Given thee from above; the power of the civil magistrate is from God, and to God he is accountable for the use of it.

He that delivered me; Caiaphas, as high-priest, representing the Jewish council.

The greater sin; guilty as Pilate was, the Jewish council was still more guilty. They had not only abused the power which God gave them, but were urging Pilate to abuse his; and they were doing it under greater light than he had. Judicial authority and power are gifts of God, for the use of which men are accountable to him; and injustice committed by magistrates under the cover of law, is among the most wicked of all transgressions.

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Old Testament