John 19:6

John 19:6. When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify! Crucify! The advance from what is stated at chap. John 18:40 to the present point is at once perceptible. Then the Jews refused to have Jesus released to them, and cried out for Barabbas. Now their cry reaches its culmination, ‘Crucify! Crucify!'

Pilate saith unto them, Take him yourselves, and crucify him; for I find no crime in him. The words do not seem to contain any serious authorisation on the part of Pilate to the Jews to crucify Jesus. The latter at least did not understand them in that sense, or they would probably have at once availed themselves of the permission given. The emphatic ‘yourselves' guides us to the true interpretation. There is in the words partly scorn of the Jews, partly the resolution of Pilate to free himself from all responsibility in the guilty deed which he began to see could hardly be avoided. It is as if he would say,

‘Is He to be crucified? then it shall be by yourselves, and not by me.' The Jews, accordingly, are sensible that they dare not avail themselves of the permission. They must adduce fresh reasons for the sentence of condemnation which they desire.