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Mat_27:24 The circumstance of Pilate’s washing his hands, which Strauss and Keim regard as legendary, is also peculiar to Matthew.
ὅτι οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ ] that it was all of no avail, Joh_12:19. “Desperatum est hoc praejudicium practicum,” Bengel.
ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον θόρυβος γίνεται ] that the tumult is only aggravated thereby.
ἀπενίψατο τὰς χεῖρας ] he washed his hands, to show that he was no party to the execution thus insisted upon. This ceremony was a piece of Jewish symbolism (Deu_21:6 f.; Joseph. Antt. iv. 8. 16; Sota viii. 6); and as Pilate understood its significance, he would hope by having recourse to it to make himself the more intelligible to Jews. It is possible that what led the governor to conform to this Jewish custom was the analogy between it and similar practices observed by Gentiles after a murder has been committed (Herod, i. 35; Virg. Aen. ii. 719 f.; Soph, Aj. 654, and Schneidewin thereon; Wetstein on our passage), more particularly as it was also customary for Gentile judges before pronouncing sentence to protest, and that “ πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ” (Constitt. Ap. ii. 52. 1; Evang. Nicod. ix.), that they were innocent of the blood of the person about to be condemned; see Thilo, ad Cod. Apocr. I. p. 573 f.; Heberle in the Stud. u. Krit. 1856, p. 859 ff.
ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος ] a Greek author would have used the genitive merely (Maetzner, ad Lycurg. 79). The construction with ἀπό is a Hebraism ( ð÷é îãí , 2Sa_3:27), founded on the idea of removing to a distance. Comp. Hist. Susann. 46, and καθαρὸς ἀπό , Act_20:26.
ὑμεῖς ὄψ .] See on Mat_27:4.