The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.

[8] Cross reference: Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2; John 18:37 Textus Receptus/Majority Text: Transliteration: Biblia Sacra Vulgata: The style of response is the same as in Luke 22:70,[citation needed] where Jesus answers the Sanhedrin's question, "Are you the Son of God?"

[15] The editors of the Jerusalem Bible suggest that Luke may have obtained this information from Manaen, who according to Acts 13:1, "had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch".

[20] This verse reads ο δε πιλατος επεκρινεν γενεσθαι το αιτημα αυτων in the Textus Receptus, matching the opening words of Mark 15:15, ο δε πιλατος ("so Pilate ..."), but the sentence begins καὶ Πιλᾶτος ... ("and Pilate ...") in critical texts such as Westcott-Hort.

The word ἐπέκρινεν (epekrinen, "pronounced sentence") is specific to Luke,[25] although it also appears in the apocryphal 2 Maccabees 4:47, where innocent men are condemned to death.

[8] Lutheran writer Johann Bengel suggests that the "bewailing" denotes their gestures and the "lamenting" reflects their vocal tones.

[28] The prophet Hosea spoke in similar language, when recognising that the disobedience of the Israelites required God's punishment, but calling for some mitigation: One of the two thieves who die with Jesus reviles him, the other is saved by faith.

[20] Nicoll understands the phrase "the things that had happened" (Greek: τὰ γενόμενα, tà genómena) "comprehensively, including the crucifixion and all its accompaniments".