him i ver. 12), and in the refusal to alter the inscription
on the cm— (ver. 22). In any case Pilate acce| ted as satisfactory Christ's assurance that his linffdom was not of this world, that is. not worldly in its nature ,,r ob- jects, and therefore not t,i be founded by tin- world's
weapons, though he < Id not understand the assertion
that it was to he established by hearing witness to the truth. His famous reply. " What is truthf" was the question of a worldly-minded politician, sceptical be- cause he was indifferent, one who thought truth an empty name or at least could not -,e ■■any connection between iXridua and (iaoiktia, truth and policy" il»r. i . Wordsworth, Comm, ad loci. With this question ho
PILATE
201
PILATE
brought the interview to a close, and came out to the Jews and declared the prisoner innocent. To this they replied that his teaching had stirred up all the people from Galilee to Jerusalem. The mention of Galilee suggested to Pilate a new way of escaping from his di- lemma, by sending on the case to Herod Antipas, te- trarch of that country, who had come up to Jerusalem to the feast, while at the same time this gave him an opportunity for making overtures of reconciliation to Herod, with whose jurisdiction he had probably in some recent instance interfered. But Herod, though propiti- ated by this act of courtesy, declined to enter into the matter, and merely sent Jesus back to Pilate dressed in a shining kingly robe (tc^iira Xa/.nrpdv, Luke xxiii, 11), to express his ridicule of such pretensions, and con- tempt for the whole business. So Pilate was compelled to come to a decision, and first, having assembled the chief priests and also the people, whom he probably summoned in the expectation that they would be favor- able to Jesus, he announced to them that the accused had done nothing worthy of death, but at the same time, in hopes of pacifying the Sanhedrim, he proposed to scourge him before he released him. Put as the ac- cusers were resolved to have his blood, they rejected this concession, and therefore Pilate had recourse to a fresh expedient. It was the custom for the Roman governor to grant every year, in honor of the Passover, pardon to one condemned criminal. The origin of the practice is unknown, though we may connect it wilh the fact mentioned by Livy (v, 13) that at a Lectister- nium "vinctis quoque dempta vincula." Pilate there- fore offered the people their choice between two, the murderer Barabbas, and the prophet whom a few days before they had hailed as the Messiah. To receive their decision he ascended the /3j//<«, a portable tribunal which was carried about with a Roman magistrate to be placed wherever he might direct, and which in the present case was erected on a tessellated pavement (Xi- $6(TTpujToi>) in front of the palace, and called in Hebrew Gabbatha, probably from being laid down on a slight elevation (ft~Z, " to be high"). As soon as Pilate had taken his seat, he received a mysterious message from his wife, according to tradition a proselyte of the gate (^foo-f/S/yt), named Procla or Claudia Procula {Evany. Nicod. ii), who had " suffered many things in a dream," which impelled her to entreat her husband not to con- demn the Just One. But he had no longer any choice in the matter, for the rabble, instigated of course by the priests, chose Barabbas for pardon, and clamored for the death of Jesus; insurrection seemed imminent, and Pi- late reluctantly yielded. But before issuing the fatal order he washed his hands before the multitude, as a sign that be was innocent of the crime, in imitation probably of the ceremony enjoined in Deut. xxi, where it is ordered that when the perpetrator of a murder is not discovered, the elders of the city in which it occurs shall wash their hands, with the declaration, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it." Such a practice might naturally be adopted even by a Roman, as intelligible to the Jewish multi- tude around him. As in the present case it produced no effect, Pilate ordered his soldiers to inflict the scourg- ing preparatory to execution; but the sight of unjust suffering so patiently borne seems again to have troubled his conscience, and prompted a new effort in favor of the victim. He brought him out bleeding from the savage punishment, and decked in the scarlet robe and crown of thorns which the soldiers had put on him in derision, and said to the people, "Behold the man!" hoping that such a spectacle would rouse them to shame and compassion. But the priests only renewed their clamors for his death, and, fearing that the political charge of treason might be considered insufficient, re- turned to their first accusation of blasphemy, and quot- ing the law of Moses (Lev. xxiv, Pi), which punished blasphemy with stoning, declared that he must die " be-
cause he made himself the Son of God." But this title i/ldg Siov augmented Pilate's superstitious fears, already aroused by his wife's dream (/.iciXXov i0o/3//3)/, John xix, 7); he feared that Jesus might be one of the he- roes or demigods of his own mythology; he took him again into the palace, and inquired anxiously into his descent ("Whence art thou?") and his claims, but, as the question was only prompted by fear or curiosity, Jesus made no reply. "When Pilate reminded him of his own absolute power over him, he closed this last conversation with the irresolute governor by the mourn- ful remark : " Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above ; therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." God had given to Pilate power over him, and power only, but to those who delivered him up God had given the means of judging of his claims; and therefore Pilate's sin, in merely exercising this power, was less than theirs who, being God's own priests, with the Scriptures before them, and the word of prophecy still alive among them (John xi, 50; xviii, 14), bad deliberately conspired for his death. The result of this interview was one last effort to save Jesus by a fresh appeal to the multitude; but now arose the formidable cry, " If thou let this man go, thou art not Ctesar's friend," and Pilate, to whom political success was as the breath of life, again ascended the tribunal, and finally pronounced the desired con- demnation.