Matthew 27 priests had handed Jesus over because they were jealous of his popularity, asks the crowd to choose between freeing a notorious prisoner known as Barabbas, or Jesus. The crowd, persuaded by the chief priests and elders, respond passionately, repeating "Let Him (Christ) be crucified!" Pilate, bewildered by this, asks the crowd for a reason for their choice. Instead, they continue to call ever more loudly for the crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate comes to see that he cannot reason with the crowd. His wife has had a disturbing dream and asks him to have "nothing to do with that just man".
Pontius Pilate overlooking Lucerne. Every Good Friday, the body is said to reemerge from the waters and wash its hands. The fragmentary apocryphal Gospel of Peter exonerates Pilate of responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, placing it instead on Herod and the Jews who, unlike Pilate, refused to "wash their hands". After the soldiers see three men and a cross miraculously walking out of the tomb they report to Pilate who reiterates his innocence: "I am pure from the blood of the Son of God." (GoP 46) He then commands the soldiers not to tell anyone what they have seen so that