✨WEB · Luke 23:6
What does Luke 23:6 mean?
"But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean."
— Luke 23:6 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “So you say.”
Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
But they insisted, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place.”
But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean.
When he found out that he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days.
Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him. He hoped to see some miracle done by him.
He questioned him with many words, but he gave no answers.
Explanation
This verse comes from the account of Jesus’s trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The religious leaders have brought Jesus before Pilate, accusing him of stirring up rebellion, claiming to be a king, and forbidding the payment of taxes to Caesar—charges meant to make Jesus appear to be a political threat to Rome. In verse 6, when Pilate hears that one of the accusations mentions Galilee (v. 5, where the accusers say Jesus has been teaching “throughout all Galilee”), he perks up and asks a very practical, almost bureaucratic question: is this man actually a Galilean?
The reason this question mattered is jurisdictional. Pilate governed Judea, but Galilee was under the authority of Herod Antipas, a different ruler entirely. If Jesus was indeed from Galilee, Pilate had a conv
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