John 18:39

Ye have. custom, that. should release unto you one at the Passover.

By. comparison of the other accounts it is evident that, in the interval, before his effort to release Jesus according to the custom of the Passover feast, he sent Jesus to Herod in order to shuffle off the responsibility, but Herod had sent him back. Then he asks whether he shall not release him, according to the custom. He was placed in. very trying position. Jesus was accused of treason against the Roman emperor; he declared that he was not guilty; the priests then accused Pilate of not being Cæsar's friend, intimating that they would accuse him to Cæsar. Had he been accused of letting. man go who claimed to be King of the Jews it would have gone hard with him. Still he is intensely averse to being the instrument of the murder of Jesus, and he hopes that they will accept his liberty on account of the Passover. The custom had arisen of the Roman governors always dismissing, as an act of favor at that time, one prisoner who had offended the Roman authority. There were only two such prisoners of note in Pilate's hands. One was Barabbas,. man who had been engaged in sedition in Jerusalem as the leader of. band of robbers,. desperate man and. murderer; the other was Jesus, of whom he had said, "I find in him no fault at all."