Pilate answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?”
Parallel translations
- KJV Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
- BSB “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?”
- NKJV Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”
- NASB Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed You over to me; what have You done?”
- NLT “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Pilate disclaims any Jewish concern, noting that Jesus' own nation handed him over, and asks what he has done. He seeks the real grounds of the case.
Overview
Pilate distances himself ('Am I a Jew?') and points to the role of the chief priests in delivering Jesus up. His question 'What have you done?' shows he is searching for an actual offense. The exchange continues to expose that no real crime justifies the charge, setting up Jesus' explanation of his kingdom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezra 4:12Be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us to Jerusalem. They are building the rebellious and bad city, and have finished the walls, and repaired the foundations.
- Neh 4:2He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?”
- Acts 25:19–20but had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
- Acts 3:13The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
- Acts 18:14–16But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
- Acts 21:38Aren’t you then the Egyptian, who before these days stirred up to sedition and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins?”
- Acts 23:29I found him to be accused about questions of their law, but not to be charged with anything worthy of death or of imprisonment.
- Acts 22:22–24They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice, and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”
- John 18:28They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
- John 19:11Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”
- John 19:6When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”
- Rom 3:1–2Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?
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John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
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Original language
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