Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 27:24

"So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing, but rather that a tumult was arising, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see ye [to it]." — Matthew 27:24 (ASV)

He took water, and washed his hands — The act belonged to an obvious and almost universal symbolism. For example, in Deuteronomy 21:6, the elders of a city where an undiscovered murder had been committed were to wash their hands over the sin offering and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. .

Pilate probably chose this act partly as a relief to his own conscience, partly to appease his wife’s scruples, and partly as a last, vivid, and dramatic appeal to the feelings of the priests and people. One of the popular poets of his own time and country could have taught him the futility of such a formal washing:

“Ah nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina cædis
Flumineâ tolli posse putetis aquâ.”
“Too easy souls who dream the crystal flood
Can wash away the fearful guilt of blood.”

Ovid, Fasti 2.45