CHAP.
VII.

duct of the

and opinion of the Roman world), as a nation of religious fanatics; and this fanaticism was a deep, a settled, a conscientious feeling, and formed, an essential and inseparable part, the groundwork of their rigid and unsocial character.

Yet even to one familiarised by a residence of several years with the Jewish nation, on the present occasion, the conduct of the Sanhedrin must have appeared utterly unaccountable. This senate, or municipal body, had left to the Roman governor to discover the danger, and suppress the turbulence, of the robbers and insurgents against whom Pilate had taken such decisive measures. Now, however, they appear suddenly seized with an access of at the con- loyalty for the Roman authority, and a trembling Sanhedrin: apprehension of the least invasion of the Roman title to supremacy. And against whom were they actuated by this unwonted caution, and burning with this unprecedented zeal? Against a man who, as far as he could discover, was a harmless, peaceful, and benevolent enthusiast, who had persuaded many of the lower orders to believe in certain unintelligible doctrines, which seemed to have no relation to the government of the country, and were, as yet, no way connected with insurrectionary movements. In fact, he could not but clearly see that they were enemies of the influence obtained by Jesus over the populace; but whether Jesus or the Sanhedrin governed the religious feelings and practices of the people, was a matter of perfect indifference to the Roman supremacy.

The vehemence with which they pressed the

charge, and the charge itself, were equally inexplicable. When Pilate referred back, as it were, the judgment to themselves, and offered to leave Jesus to be punished by the existing law; while they shrunk from that responsibility, and disclaimed, at least over such a case and at such a season, the power of life and death, they did not in the least relax the vehement earnestness of their persecution. Jesus was accused of assuming the title of King of the Jews, and with an intention of throwing off the Roman yoke. But, however little Pilate may have heard or understood his doctrines, the conduct and demeanour of Christ were so utterly at variance with such a charge; the only intelligible article in the accusation, his imputed prohibition of the payment of tribute, so unsupported by proof, as to bear no weight. This redoubted king had been seized by the emissaries of the Sanhedrin, perhaps Roman soldiers placed under their orders; had been conveyed without resistance through the city; his few adherents, mostly unarmed peasants, had fled at the instant of his capture; not the slightest tumultuary movement had taken place during his examination before the High Priest, and the popular feeling seemed rather at present incensed against him than inclined to take his part.

CHAP.

VII.

at the na

ture of the

charge.

ation refuse

Pilate from

To the mind of Pilate, indeed, accustomed to The deputthe disconnection of religion and morality, the more to commustriking contradiction in the conduct of the Jewish nicate with rulers may not have appeared altogether so extraordinary. At the moment when they were violating the great eternal and immutable principles of

fear of legal

defilement.

VII.

CHAP. all religion, and infringing on one of the positive commandments of their law, by persecuting to death an innocent man, they were withholden by religious scruple from entering the dwelling of Pilate; they were endangering the success of their cause, lest this intercourse with the unclean stranger should exclude them from the worship of their God-a worship for which they contracted no disqualifying defilement by this deed of blood. The deputation. stood without the hall of Pilate*; and not even their animosity against Jesus could induce them to depart from that superstitious usage, to lend the weight of their personal appearance to the solemn accusation, or, at all events, to deprive the hated object of their persecution of any advantage which he might receive from undergoing his examination without being confronted with his accusers. Pilate seems to have paid so much respect to their usages, that he went out to receive their charge, and to inquire the nature of the crime for which Jesus was denounced.

Pilate.

The simple question put to Jesus, on his first interrogatory before Pilate, was whether he claimed the title of King of the Jews. The answer of Jesus may be considered as an appeal to the justice and Examina- right feeling of the governor. "As Roman prefect, tion before have you any cause for suspecting me of ambitious or insurrectionary designs; do you entertain the least apprehension of my seditious demeanour; or are you not rather adopting the suggestions of my enemies, and lending yourself to their unwarranted animosity?" Pilate disclaims all commu+ John, xviii. 33-37.

* John, xviii. 28.

VII.

nion with the passions or the prejudices of the CHAP.
Jewish rulers; but Jesus had been brought before
him, denounced as a dangerous disturber of the pub-
lic peace, and he was officially bound to take cogni-
sance of such a charge. In the rest of the defence
of Christ, the only part intelligible to Pilate would
be the unanswerable appeal to the peaceful con-
duct of his followers. When Jesus asserted that
he was a king, yet evidently implied a moral or
religious sense in his use of the term, Pilate might
attribute a vague meaning to his language, from
the Stoic axiom, I am a king when I rule myself *;
and thus give a sense to that which otherwise would
have sounded in his ears like unintelligible mysti-
cism. His perplexity, however, must have been
greatly increased when Jesus, in this perilous hour,
when his life trembled, at it were, on the balance,
declared that the object of his birth and of his life
was the establishment of "the truth." "To this
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Every
one that is of the truth heareth my voice." That
the peace of a nation or the life of an individual
should be endangered on account of the truth or
falsehood of any system of speculative opinions, was
so diametrically opposite to the general opinion and
feeling of the Roman world, that Pilate, either in
contemptuous mockery, or with the merciful de-
sign of showing the utter harmlessness and insig-

* Ad summum sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives
Liber, honoratus, pulcher. Rex denique regum.

Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 106. Comp. Sat. i. 3. 125.

At pueri ludentes, rex eris, inquit,

Si recte facies. Epist. i. 1. 59.

VII.

CHAP. nificance of such points, inquired what he meant by truth,- what truth had to do with the present question, with a question of life and death, with a capital charge brought by the national council before the supreme tribunal. Apparently despairing, on one side, of bringing him, whom he seems to have considered a blameless enthusiast, to his senses; on the other, unwilling to attach so much importance to what appeared to him in so different a light, he wished at once to put an end to the whole affair. He abruptly left Jesus, and went out again to the Jewish deputation at the gate, (now perhaps increased by a greater number of the Sanhedrin,) and declared his conviction of the innocence of Jesus.

Pilate endeavours to save Jesus.

Clamours

of the accusers.

At this unexpected turn, the Sanhedrin burst into a furious clamour, reiterated their vague, perhaps contradictory, and to the ears of Pilate unintelligible or insignificant charges, and seemed determined to press the conviction with implacable animosity. Pilate turned to Jesus, who had been led out, to demand his answer to these charges. Jesus stood collected, but silent, and the astonishment of Pilate was still further heightened. The only accusation which seemed to bear any meaning, imputed to Jesus the raising tumultuous meetings of the people throughout the country, from Judæa to Galilee.* This incidental mention of Galilee, made perhaps with an invidious design of awakening in the mind of the governor the remembrance of the turbulent character of that people, suggested to Pilate a course by which he

* Luke, xxiii. 5.