John 19:12

12. Authorities vary much between ἐκραύγαζον, ἐκραύγασαν, and ἔκραζον.

12. ἐκ τούτου. Upon this; see on John 6:66. The imperfect expresses continued efforts. Indirect means, as the release in honour of the Feast, the appeal to compassion, and taunts, have failed; Pilate now makes more direct efforts. We are not told what they were; but the Evangelist shews by the unwillingness of Pilate how great was the guilt of ‘the Jews.’

ἐὰν τ. ἀπολύσῃς. If thou release this man: ἀπολῦσαι and ἀπολύσῃς must be translated alike. The Jews once more shift their tactics and from the ecclesiastical charge (John 19:7) go back to the political, which they now back up by an appeal to Pilate’s own political interests. They know their man: it is not a love of justice, but personal feeling which moves him to seek to release Jesus; and they will overcome one personal feeling by another still stronger. Pilate’s unexplained interest in Jesus and supercilious contempt for His accusers must give way before a fear for his own position and possibly even his life. Whether or no there was any such honorary title as Amicus Caesaris, like our ‘Queen’s Counsel,’ it is unlikely that the Jews allude to it here: they simply mean ‘loyal to Caesar.’ For ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν see on John 8:53.

ἀντιλέγει τ. Κ. Setteth himself against Caesar; ipso facto declares himself a rebel: thus the rebellion of Korah is called ἀντιλογία (Jude 1:11). For a Roman governor to protect such a person would be high treason (majestas). The Jews scarcely knew how powerful their weapon was. Pilate’s patron Sejanus (executed A.D. 31) was losing his hold over Tiberius, even if he had not already fallen. Pilate had already thrice nearly driven the Jews to revolt, and his character therefore would not stand high with an Emperor who justly prided himself on the good government of the provinces. Above all, the terrible Lex Majestatis was by this time worked in such a way that prosecution under it was almost certain death. Atrocissime exercebat leges majestatis (Suetonius).