not honestly take pains, and search the Scriptures. The followers of unhappy Pilate, as a rule, do not deal fairly and honestly with their consciences. Their favorite question, — What is truth ? — is nothing better than a pretence and an excuse. The words of Solomon will be found true as long as the world stands : " If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understand- ing ; if thou seekest her as, silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." (Prov. ii. 4, 5.) No man ever followed that advice and missed the way to heaven.
Notes. John xviii. 28 — 40.
28. — l^Then led they Jesus from Caiaplias.'] A careful reader of tlie Gospels will not fail to observe here, that John entirely passes over the examination of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim of the Jews, which is so f ally described by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Specially he omits our Lord's confession, when adjured, that He was the Christ. He takes it all for granted, as a thing well known, and passes on to dwell on his far more important examination before Pilate, the Roman Governor. In this he brings out many striking particulars, which, for wise reasons, Matthew, Mark, and Luke did not record. Writing, as John did, long after the other three, and writing more especially for Gentile readers, we can well understand that he would give far more prominence to the proceedings before the Gentile Gover- nor, than to those before the Jewish Ecclesiastical Court. Yet it cannot be denied that there is a remarkable curtness and brevity in his statement of facts at this point. The Greek is literally they " lead," — in the present tense.
[ Unto the hall of judgment.'] This is a Latin word, and ad- mits of two views. The marginal reading, according to Schleus- ner and Parkhurst, is the correct translation. It is the " Gover- nor's palace," rather than the hall of judgment. According to Josephus, the praetors, or governors of Judaea, who ordinarily lived at Caesarea, when they were at Jerusalem, used Herod's palace, in the upper part of the city, as their residence. Some say it was the famous tower of Antonia.
[And it was early.] The precise time here meant we cannot exactly tell. It cannot have been so early as day-break, because we are especially told by Luke that the elders and chief priests and the Sanhedrim assembled to examine our Lord " as soon as