6. “Hence Pilate sought to release Him.” What is to be understood by the word here used, “hence,”1852    Exinde: Greek, ἐκτούτου; literally. “therefrom.”—Tr. as if he had not been seeking to do so before? Read what precedes, and thou wilt find that he had already for some time been seeking to release Jesus. By the original word,1853    Exinde: Greek, ἐκτούτου; literally. “therefrom.”—Tr. therefore, we are to understand, on this account, that is, for this reason, that he might not contract sin by slaying an innocent man who had been delivered into his hands, even though his sin would be less than that of the Jews, who delivered Him to him to be put to death. “From thence,”1854    Exinde: Greek, ἐκτούτου; literally. “therefrom.”—Tr. therefore, that is, for this reason, that he might not commit such a sin, “he sought” not now for the first time, but from the beginning, “to release Him.”

6. Exinde quaerebat Pilatus dimittere eum. Quid est hoc quod dictum est, exinde, quasi antea non quaerebat? Lege superiora, et invenies jamdudum eum quaerere dimittere Jesum. Exinde itaque intelligendum est, Propter hoc, id est, ex hac causa, ne haberet peccatum occidendo innocentem sibi traditum, quamvis minus peccans quam Judaei, qui eum illi tradiderant occidendum. Exinde ergo, id est, ideo ne hoc peccatum faceret, non nunc primum, sed ab initio quaerebat eum dimittere.