John 18:33 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, the ordinary place of judicature, from whence we read before he went out, in civility to the Jews, whose superstition (as we before heard) kept them from going there during the festival. He called Jesus to him privately, and asks him, if he owned himself to be the King of the Jews? The confessing of which (for without doubt they had suggested some such thing to Pilate, and could not prove it) had brought Christ under Pilate's power, he being governor for the Romans, and so concerned to inquire upon any that pretended to any regal power over that conquered people.