Matthew 2:14

2:14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt.

Matthew 26:5

26:5 But they said, “Not during the feast, so that there won’t be a riot among the people.”

Matthew 27:15

27:15 During the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner to the crowd, whomever they wanted.


tn The feminine singular genitive noun νυκτός (nuktos, “night”) indicates the time during which the action of the main verb takes place (ExSyn 124).

sn The suggestion here is that Jesus was too popular to openly arrest him.

sn The custom of Pilate to release one prisoner is unknown outside the gospels in Jewish writings, but it was a Roman custom at the time and thus probably used in Palestine as well (cf. Matt 27:15; John 18:39).