Jesus’ Trial before Pilate
Luke 23: 1 Then the entire council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.”
(The Sanhedrin changes the charges before Pilate from the religious charge of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God & the Messiah to political ones - being a mere human king & anti-tax rhetoric - in an attempt to get Pilate to impose a death penalty upon Jesus)
3 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus replied, “You have said it.”
(once more Jesus responds to a question about his Messiahship/Kingship in a humble way, but in the affirmative)
4 Pilate turned to the leading priests and to the crowd and said, “I find nothing wrong with this man!”
(Pilate apparently sees through the charges of the Sanhedrin and is attempting to avoid condemning Jesus on false accusations)
5 Then they became insistent. “But he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes—all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”
(insinuating Jesus is another insurrectionist, like Barabbas)
6 “Oh, is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked. 7 When they said that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.
(Pilate sees a possible out from the situation, deferring to Herod's authority over his citizens. Pontius Pilate had a very rocky political career and a none-to-easy time of being governor of Judea, which was prone to many problems with Jewish political groups and citizen flareups.)
8 Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. 9 He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. 10 Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. 12 (Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before, became friends that day.)
(Herod's religious & political ambitions and ideas seem somewhat warped...this combination makes Herod, like his father Herod the Great, who slew the children at the time of Jesus birth (see Matthew 2). Curiosity about and conflict with religious figures like John the Baptist and Jesus make Herod Antipas is a very interesting if not dangerous, person. The mixture of religio-political structure of Herod's rule and the problems associated with it may be a lesson for today)
I did a search for info and found a couple of sites about Pontius Pilate and Herod that I am going to read for more information.
virtualreligion.net/iho/pilate_2.html
www.bible-history.com/Herod_Antipas/
