Such danger a Pilate would never encounter. He sat down once more in the judgment-seat, outside the Prætorium, in the place called Pavement,' and, from its outlook over the City, Gabbatha,' [6030] the rounded height.' So solemn is the transaction that the Evangelist pauses to note once more the day - nay, the very hour, when the process had commenced. It had been the Friday in Passover-week, [6031] and between six and seven of the morning. [6032] And at the close Pilate once more in mockery presented to them Jesus: Behold your King!' [6033] Once more they called for His Crucifixion - and, when again challenged, the chief priests burst into the cry, which preceded Pilate's final sentence, to be presently executed: We have no king but Cæsar!'
With this cry Judaism was, in the person of its representatives, guilty of denial of God, of blasphemy, of apostasy. It committed suicide; and, ever since, has its dead body been carried in show from land to land, and from century to century: to be dead, and to remain dead, till He come a second time, Who is the Resurrection and the Life! __________________________________________________________________
[5969] This is so expressly stated in St. John xviii. 28, that it is difficult to understand whence the notion has been derived that the Council assembled in their ordinary council-chamber.
[5970] St. John xviii. 29, 30.
[5971] St. Luke xxiii. 2.
[5972] Comp. St. Matt. xxvii. 1 with. xxvi. 59, where the words and elders' must be struck out; and St. Mark xv. 1 with xiv. 55.
[5973] These are the Urim and Thummim of the anima naturaliter Christiana.'
[5974] This is, of course, not the traditional site, nor yet that which was formerly in favour. But as the Palace of Herod undoubtedly became (as all royal residences) the property of the State, and as we have distinct evidence that Roman Procurators resided there, and took their seat in front of that Palace on a raised pavement to pronounce judgment (Jos. War ii. 14. 8; comp. Philo, ad Caj. § 38), the inference is obvious, that Pilate, especially as he was accompanied by his wife, resided there also.
[5975] The various reasons for this need not here be discussed. As these pages are passing through the press (for a second edition) my attention has been called to Dr. Schürer's brochure (Ueber phagen t pscha,' Giessen, 1883), intended to controvert the interpretation of St. John xviii. 28, given in the text. This is not the place to enter on the subject at length. But I venture to think that, with all his learning, Dr. Schürer has not quite met the case, nor fully answered the argument as put by Kirchner and Wieseler. Putting aside any argument from the supposed later date of the Priest-Codex,' as compared with Deuter., and indeed the purely Biblical argument, since the question is as to the views entertained in the time of Christ, Schürer argues: 1. That the Chagigah was not designated by the term Pesach. 2. That the defilement from entering a heathen house would not have ceased in the evening (so as to allow them to eat the Passover), but have lasted for seven days, as being connected with the suspicion that an abortus - i.e. a dead body - might be buried in the house. On the first point we refer to Note 1 on the next page, only adding that, with all his ingenuity, Schürer has not met all the passages adduced on the other side, and that the view advocated in the text is that adopted by many Jewish scholars. The argument on the second point is even more unsatisfactory. The defilement from entering the Prætorium, which the Sanhedrists dreaded, might be - or rather, in this case must have been - due to other causes than that the house might contain an abortus or a dead body. And of such many may be conceived, connected either with the suspected presence of an idol in the house or with contact with an idolator. It is, indeed, true that Ohol. xviii. 7 refers to the suspicion of a buried abortus as the cause of regarding the houses of Gentiles as defiled; but even so, it would be too much to suppose that a bare suspicion of this kind would make a man unclean for seven days. For this it would have been necessary that the dead body was actually within the house entered, or that what contained it had been touched. But there is another and weightier consideration. Ohol. xviii. 7 is not so indefinite as Dr. Schürer implies. It contains a most important limitation. In order to make a house thus defiled (from suspicion of an abortus buried in it), it states that the house must have been inhabited by the heathen for forty days, and even so the custody of a Jewish servant or maid would have rendered needless a bediqah, or investigation (to clear the house of suspicion). Evidently, the Prætorium would not have fallen under the category contemplated in Ohol. xviii. 7, even if (which we are not prepared to admit) such a case would have involved a defilement of seven days. Thus Schürer's argument falls to the ground. Lastly, although the Chagigah could only be brought by the offerer in person, the Paschal Lamb might be brought for another person, and then the tebhul yom partake of it. Thus, if the Sanhedrists had been defiled in the morning they might have eaten the Pascha at night. Dr. Schürer in his brochure repeatedly appeals to Delitzsch (Zeitschr. f. Luther. Theol. 1874, pp. 1-4); but there is nothing in the article of that eminent scholar to bear out the special contention of Schürer, except that he traces the defilement of heathen houses to the cause in Ohal.xviii.7. Delitzsch concludes his paper by pointing to this very case in evidence that the N.T. documents date from the first, and not the second century of our era.