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Mat_27:19 Before, Pilate had submitted the question of Mat_27:17 to the consideration of the people by way of sounding them. Now, he seats himself upon the tribunal (upon the λιθόστρωτον , Joh_19:13) for the purpose of hearing the decision of the multitude, and of thereafter pronouncing sentence. But while he is sitting on the tribunal, and before he had time again to address his question to the multitude, his wife sends, etc. This particular is peculiar to Matthew; whereas the sending to Herod, and that before the proposal about the release, occurs only in Luke (Mat_23:6 ff.); and as for John, he omits both those circumstances altogether, though, on the whole, his account of the trial before Pilate is much more detailed than the concise narrative of Matthew, and that without any want of harmony being found between the two evangelists.
ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ ] for since the time of Augustus it was customary for Roman governors to take their wives with them into the provinces Tacit. Ann. iii. 33 f. According to tradition, the name of Pilate’s wife was Procla, or Claudia Procula (see Evang. Nicod. ii., and thereon Thilo, p. 522 ff.). In the Greek church she has been canonised.
λέγουσα ] through her messengers, Mat_22:16, Mat_11:2.
μηδέν σοι κ . τ . δικ . ἐκ .] comp. Mat_8:29; Joh_2:4. She was afraid that a judgment from the gods would be the consequence if he had anything to do with the death of Jesu.
πολλὰ γὰρ ἔπαθον , κ . τ . λ .] This alarming dream is to be accounted for on the understanding that the governor’s wife, who in the Evang. Nicod. is described, and it may be correctly, as θεοσεβής and ἰουδαΐζουσα (see Tischendorf, Pilati circa Christum judic. etc. ex actis Pilat. 1855, p. 16 f.), may have heard of Jesus, may even have seen Him and felt a lively interest in Him, and may have been informed of His arrest as well as of the jeopardy in which His life was placed. There is nothing to show that Matthew intended us to regard this incident as a special divine interposition. There is the less reason for relegating it to the domain of legend (Strauss, Ewald, Scholten, Volkmar, Keim).
σήμερον ] during the part of the night belonging to the current day.
κατʼ ὄναρ ] see on Mat_1:20. It was a terrible morning-dream.