There were present at
that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices. (Luke 13:1)
Commenting on this verse, I. Howard Marshall wrote:
(1) ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ (2:38 note) serves to link with the
preceding incident. πάρειμι* can mean ‘to be present’ (Acts 10:33), but may
also mean ‘to arrive’ (Acts 10:21; 12:20; 17:6; 24:19*; Diodorus Siculus 17:2,
cited by Creed, 180). The impression is that messengers have arrived from
Jerusalem bringing news of the latest incident there (J. Blinzler*, 25); ἀπαγγέλλω has the sense ‘to bring news of something fresh’
(7:18; Gn. 26:32; Est. 6:2; 1 Mac. 14:21). The situation reported concerns
certain Galileans—the number, unspecified, need have been no more than a couple
(Easton, 213)—who had been offering sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem. The
occasion could have been Passover, the only time when the laity slaughtered
their own animals (Jeremias, Words,
207 n. 4), and the incident involved the killing of the men while they were
sacrificing. Thus Pilate could be said to mix (μίγνυμι, Mt. 27:34; Rev. 8:7; 15:2**) their blood
with that of their sacrifices (cf. SB II, 193). The expression need not be
taken literally, but could simply be a gruesome metaphor for the two events
taking place simultaneously. A number of events to which allusion is possibly
being made are discussed by J. Blinzler*, 32–37. These include: 1. the affair
of the ensigns in Jos. Bel. 2:169–174; Ant. 18:55–59, but this took place in
Caesarea in AD 26; 2. the tumults associated with the building of an aqueduct
(Jos. Bel. 2:175–177; Ant. 18:60–62), but this incident involved the murder of
Judaeans with cudgels outside the temple; 3. an attack on some Samaritans (Jos.
Ant. 18:85–87), but this took place in AD 36; 4. the slaughter of about 3,000
Jews offering Passover sacrifices by Archelaus in 4 BC (Jos. Bel. 2:8–13; Ant.
17:213–218). This incident, however, took place some thirty years earlier and
was committed by a different ruler; moreover, the murder of 3,000 men would not
bear comparison with an accident to 18. It is wisest to conclude that the event
is not attested from secular sources. This, however, is no argument against its
historicity, since Josephus’ account of Pilate’s career is very incomplete (cf.
Philo, Leg. 299–305). Pilate would have been in Jerusalem at Passover time, and
the Galileans had a reputation for rebelliousness. The suggestion that Zealots
were involved (O. Cullmann, The State in
the NT, London, 1957, 14) lacks proof. (I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the
Greek Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Exeter, U.K.:
Paternoster Press, 1978], 553)