12-16. And from thenceforth--particularly this speech, which seems to have filled him with awe, and redoubled his anxiety.
      Pilate sought to release him--that is, to gain their consent to it, for he could have done it at once on his authority.
      but the Jews cried--seeing their advantage, and not slow to profit by it. If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend, &c.--"This was equivalent to a threat of impeachment, which we know was much dreaded by such officers as the procurators, especially of the character of Pilate or Felix. It also consummates the treachery and disgrace of the Jewish rulers, who were willing, for the purpose of destroying Jesus, to affect a zeal for the supremacy of a foreign prince" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON]. (See Joh 19:15).
      When Pilate . . . heard that, . . . he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in--"upon"
      the judgment seat--that he might pronounce sentence against the Prisoner, on this charge, the more solemnly.
      in a place called the Pavement--a tesselated pavement, much used by the Romans.
      in the Hebrew, Gabbatha--from its being raised.

JFB.