Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Ver. 35. Am I a Jew?] This he asketh in scorn of that nation; hateful among the heathens for their difference from them in religion. Gaius the emperor cast them out with their orator Philo, who came to make apology for them against Appion of Alexandria, their adversary and accuser. Strabo, for mere spite, saith that Judea is a dry and barren country, when the Scripture calleth it a land flowing with milk and honey, plenty and dainty; and Tacitus cannot but grant as much. (Aug. Civ. Dei.) Florus calleth the temple at Jerusalem, impiae gentis arcanum, a sanctuary for rogues, as the Papists say of Geneva. Seneca jeers them for casting away the seventh part of their time upon a weekly sabbath. Juvenal plays upon their circumcision. Plutarch tells a long story of their feast of tabernacles, which, saith he, they keep in honour of Bacchus (συμπος). Tacitus saith, they were called Asinarii, because they worshipped the golden head of an ass. (Annal. xxi.) No wonder though profane Pilate disdain to be held a Jew, when they were thus traduced!