John 19:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since He was silent, Pilate said, "Do You not know that I have authority to crucify You?" Do you see how he condemned himself beforehand? Indeed, if everything depends on you, why do you not release Him, since you have found no fault in Him? When Pilate had thus pronounced sentence on himself, Jesus said, "The one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin" (v. 11).

It turns out that Pilate has no firmness at all. Any accidental danger can shake him. He feared the Jews, and he trembled before Jesus as the Son of God. Let us see how he condemns himself by his own words: "I have authority to crucify You, and I have authority to release You." If everything depended on you, why did you not release Him whom you found innocent?

Pilate considered His silence an act of unreason. Therefore he extends his governing authority like a kind of rod, and thinks that by fear he can compel Him, even against His will, to make a useless defense.

He says that he can freely direct the matter wherever he wishes, either to punishment or to mercy. Since there is nothing forcing him to an involuntary judgment, the sentence over the Accused lies in his power alone.

Thus he accuses Him as one offended by His untimely silence, and already stirred by it to anger against Him. For he did not at all understand the mystery of this silence.

He both fears and threatens. Angered that Jesus Christ did not answer him, even though he had tried to defend Him, Pilate threatens Him with his authority. Foolish man! If you have authority to release Him, why do you not release Him, since you know He is innocent and have already testified this about Him several times?

Wishing, however, to obtain an answer, Pilate quite inappropriately decided to display his authority. "Do You not answer me?" he said. "Do You not know that I have authority to crucify You, and that I have authority to release You?"

Since Pilate could not understand why he was now receiving no answer, this silence seemed wholly inappropriate to the pride of a Roman equestrian. The Prisoner, whether He was a son of the gods or not, was close to the cross.

Wanting to break the silence, Pilate asked arrogantly, "What? Do You not answer me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You and power to release You?"

Despite the haughtiness of these words, they still expressed Pilate's inclination to grant the Lord freedom. But where had his fear gone? It went back to the place from which it had come. Frivolity had produced it, and frivolity dispersed it.

And precisely at this time, when, according to the Evangelist, he “was the more afraid” (Jn 19:8), Pilate adopts that coarse tone which, according to less exact secular historians, was characteristic of him: “Will You not answer me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You and power to release You?”

Then, with the usual changeability of superstitious pagans, reverent fear in Pilate turned into angry irritation, and he cried out hotly: “Will You not answer me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You and power to release You?”

What pitiful self-deception. If in the struggle with the Jewish assembly the procurator’s complete powerlessness was already fully revealed, then it was all the more blasphemous to display his autocracy when every authority in reality comes from God.

"Do You not answer me?" and so forth: "He both fears and threatens" (Euthymius Zigabenus). "I have authority, I have authority": this is the language of a proud Roman dignitary, whose pride had been wounded by the Lord's silence. In that silence he could also read a wordless rebuke of the weakness of his character and of the dishonesty he had shown throughout his trial of the Lord. The Lord answers this proud speech of the Roman with wondrous wisdom. He places this authority, of which Pilate boasted, under a higher authority of which Pilate was unaware. In this way He partly excuses Pilate's guilt, whose full weight must fall not on him, but on the betrayers.

Here again in Pilate there is agitation between evil and good dispositions. The pride of a ruler is offended when its wishes are not fulfilled. The pride of a ruler permits itself to imagine that it has the right to dispose of human destiny at will. It imagines that it is a law to itself, and that its authority is its own possession. From the answer of the Knower of hearts, it is clear that Pilate was also troubled by curiosity to know Jesus more closely. This curiosity was joined with a desire to release Jesus. Thus in people the good is usually mixed with the evil.

Pilate displays his authority on this occasion. But does he not think of the duties that authority lays upon him? It is a great misfortune to have authority in one's hands, as Pilate did, and not have enough firmness to withstand the beastly demands of evil men plotting the oppression of innocence. Partiality, or lack of firmness, leads to great injustices. Once a great injustice has been committed, how can it be repaired?

The silence of Jesus Christ displeased Pilate. As a pagan lord, he proudly points to his authority to deliver Him to crucifixion or to release Him. By this he indicates that prudence should have led the accused not to provoke him, the judge, but to ask for mercy.