Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, {b} It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:

(b) For judgments of life and death were taken from them forty years before the destruction of the temple.

People's New Testament

18:28-40 For notes on the trial before Pilate, see Mt 27:1-25. Compare Mr 15:1-15 Lu 23:1-25. The first examination was at the house of Annas (Joh 18:13), where an officer had smitten Jesus (Joh 18:22). Then Annas sent him to Caiaphas (Joh 18:24). Still later he was tried before the Sanhedrin (Mt 27:1,2) and condemned. Then he was led from Caiaphas to Pilate's judgment hall (Joh 18:28).

The judgment hall. The praetorium, or official hall of the Roman governor.

Lest they should be defiled. These Jewish leaders, filled with the hate of Christ, and ready to secure his judicial murder by the foulest means, were yet so scrupulous that they would not enter the house of a Gentile lest they should be defiled (see De 16:4), so that they would not be able to eat the passover. The Pharisees held that contact with a Gentile, or to enter his house was a source of defilement. Hence, this deputation of the Sanhedrin waited without, and Pilate went out unto them to ascertain their business. Men can be very religious and yet great sinners.

Wesley's Notes

18:31 It is not lawful for us to put any man to death - The power of inflicting capital punishment had been taken from them that very year. So the sceptre was departed from Judah, and transferred to the Romans.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:28-32 It was unjust to put one to death who had done so much good, therefore the Jews were willing to save themselves from reproach. Many fear the scandal of an ill thing, more than the sin of it. Christ had said he should be delivered to the Gentiles, and they should put him to death; hereby that saying was fulfilled. He had said that he should be crucified, lifted up. If the Jews had judged him by their law, he had been stoned; crucifying never was used among the Jews. It is determined concerning us, though not discovered to us, what death we shall die: this should free us from disquiet about that matter. Lord, what, when, and how, thou hast appointed.