Luke 23:9 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

He answered him nothing. — We can hardly help asking ourselves what were likely to have been among Herod’s questions. Did the Prisoner who stood before him really claim to be a King? Did He proclaim Himself as the Christ? Was He John the Baptist, risen from the dead? If not, who and what were his earthly parents? The unbroken silence of the Accused must have been strangely impressive at the time, and is singularly suggestive when we remember how He had answered Caiaphas when He had been adjured in the name of the living God. He had spoken to Pilate in the tones of a sad gentleness (John 19:33-37). To Herod alone, the incestuous adulterer, the murderer of the Forerunner, He does not vouchsafe, from first to last, to utter a single syllable.