[5950] Besides other movements, we refer here specially to that under Theudas, who led out some 400 persons under promise of dividing Jordan, when both he and his adherents were cut down by the Romans (Jos. Ant. xx. 5. 1). At a later time an Egyptian Jew gathered 3,000 or 4,000 on the Mount of Olives, promising to cast down the walls of Jerusalem by the breath of his mouth (u. s. xx. 8, 6). Another impostor of that kind was Simon of Cyprus (u. s. xx. 7. 2), and, of course, Bar Kokhabh.
[5951] Deut. xvii. 6.
[5952] Rosh haSh. ii. 6.
[5953] It seems, to say the least, strange to explain the expression led Him into their sundrion' as referring to the regular Council-chamber (St. Luke xxii. 66).
[5954] At the same time I confess myself in no way anxious about an accord of details and circumstances. When, admittedly the facts entirely agree - nay, in such case, the accord of facts would be only the more striking.
[5955] St. Matt. xxii. 41-46.
[5956] St. Luke xxii. 67, 68; the clause nor let Me go' is spurious.
[5957] Sanh. vii. 5 Moed K. 26 a.
[5958] Other designations for it are Chillul haShem, and, euphemistically, Birkhath haShem.
[5959] But this does not seem to me to have been the actual sentence. In regard to the latter, see the formalities detailed in Sanh. iii. 7.
[5960] {hebrew}
[5961] Tanchuma Piqqudey, ed. Warsh. i. p. 132 b.
[5962] Sanch. iii. 7.
[5963] The President of the Judges said: "Such an one, thou ... art guilty"' (Sanh. iii. 7).
[5964] Jer. Yoma 44 c.
[5965] Have we advanced much beyond this, when the Parisian democracy can inscribe on its banners such words as Ecrasez l'Infâme' - and, horrible to relate it, teach its little children to bring to this its floral offerings?
[5966] Keth 37 b, top.
[5967] St. Luke.
[5968] There is not any indication in the text that, as Commentators suppose, Christ was at that moment led bound across the Court; nor, indeed, that till the morning He was at all removed from near the place where He had been examined. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XIV. THE MORNING OF GOOD FRIDAY.
(St. Matt. xxvii. 1, 2, 11-14; St. Mark xv. i-5; St. Luke xxiii. 1-5; St. John xviii. 28-38; St. Luke xxiii. 6-12; St. Matt. xxvii. 3-10; St. Matt. xxvii. 15-18; St. Mark St. Matt. xxvii. 20-31;; St. Mark xv. 11-20; St. Luke xxiii. 18-25; St. John St. Matt. xxvii. 20-31; St. Mark xv. 11-20; St. Luke xxiii. 18-25; St. John xix.1-16.)
The pale grey light had passed into that of early morning, when the Sanhedrists once more assembled in the Palace of Caiaphas. [5969] A comparison with the terms in which they who had formed the gathering of the previous night are described will convey the impression, that the number of those present was now increased, and that they who now came belonged to the wisest and most influential of the Council. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that some who would not take part in deliberations which were virtually a judicial murder might, once the resolution was taken, feel in Jewish casuitry absolved from guilt in advising how the informal sentence might best be carried into effect. It was this, and not the question of Christ's guilt, which formed the subject of deliberation on that early morning. The result of it was to bind' Jesus and hand Him over as a malefactor to Pilate, with the resolve, if possible, not to frame any definite charge; [5970] but, if this became necessary, to lay all the emphasis on the purely political, not the religious aspect of the claims of Jesus. [5971] [5972]
To us it may seem strange, that they who, in the lowest view of it, had committed so grossly unrighteous, and were now coming on so cruel and bloody a deed, should have been prevented by religious scruples from entering the Prætorium.' And yet the student of Jewish casuistry will understand it; nay, alas, history and even common observation furnish only too many parallel instances of unscrupulous scrupulosity and unrighteous conscientiousness. Alike conscience and religiousness are only moral tendencies natural to man; whither they tend, must be decided by considerations outside of them: by enlightenment and truth. [5973] The Prætorium,' to which the Jewish leaders, or at least those of them who represented the leaders - for neither Annas nor Caiaphas seems to have been personally present - brought the bound Christ, was (as always in the provinces) the quarters occupied by the Roman Governor. In Cæsarea this was the Palace of Herod, and there St. Paul was afterwards a prisoner. But in Jerusalem there were two such quarters: the fortress Antonia, and the magnificent Palace of Herod at the north-western angle of the Upper City. Although it is impossible to speak with certainty, the balance of probability is entirely in favour of the view that, when Pilate was in Jerusalem with his wife, he occupied the truly royal abode of Herod, and not the fortified barracks of Antonia. [5974] From the slope at the eastern angle, opposite the Temple-Mount, where the Palace of Caiaphas stood, up the narrow streets of the Upper City, the melancholy procession wound to the portals of the grand Palace of Herod. It is recorded, that they who brought Him would not themselves enter the portals of the Palace, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.'