This final in the series of five scenes (verses 24-26) is unique to Matthew’s Gospel. Through it the author accomplishes at least two goals: (1) the acknowledgment on the part of the Roman governor that Jesus is innocent, and (2) the Jewish acceptance of the responsibility for the death of Jesus.

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing is expressed very well in Phillips: “When Pilate realized that nothing more could be done.” Gaining can also be “accomplishing” or “achieving.”

Riot represents the word rendered “tumult” in 26.5, where the chief priests and the elders are making their plans to capture Jesus at a time when the people would not riot. Matthew perhaps intends to show that a riot was now in the making, but one which was actually initiated by the chief priests and the elders, who have finally won the people over to their side.

That Pilate washed his hands in sight of the crowd is a claim that he is assuming no responsibility for what the Jews want to do to Jesus. Commentators note that the ritual of hand washing to show one’s innocence of a crime is of Jewish origin, going back to Deuteronomy 21.6-7. But one commentator notes that the action was “almost proverbial,” thereby intimating that it was not confined to the Jewish people.

In the Old Testament blood is used to refer to a violent death (for example, murder or execution), and then to refer to the responsibility for that death. Therefore I am innocent of this man’s blood means “I am not responsible for this man’s death.” In verse 25 “His blood be upon us and on our children” assumes the second of these two meanings: “Let the responsibility for his death fall on us and on our children!” (Good News Translation). In many languages, of course, the blood can be retained with complete understanding.

As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible point out, some Greek manuscripts have “I am innocent of this man’s righteous blood.” However, the adjective “righteous” is not likely to have been omitted by a later scribe, had it been an original part of the Greek text. On the other hand, it is precisely the sort of information which pious scribes would have added to the text for the sake of underscoring Pilate’s acknowledgment of Jesus’ innocence.

“This is your doing” of Good News Translation is more literally see to it yourselves. The meaning is “This is something for which you will have to answer” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), as the response of the crowd (verse 25) clearly established. Other translators have “this is your responsibility.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .