Matthew Chapter 27 verse 1 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 1, 2. - Jesus brought to Pilate. (Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66; Luke 23:1; John 18:28.) Verse 1. - When the morning was come. This is the early morning of Good Friday, the 14th of Nisan. If the rulers had had special regard to legality, they could not have condemned Christ to death at night, as they had done at the late informal assembly; but their respect for conventional rules was overborne by passion and hatred. They had decreed his death by general consent, and then retired for a few hours' necessary rest. Now they again met together, still in the palace of Caiaphas (John 18:28), in order to complete their evil work, to endorse the previous sentence, and, under some pretence, hand their Victim over to the Roman governor, who alone could execute their murderous purpose. The particle δὲ (πρωι'´ας δὲ γενομένης), omitted by the Authorized Version, takes us back to the conclusion of the council (Matthew 26:66), the account of its further proceedings being interrupted by the episode of Peter. All the chief priests and elders of the people. It was a large assembly of the Sanhedrin, many members, doubtless, taking part in these proceedings, now that the capital sentence was past, who would not have deliberately planned a judicial murder. Such was the course of Jewish casuistry. To (ὥστε) put him to death. The council had merely to determine how to formulate such a political charge against Jesus as would compel the Romans to punish the offender with death. They were determined that he should die by an ignominious and cursed death, that his pretensions, as being sent by God, might be disposed of forever. Hence arose the persistent cry, "Crucify him!" (vers. 22, 23). The Jewish view of crucifixion is seen in Deuteronomy 21:23 and Galatians 3:13. They possibly feared some outbreak if they delayed the execution, and kept him prisoner till the conclusion of the feast.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXXVII.(1) Took counsel.--Better, held a council. (Comp. the use of the word in Acts 25:12.) Another formal meeting was held (according to the Jewish rule that the sentence of the judges was not to be given at the same sitting as the trial) to confirm the previous decision, and probably to determine on the next step to be taken. It ended, as the next verse shows, in sending our Lord to Pilate, and leaving to him the responsibility of punishing. They entered, as the sequel shows, on a kind of diplomatic struggle as to the limits of the ecclesiastical and imperial powers, the former seeking to make the latter its tool, the latter to avoid the responsibility of seeming to act in that character.