"... This segment of the narrative has less to do with Jesus than with Pilate; for those reading or hearing Matthew, it is not Jesus but the character of Pilate that is on trial. As one proverb observed: 'A judge passes judgment on himself as much as on the accused'. Though Pilate knows the unjust motivation of the charges ('envy' - 27:18; compare Mark 15:10; Acts 5:17) and receives a divine warning (27:19), political expediency takes precedence over justice. But the narrative does not try Pilate alone: the insistent people, blindly following their blind religious leaders (27:20; compare 15:14; 23:16), embrace the moral responsibility Pilate seeks to evade. (Perhaps in view of his community's conflict with Jewish authorities or the greater responsibility adhering to those who should know the most, Matthew portrays Pilate as less guilty than Jesus' own people. Washing hands most obviously constituted a repudiation of responsibility for innocent blood in Jewish tradition, as in Deuteronomy 21:6-7; Psalm 26:6; Isaiah 1:15-16; Letter of Aristeas 306; compare the Gospel of Peter, fragment 1:1) ..."