John 19:12

And from thenceforth— An inattentive reader may perhaps understand these words, as if this was Pilate's first attempt to release Jesus; nevertheless they cannot justly be thus interpreted, as St. John himself tells us expressly, that Pilate once before endeavoured to release him: ch. John 18:39. To which the answer of the priests corresponds, If thou let this man go, &c. Finding, by what the governor said unto them, that he was determined to release Jesus, they told him, with a haughty menacing air, that if he released his prisoner, who had set himself up for a king, he was not faithful to the emperor; by which they insinuated, that they would accuse him to his master, if he did not do his duty. This argument was weighty, and shook Pilate's resolution to the foundation; he was frightened at the very thought of being accused to Tiberius, who, in matters of government, as Tacitus and Suetonius testify, was apt to suspect the worst, and always punished the least crimes relative thereto with death. Wherefore we find, that, when the Jews told Pilate, that he could not be a friend to Caesar if he let Jesus go, he asks them no more if they would take Barabbas, and spare Jesus; but, though against the dictates of his conscience, gives him up to death, to secure his own safety.