The silence of Jesus before Pilate was due to moral reasons. Dr. Salmon, in his posthumous work, The Humaii Element in the Gospels (1907, p. 512), prefers, indeed, to attribute it to physical fatigue. ' The only way that occurs to one of accounting for His silence is that, after the strain of the work of the previ- ous day, of the sleepless night, and the brutal insults of His tormentors, His physical frame was incapable of conducting a discussion. And we could sufficiently account for Pilate's unwillingness to condemn, if he perceived that the man against whom so much accusation was brought was quite unable to saj' a word in His own defence. In this choice between Jesus and Barabbas, might he not feel that the more dangerous enemy to Csesar was the man in vigorous health who had already taken part in an insurrection in which many lives had been lost, and not the so-called prophet, who seemed unable to speak, much less to act. And if he had no trust in the loyalty of the Jewish advisers, might he not have even suspected that they were willing to sacrifice one whom they regarded as useless, in order to save the life of one who would be really dangerous ? ' What- ever may be thought of the psychological suggestions in the latter part of this paragraph, the opening sentence does not seem adequate to the facts. Even when wearied (46f-), Jesus would not allow fatigue to prevent Him from speaking, if utterance were necessary. If He was silent, it was because He was unwilling, not because He felt unable. Besides, the impression left by the record of the last two days of the life of Jesus is that His physical strength must have been considerable. Upon the whole, then, it is needless to attribute His silence before Pilate to any other reason than a belief that protestations of innocence were useless, coupled, as that belief was, with a calm consciousness of truth which left no room for even a vestige of anxiety about the ultimate success of His cause.
The impression made by Jesus upon Pilate started a series of attempts upon the part of the procurator to extricate himself and his prisoner from the situation created by the rancour of the Jewish authorities. Three separate movements were made by him in this direction. The first Avas to change the venue of the trial ; for Herod as a Galilsean might be expected to judge this Galilsean peasant more fairly than the Jerusalem authorities. After this device had failed, Pilate tried to get behind the priests, and appeal to the better feelings of the people Avhen unbiassed by sacerdotal and ecclesiastical intrigues ; surely a Messiah Avould be popular, he argued, recollecting the hot patriotism of the nation. But, to his disgust and dismay, Barabbas Avas preferred to Jesus. Finally, as a last resource, he tried to Avork on their pity, noAV that their patriotism Avas out of the question ; he presented Jesus to them, Avith the bloody marks of scourging upon Him, as an object to excite compassion (Jn 19^'-). This again proved of no avail, and Avith its collapse Pilate saAV the disappearance of the last chance of rescuing the prisoner. Such is, in rough outline, the scheme of events Avhich Ave can recover from a careful scrutiny of the extant records.
St. Luke, indeed, makes Pilate at once pronounce Jesus innocent (23''). But this is far too abrupt. The probability is that (Mk 15^-5 = Mt 2V--'*) the priests and elders continued to heap fresh accusa- tions upon Him, and that His silence under the strain of calumny roused Pilate's astonishment. The procurator Avas evidently puzzled to knoAv Avhat to do Avith this prisoner. For though silence may have been equivalent, in Roman laAV, to a
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confession of guilt, he was unwilling to pronounce sentence in this case without some f uither evidence, and the invectives of the JeAvisli authorities did not point to any conclusive or reliable ground for arriving at a judgment. The very silence of Jesus, as Keim properly observes, impressed the procurator more than the eager, noisy vehemence of His opponents. ' He did not infer guilt or obstinacy from the silence, as the official and imperious consciousness even of a mild Pliny the Younger was apt so quickly to do : an evidence this of Pilate's intelligence, and still more of the impression produced by the Lord even when He uttered no words.' In the midst of this perplexity the word ' Galilee,' flung up on the torrent of invective, caught his ear. He seemed to see a chance of relieving himself, and perhaps of helping Jesus. For if Jesus had been guilty of crime within the borders of Galilee, plainly Herod Antipas Avas the man to deal with Him ; he might be more impartial, too, than the local priests and scribes. Besides, it was a politic attention to Antipas. So the procurator gladly dismissed his prisoner to the Galihean tetrarch, only too relieved to be quit, as he hoped, of this inconvenient responsibility. But this change of venue Avas futile. It Avas not exactly illegal, for, as has been observed, tiie words of Lk 23* are probably intro- duced too early ; the other Gospels know nothing of sucii an acquittal at this point. But it did not help Pilate. The crafty Herod was shy of touching any chai^ge of majestas. As Mr. Taylor Innes puts it, ' the Idumean fox dreaded the lion's paw, while very Avilling to exchange courtesies with the lion's deputy.'