The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 575

sent by God, might be diepoeed of for ever, the latter e.t the pleasure of the Roman Hence arose the pel'l!ist.ent cry, "Oruoify govemors. Assuming this to be the ce.se, him I" (vel'I!. 22, 23). The Jewish view of Dr. Edersheim writes," From the slope of the cruoifixion ill seen in Dent. xxi. 2S and eastem angle, opposite the temple mount, GHI. iii. 13. They poBBibly fee.red some where the palaoe of Caiaphe.s stood, up the outbreak if they delayed the execntion, and narrow streets of the upper city, the mele.n- kept him prisoner till the conclusion of the oholy proooBBion wound to the portals of the feast, grand palace of Herod. It is recorded that Ver. 2.-Whsn they had bound him. With they who brought him would not themselves his Lands lied by a rope behind his baok, enter the portals of the pe.Iaoe, ' that they This was the treatment infl.ioted on oon- might not be defiled, but might ee.t the <lemned me.lefadors. Dnring the actne.l Passover'" (' Life and Times of Jesus,' ii. official prooeedings it was cnstome.ry to re- 565). lease the aocnsed pel'l!on from bonds; hence Vers. 3-10,-Remor,e and auicide of this new binding was neoeseary. What passed in the counoil before this indignity Judas, and the use made of the blood-money. was infliot.ed is, perhaps, told by St. Luke: (Peouliar t.o St. Mo.tthew; of. .A.cts i. 18, 19.) the Sauhedrists 88.tisfied themselves that Ver. 8.-Then. This transaction took they had a case age.inst Jeans sufficient for place either when Jeans was being con• their purpose, and they proceeded in a dncted t.o the Prmtorium, or during the body lo lay it before the governor. Pontius interview with Herod (Luke xxiii. 7-11). Pila.te the governor ( -r,j ;,-y,µ,&11,). Some A. great number of the Sanhedrists had now _g- od mannscripts omit ":;,>ontius," as in 0 withdrawn to the temple, e.nd were sitting l\I:1.rk and Luke; but there seems to be no in conclave there. When he se.w the.t he doubt that he bore tb.i1 ftOfflen gentilfoium we.s oondemned, He evidently had not (see 8.g. Tacitns, • .A.nn.,' xv. 44), which contemplated the full consequences of his connected him with the Samnite gem of the crime; he never expected that the Jewish Pontii He was the sixth Roman Procure.tor rulers wonld prooeed to snch extremities. of J ndaie., and his title in Greek was It is probable that, in his Iust for gain and br!-rporos rather tha.n 7/'Y'~"• which was a his loss of love for his Master, he bad more general term for a oomme.nder or chief thongllt of nothing but his own sordid possessing more extensive powers. He held interests, and now Wl!.B appalled at the share the office under the Praifect of Syria for ten which he had had in bringing to pass this years, at the end of which time he WM awful resnlt. The excuse made in modem removed for cruelty and extortion, 11.lld days for Jndas, that be wished only to force banished to Vienne, in Gaul, where he put onr Lord to exert his Divine power, e.nd an end to hill own life. The turbulence and to declare himself Messiah, is refuted by national animosity of the Jews had rendered one out of many considerations (see on eh, it necesse.ry to invest the procnrator with xxvi 14). His remorse at this moment bas the power of life e.nd death, which he UBed to be accounted for. If he still believed in in the most unscrnpulons manner, BO that; Christ's Divine oommiBBion, he would not he was univenmlly hated 11.lld feared. The have despaired of s happy resnlt even after quarters of the Roman governor were called hill condemnation, nay, even when he was the Pnetorium, 11.lld io this Christ W&B led. hanging on the cross. Christ's power to Pilate nsually resided at Cmsarea., but came deliver himself and to assume his Messie.nio io J ernse.lem at the grtat festival, to be position remained unimpaired by these ready to quell any fanatical outbreak that seemingly adverse circumstances, and e. ruight occnr. So nowadays the Tnrb keep believer wonld have waited for the end a body of troops in the same city to preserve before he surrendered all hope. J udas's the peace between Christian worshippers at character is not bettered by considering Easter(!). Whether Pile.ta occupied the that he did evil that good might come, or be.rracb at the fortress .Antonia, or the that he we.s led to hie base course by the me.gnincent palace of Herod, sitne.ted e.t the hope that his worldly interests would be north-west angle of the upper city, is un- improved by the establishment ofMessiah'a certain ; but e.s we know that the Roman temporal kingdom. That he had now any procnraton did reside in Herod's palace, desire or ambition for a place in a spiritual and as on this occe.sion Pilate was accom- kingdom cannot be conceived, for lie had panied by hill wife (ver. 19), it is most evidently lost all faith in Jesus, and followed probe.Lie that he took up his a.bode in the him only for the most sordid motives. Re- latter, e.nd that JesUB was brought before pented himself (p •.,,.,..,,..,9ds). This word him there. Herod had a honse of his own (differing from µ,-ra..,ol,.,, which expresses on the east of Zion, opposite the castle, ohange of heart) denotes only a ohange of which he seems to have occupied more feeliag1 e. desire that what has been done often the.n his father'• pa.lace, thus leaving could De undone; thi1 i1 not; tllpentanoe oa, xxvn. 1-66.) THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO BT. MATTHEW. 681