John 19:5

Behold the man! Pilate’s object in this exclamation was doubtless to excite the pity of the multitude. There stood Jesus before them in His mock kingly robes, crowned with a crown of thorns, bleeding and pale from His recent flogging, yet of kingly mien. Surely, Pilate felt, the demands of the Jewish leaders would be satisfied. But in this he was deceived.

Precisely why Pilate chose to use the term “man” cannot be known. Innocently he uttered a great truth. The One before him, the eternal Word (see on ch. 1:1), had become man (see on ch. 1:14). He was, indeed, the Son of man (see on Matt. 1:1; Mark 2:10), but also the Son of God (see on Luke 1:35). His incarnation and death won for us eternal salvation.