They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.
They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee - a very lame reply. But they were conscious they had no case of which Pilate could take cognizance and inferring death, or any punishment at all, according to the Roman law. They therefore simply insinuate that the case must have been bad enough before they would have come to him with it, and that having found him worthy of death by their own law, they merely wished him to sanction the execution.