Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 23:35

"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also scoffed at him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen." — Luke 23:35 (ASV)

And the rulers also with them derided him.—Luke uses the generic term for the members of the Sanhedrin, whom Matthew specifies as chief priests, scribes, and elders. The verb is the same as in Luke 16:14, and implies the curled lip and distended nostril of scorn.

He saved others.—The words were, like those of Caiaphas (John 11:50), an unconscious prophecy, in part also an admission of the work that He had done, as in the case of Lazarus, in rescuing others from the power of death.

If he be Christ, the chosen of God.—It may be noted that this is the only passage in the New Testament in which the adjective chosen, or elect, is directly applied to Christ. The participle of the verb is, however, found in the better manuscripts of Luke 9:35, and the adjective is used of Him as the stone, elect and precious, in 1 Peter 2:6.