Pilate washes his hands (Notes)

Saint Matthew - Chapter 27

Pilate washes his hands. J-J Tissot

[24] Videns autem Pilatus quia nihil proficeret, sed magis tumultus fieret : accepta aqua, lavit manus coram populo, dicens : Innocens ego sum a sanguine justi hujus : vos videritis.
And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it.

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude. ἀπενίψατο, washed away. “He adopted,” says Origen, “the Jewish custom, and wished to calm them down, not by words only, but also by deed.” He washed his hands, but not his conscience. But this took place after the scourging and crowning of Christ. (See S. John.) Here is a transposition.

Saying, I am innocent. I condemn Him against my will. Ye are the offenders. Ye are guilty of His death. How foolish was this timid, heartless, and slothful Governor in speaking thus! Why opposest thou not the injustice of the people? “Seek not to be judge, if thou canst not by thy power break through iniquities” (Eccles. 7:6). At another time thou didst let loose the soldiers on the riotous mob (Joseph. B. J., xviii. 4). Why dost thou not act thus firmly now? If thou canst not, through the fury of the Jews, set Him free now, at least delay thy sentence till their fury subsides.

S. Chrysostom (in Luke xxiii. 22) says, “Though he washed his hands, and said he was innocent, yet his permitting it was a sign of weakness and cowardice. For he ought never to have yielded Him up, but rather rescued Him, as the Centurion S. Paul” (Acts 21:33). S. Augustine more forcibly (Serm. cxviii. de Temp.), “Though Pilate washed his hands, yet he washed not away his guilt; for though he thought he was washing away the Blood of that Just One from his limbs, yet was his mind still stained with it. It was he, in fact, who slew Christ by giving Him up to be slain. For a firm and good judge should not condemn innocent blood, either through fear or the risk of being unpopular.” And S. Leo (Serm. viii. de Pass.) said, “Pilate did not escape guilt, for by siding with the turbulent mob he became partner of others’ guilt.”

[25] Et respondens universus populus, dixit : Sanguis ejus super nos, et super filios nostros.
And the whole people answering, said: His blood be upon us and our children.

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Let the guilt thou fearest be transferred from thee to us. If there be any guilt, may we and our posterity atone for it. But we do not acknowledge any guilt, and consequently, as not fearing any punishment, we boldly call it down on ourselves. And thus have they subjected not only themselves, but their very latest descendants, to God’s displeasure. They feel it indeed even to this day in its full force, in being scattered over all the world, without a city, or temple, or sacrifice, or priest, or prince, and being a subject race in all countries. It was, too, in punishment for Christ’s crucifixion that Titus ordered five hundred Jews to be crucified every day at the siege of Jerusalem, as they crowded out of the city in search of food, “so that at last there was no room for the crosses, and no crosses for the bodies” (Joseph. B. J., vi. 12). “This curse,” says Jerome, “rests on them even to this day, and the blood of the Lord is not taken away from them,” as Daniel foretold (9:27).

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The sacred text does not seem to imply that Pilate left the spot where he had washed his hands in the presence of the assembled people.  It follows, therefore, that it was not at the Gabbatha or Lithostrotos that the scene described took place, but in the so called Ecce Homo loggia, and it is there that we have chosen to represent it.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam