But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
Our Lord Jesus was condemned as a blasphemer in the spiritual court, but it was the most impotent malice that could be that this court was actuated by; for, when they had condemned him, they knew they could not put him to death, and therefore took another course. I. They accused him before Pilate.
Commenting on Luke 23:1-12
And they were the more fierce,.... Or urgent to have him put to death; so the Hebrew word is rendered in Exo 12:33 which answers to that here used. "They cried out", as the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read; they were more clamorous and noisy; they cried out louder, and exerted themselves with great fury and violence, and added strength to their clamour, and...
Verse 5. The more fierce. The more urgent and pressing. They saw that there was a prospect of losing their cause, and they attempted to press on Pilate the point that would be most likely now to affect him. Pilate had, in fact, acquitted him of the charge of being an enemy to Caesar, and they therefore urged the other point more vehemently. Stirreth up the people.