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Josephus mentions an interesting event that occurred about a year prior to Jesus’ crucifixion. Pilate had built an aqueduct into Jerusalem using Temple funds for its financing. When many Jews objected to his use of Temple funds to pay for the project, he had some of his military men disguise themselves and mingle with the crowd of Jewish demonstrators. When Pilate gave the signal, his men began killing Jews in the crowd. They were supposed to kill only the most vocal demonstrators, but they killed indiscriminately, and with such vigor that they slew the lambs, too, which some of the Jews carried, intending to have them slain for the Passover celebration. Thus, the blood of the men was mingled with that of the animals (cf. Luke 13:1), a very distasteful matter among the Jews. Many of these Jews were Galileans, and, when this event was told to Herod Antipas, he also viewed the ordeal with contempt, putting Pilate and him at odds with one another.
One year later, after Herod had used Jesus for his entertainment, he sent him back to Pilate (Luke 23:12), and they became friends. Pilate’s request, that Herod hear Jesus’ case and inform him of any possible wrongdoing on Jesus’ part, had made up for Herod’s loss of face, which he had been made to endure, due to Pilate’s earlier indiscretion in Luke 13:1. There Pilate had slain many prominent Galileans, some of whom were probably Herod’s guests at his palace to help him celebrate that Passover.
After Jesus was returned to Pilate, Pilate reconvened his court, and the Jewish authorities were summoned to hear the verdict. (Luke 23:13). Pilate claimed that the authorities’ charge of insurrection was unfounded, and, since Pilate had examined Jesus publically, it should be obvious. Moreover, Herod had also examined Jesus and found him innocent to the charges of insurrection. This was the charge, concerning which the Jewish authorities had handed Jesus over to them for trail and execution (Luke 23:13-15).
It is interesting that Luke is the only Gospel narrator that mentions Jesus’ trial before Herod. There really wasn’t a specific need to do so, because Pilate eventually condemned Jesus and had him crucified, due to the pressure the Jewish authorities placed upon him (cf. John 19:12). Why, therefore, might Luke have recorded Jesus trail before Herod? One possibility would be to establish a case against the Sanhedrin’s official verdict. The Law in Deuteronomy 19:15 says that a matter would be established in the testimony of two or more witnesses. That is, the two courts, Pilate’s and Herod’s, show the bias of the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin.
Pilate was intent on releasing Jesus after a reprimand (Luke 23:16; cf. Acts 5:40-41), for he had found Jesus’ claim to being King innocuous (Luke 23:3 cf. Acts 26:27-32). Whether or not Pilate intended on scourging (G3146) Jesus as we currently understand the punishment that Jesus endured is difficult to say. The word Luke uses for chastise (G3811) means to discipline a person (Luke 23:16), and elsewhere the word is used of a parent’s discipline of his child (Hebrews 12:6-7, 9-10). The Septuagint, however, uses G3146 for both light and severe whippings. Nevertheless, the Roman method of scourging in cases like this was very severe, and often brought death to its victim. The other Gospel writers don’t mention Pilate’s intent on chastising (G3811) Jesus. Rather they all show that Pilate scourged (G3146) Jesus just before sentencing him, so I’m inclined to believe Pilate’s intent on chastising Jesus carried with it the intent on scourging him, and the Gospel of John shows he tried to release Jesus once more after that scourging (G3146) took place (John 19:1-15).
Things Paul & Luke 