Biblion Bible Commentary
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He Gave Him No Answer
Matthew 27:11-14
11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “So you say.” · WEB
Before the governor he answers one question and then says nothing at all, which is what startles Pilate.
Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Matthew 27:11.
The charge has been translated for Roman ears. Before the council the question was whether he was the Christ, the Son of God; blasphemy means nothing in this court, so it arrives as a claim to a throne, which is treason.
Jesus said to him, "So you say." The answer is neither a denial nor the confession Pilate needs. It hands the words back to the man who chose them — a governor calling him a king, which Pilate will do again in writing before the day is over Matthew 27:37.
When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing Matthew 27:12. The hearing is in the earlier account Mark 15:1–20.
"Don't you hear how many things they testify against you?" Matthew 27:13. Pilate's question is almost helpful. He is inviting a defense, and under Roman procedure a prisoner who would not answer was giving the court very little to work with.
He gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled greatly Matthew 27:14.
The silence is what makes the impression, not anything he says. Men in that position talk — they argue, they beg, they name accomplices — and a governor of a difficult province had heard all of it. What he had not seen was a man decline to participate in his own trial.
It is the servant's silence again, sheep before the shearers Isaiah 53:7, and it is not passivity. He had answered the high priest when put under oath, and he answers Pilate's one direct question. What he will not do is contest a verdict already reached.
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