Matthew 27:15-19
Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Matthew only mentions this passage of Pilate’s wife.
R. BEACON (circa 1909): Seemingly the verse containing it might be removed without affecting the sense or the sequence of the passage. Yet, however slight it may seem, we may be sure there was a divine reason for its insertion in an inspired writing, where nothing is casual.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Observe the special providence of God in sending this dream to Pilate’s wife.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Here was an unlooked-for witness to the innocence of Christ. Notice the peculiar time in which her warning came. It was evidently a dream of the morning—“I have suffered many things in a dream this day.” The day had not long broken—it was yet early in the morning. The Romans had a superstition that morning dreams are true.
MATTHEW POOLE: Whether this dream was caused by God for a further testimony of Christ’s innocence, or were merely natural, cannot be determined. She doubtless refers to some late dream, which possibly she might have after her husband was gone from her, for he was called early, Matthew 27:1, 2.
MATTHEW HENRY: It is not likely that she had heard anything before, concerning Christ, at least not so as to occasion her dreaming of him.
R. BEACON: But it is far from unlikely that Claudia Procula—the name, according to tradition, of the lady whose disturbed dream is recorded by the Evangelist—that she may have seen our Lord. What more probable than that, on one or more of her comings and goings to and from her husband’s palace, she may have come across Him during His visits to Jerusalem?
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Jansenius* thinks that she had now a representation or foresight of those calamities which afterwards befell Pilate and his family.
MATTHEW HENRY: She suffered many things in this dream; whether she dreamed of the cruel usage of an innocent person, or of the judgments that would fall upon those that had any hand in His death, or both—it seems it was a frightful dream, and her thoughts troubled her.
C. H. SPURGEON: Most dreams we quite forget—but so deep was the impression upon this Roman lady’s mind that she does not wait until her lord comes home, but sends to him at once. Her advice is urgent “Have thou nothing to do with that just Man.” She must warn him now, before he has laid a stroke on Him, much less stained his hands in His blood…Whether the dream of Pilate’s wife was a divine revelation of Christ’s glory or not, we cannot tell; but the message she sent to Pilate must have made him even more anxious than before to release Jesus.
R. BEACON: The statement from Pilate’s wife clearly shows that he was, somewhat at least, influenced by her. It is well known that such influence was often exerted by women, and naturally exercised as a rule on the side of mercy. Indeed, the Romans on this very account objected to provincial governors taking their wives with them, lest they should be deflected from the line of rigid justice. And we know how severe the Romans were, though there was much that was excellent in their discipline. Every student of Roman history is aware how conspicuously the manlier virtues stand out in the records of her chroniclers. But with dominion, luxury and skepticism had increased, and there was a condition of ostentatious culture that is only too closely paralleled by not a little that we see around us now. It is always so in the history of nations: first, power; then, wealth and luxury; then, degeneracy. And of such a culture Pilate was probably a crucial type. His very question, “What is truth?” addressed to our Lord, indicated the languid cynicism with which he regarded the matter. But to return to Claudia Procula—and, first of all, may we not surmise, for the reason stated above, that nothing is casual or insignificant in scripture, that it was not merely superstitious feeling that prompted her action?
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Although the thoughts which had passed through the mind of Pilate’s wife during the day might be the cause of her dream, yet there can be no doubt that she suffered these torments, not in a natural way, such as happens to us every day, but by an extraordinary inspiration of God.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Doubtless, this was of God, and with a design that a testimony should be bore to the innocence of Christ every way.
MATTHEW HENRY: This was an honourable testimony to our Lord Jesus, witnessing that He was a just man, even when He was persecuted as the worst of malefactors: when His friends were afraid to appear in defence of Him, God made even those that were strangers and enemies, speak in His favour; when Peter denied Him, Judas confessed Him; when the chief priests pronounced Him guilty of death, Pilate declared he found no fault in Him; when women that loved him stood afar off, Pilate’s wife, who knew little of Him, showed a concern for Him.
JOHN CALVIN: God the Father took many methods of attesting the innocence of Christ that it might evidently appear that He suffered death in the place of others—that is, in our place. God intended that Pilate should so frequently acquit Him with his own mouth before condemning Him, that in His undeserved condemnation the true satisfaction for our sins might be the more brightly displayed. Matthew expressly mentions this, that none may wonder at the extreme solicitude of Pilate, when he debates with the people, in the midst of a tumult, for the purpose of saving the life of a man whom he despised. And, indeed, by the terrors which his wife, had suffered during the night, God compelled him to defend the innocence of His own Son; not to rescue Him from death, but only to make it manifest, that in the place of others He endured that punishment which He had not deserved.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, and said, “I am free from the blood of this just person.”
C. H. SPURGEON: Ah! Pilate, you need something stronger than water, to wash the blood of that just person off your hands…Knowing Him to be innocent, “when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): There is no doubt that God had appeared unto this woman, testifying the innocence of Christ, and showing the evils which should pursue Pilate if this innocent blood should be shed by his authority.
THOMAS COKE: Josephus* assures us that Pilate was deposed from his government by Vitellius,* and sent to Tiberius* at Rome. And Eusebius* tells us that quickly after having been banished to Vienne in Gaul, Pilate laid violent hands upon himself, falling on his own sword.
MATTHEW HENRY: The Father of spirits has many ways of access to the spirits of men, and can seal their instruction in a dream, or vision of the night, Job 33:15,16.
JOHN CALVIN: As to dreams, which serve the purpose of visions, I shall defer the subject, as I cannot now discuss it at large, and a more convenient opportunity will offer itself.
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*Editor’s Note: Jansenius (1585-1638) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Ypres; Josephus (born 37 A.D.) was a Jewish historian; Eusebius (died 339) was a Greek historian; Vitellius and Tiberius were both Roman Emperors.
