And Pilate again answered and said unto them, What then shall I do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? The word "again" has the support of three great uncials, and the best of the cursives. Pilate did not give way without many an inward struggle.
And now at last he puts the matter, so to speak, in their own power; so that it might be an act of their clemency, and that they might have the honor of saving our Lord's life. But it was all in vain.
For the chief priests had resolved to press for his crucifixion, little dreaming that they were doing what "God's hand and God's counsel had before determined to be done." Pilate puts the question before them with much shrewdness and tact.
He speaks of our Lord as one whom "they called the King of the Jews." He appeals to their national pride and their national hopes. Would they degrade themselves, and extinguish their hopes, by giving up to the most ignominious of deaths one who had established such claims upon their reverence and their love?