How to Interpret Dreams and Visions Perry Stone

raging crowd demanded that Christ be crucified, Pilate offered to release a prisoner to them. I suggest that Pilate was hoping they would release Jesus. However, they demanded instead that Barabbas, a thief, be released (vv. 16–21). Christ was later crucified between two thieves. Barabbas, who was scheduled for execution with his two cohorts, was to hang on the third cross on Mount Calvary, but instead, the middle cross was prepared for Christ! Pilate then asked for a basin of water and washed his hands —attempting to free himself of the guilt of innocent blood (v. 24). This was a procedure known to the religious Jews, based upon instruction in Deuteronomy, requiring that when a corpse is discovered near a city, the elders living closest to that city are to take a heifer, cut off its head, and wash their hands in water over the slain heifer while declaring that they are innocent of the blood of the slain corpse (Deut. 21:3–6). Pilate did not ask for a heifer, but he did wash his hands, and the Jewish religious authorities knew what he was doing. He was declaring himself free from the blood of Christ, which was about to be shed. It was at that moment that the religious Jews said, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25). According to the Law of Moses, this brought a curse upon the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel, as Christ indicated was possible when there was a continual shedding of the blood of innocents and the righteous (Matt. 23:34–36). Clearly, something emboldened Pilate not to agree with the death sentence that the multitude was screaming out should be placed upon Christ. I believe he was moved by his wife’s warning dream.