John 18:34

‘Jesus answered, “Do you say this of yourself, or did others tell it to you about me?”.

Jesus' replied with a question. His reply was not direct because a direct reply would not have been the truth, for while He was the Messianic king He was not a king in the way meant by Pilate. So He asked, Was it Pilate who was saying so, or someone else?

This set Pilate aback. He could see that this was no belligerent pretender but a calm, self-assured, rational person and he was a little disconcerted. He had been expecting an easy time from a belligerent brigand. Now he was faced with something else. He did not want to get involved with Jewish internal quarrels. He did not understand them. So he took the same approach, expressing his clear contempt for the Jews in his question.