Matthew 27:1-26, Blood money, Pilate and Barabbas

For Rome king of the Jews meant treason, since only the emperor could grant the title (the cultural backgrounds notes). Pilate had begun his rule by bringing the standards into Jerusalem by night and backing down before the crowds (Josephus; the cultural backgrounds notes), and an inscription found at Caesarea calls him prefect, showing that the title procurator is an anachronism for his day (the Zondervan archaeology handbook). Dreams were taken seriously as revelation across the Mediterranean (Keener). In the usual ancient view, hanging himself inside the temple would have defiled it, and burying strangers who had no one else was an act of piety (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). The traditional Field of Blood held tombs of Jerusalem's aristocracy, not strangers, so most scholars doubt the identification (Wilkins; the archaeology handbook). Washing the hands disclaimed innocent blood (Deuteronomy 21:6-7), though Keener notes it no more freed Pilate than the priests' words freed them. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes take the crowd's cry about blood on their children as fulfilled in AD 70, and Keener warns against the anti-Jewish use later made of the verse. Origen implies that most manuscripts of his day named the prisoner Jesus Barabbas (Wilkins).