, the members of the Sanhedrin had appeared practically in a body, most of them being pleased to a point where they could not have rested quietly. "At the morning meeting of the Sanhedrin it had doubtless been resolved to put the confession of Jesus that He was the Christ into a shape fit to be laid before Pilate, that is, to give it a political character, and charge Him with aspiring to be king. " Now they led Him to Pilate. Down through the courts of the Temple they took Him, out through one of the southern or western gates and to the other side of the Tyropeon Valley, where, according to the opinion of modern investigators, the Praetorium of Pilate was situated. And no sooner did Pilate appeal before them on the elevated pavement before the palace than they began to bring their accusations. By a skillful manipulation of the Lord's confession they attempted to put into it a political significance. They charged Him with perverting the nation, with stirring up the people to disaffection and rebellion, with doing His best to hinder them from paying tribute to Caesar, with saying that He was the Christ, a king. These charges were the foulest and basest slanders that could have been invented by them, telling in each case what the Jewish leaders had attempted to make Jesus do, what they had desired Him to do, in order that they might have reasons to bring Him before the procurator. The entire conduct of the Lord disproved the charges as malicious and unfounded accusations. Jesus had expressly taught and commanded that the constitutional taxes and obedience to a lawful prince must be paid; He had escaped when the people had planned to make Him a king, an earthly ruler. Pilate knew the accusations to be nothing but trumped-up charges, but now that he had Jesus before him, he determined to find out wherein His kingship consisted, what His kingdom really was. Upon the governor's question whether He was the king of the Jews, Jesus gave an affirmative answer. And, as John relates, He made some attempt to explain the matter to the heathen, but without avail. However, a mere glance at the accused had convinced Pilate that this was not a rebel or seditionist, and that His kingship certainly offered no dangers to the existence of the Roman Empire. He therefore told the high priests and the crowds outside, since by this time the rabble had gathered from every part of the city, that he found no kind of fault in this man. But the Jewish leaders had, in the meantime, not been idle, but had been busily engaged in stirring up the mob to lust for blood. In the face of the governor's finding, therefore, the chief priests kept insisting and contending most bitterly that they were right, that Jesus had stirred up the people to sedition, exciting them with His teaching, that He had done so in the entire country of Judea, having begun in Galilee and continued His rebellious work, spread His mischievous doctrine over the whole province even to this holy city. The chief priests were determined to have their will carried into execution at any cost, by fair means or foul, and one misrepresentation more or less did not seriously burden their consciences.