Luke 23:1

ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθος. ‘The whole number’ (not “multitude,” as in A. V[398]).

[398] A. V. Authorised Version.

ἐπὶ τὸν Πιλάτον. The fact that our Lord “suffered under Pontius Pilate” is also mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. XV. 44). Pontius Pilatus was a Roman Knight, who (A.D. 26) had been appointed, through the influence of Sejanus, sixth Procurator of Judaea. His very first act—the bringing of the silver eagles and other insignia of the Legions from Caesarea to Jerusalem—a step which he was obliged to retract—had caused fierce exasperation between him and the Jews. This had been increased by his application of money from the Corban or Sacred Treasury to the secular purpose of bringing water to Jerusalem from the Pools of Solomon (see Luke 13:4). In consequence of this quarrel Pilate sent his soldiers among the mob with concealed daggers—(a fatal precedent for the Sicarii)—and there had been a great massacre. A third tumult had been caused by his placing gilt votive shields dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius, in his residence at Jerusalem. The Jews regarded these as idolatrous, and he had been obliged by the Emperor’s orders to remove them. He had also had deadly quarrels with the Samaritans, whom he had attacked on Mount Gerizim in a movement stirred up by a Messianic impostor; and with the Galilaeans “whose blood he had mingled with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1). He reflected the hatred felt towards the Jews by his patron Sejanus, and had earned the character which Philo gives him of being a savage, inflexible, and arbitrary ruler. The Procurator, when at Jerusalem for the great Festivals, seems to have occupied an old palace of Herod’s, known in consequence as Herod’s Praetorium (Philo, Leg. ad Caium, p. 1034). It was a building of peculiar splendour, and our Lord was conducted to it from the Hall of Meeting, across the bridge which spanned the Valley of Tyropoeon. It is however possible that Pilate may have occupied a part of Fort Antonia, and it has been supposed that this view receives some confirmation from the discovery by Capt. Warren of a subterranean chamber with a pillar in it, which is believed to be not later than the age of the Herods, and is on the suggested site of Antonia. Mr Fergusson (Temples of the Jews, p. 176) inclines to the view that this newly-discovered chamber may have been the very scene of our Lord’s flagellation. Our Lord was bound (Matthew 27:2) in sign that He was now a condemned criminal. This narrative of the Trial should be compared throughout with John 18:19.