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THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTLTLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and Pilate now went straight out from the prae- 

 torium, and announced his verdict, perhaps from 

 the judgment-seat. Yet was this utterance, as it 

 turned out, only the first step in that downward 

 course of weakness the world knows so well : a 

 course which, beginning with indecision and com- 

 plaisance, passed through all the phases of al- 

 ternate bluster and subserviency ; persuasion, 

 evasion, protest, and compromise ; superstitious 

 dread, conscientious reluctance, cautious duplici- 

 ty, and sheer moral cowardice at last ; until this 

 Roman remains photographed forever as the 

 perfect feature of the unjust judge, deciding 

 "against his better knowledge, not deceived." 

 Upon some of the points in the evangelic narra- 

 tive we need not dwell. The graphic incident of 

 the judge catching at an allusion to Galilee, and, 

 on ascertaining that the man was a Galilean, 

 sending him to Herod, may be just noticed in 

 passing. The word used is avetrentyev (remmt), 

 which seems the proper technical term for re- 

 storing an accused to his proper jurisdiction, as 

 here in sending him from a. forum apprehensionis 

 to a forum originis. Herod's declinature was 

 prudent as well as courteous, when we remember 

 the terms of the accusation. A man, even a pro- 

 vincial, accused of majestas, "stood at Caesar's 

 judgment-seat, where he ought to be judged;" 

 and the Idumean "fox" may have dreaded the 

 lion's paw, while very willing to exchange cour- 

 tesies with the lion's deputy. The second ap- 

 pearance at the tribunal of the governor shows 

 a distinct accession of weakness on the part of 

 the judge, and of pressure upon him by the accus- 

 ers. His wife's l morning message troubles his 

 conscience, but does not purify his heart. Pilate 

 is now willing to " chastise him and let him go," 

 i. e., to mangle an innocent man with the savage 

 Roman scourge. The Jewish accusers refuse the 

 compromise ; and Pilate, characteristically, seems 

 to have left them under the impression that he 

 had finally sent him to the cross, while he still 

 intended to make a postponed appeal to their 

 compassion. But before taking his first step in 

 actual guilt, the judge washes his hands with the 

 memorably vain words, " I am innocent of the 

 blood of this just person: see ye to it." After 

 the scourging, the three evangelists record noth- 

 ing but the insults of the fierce soldiery to one 

 who waa given up to them as a Jewish traitor to 

 their emperor. But the later evangelist inter- 



1 There is a curious historical question whether the 

 wives of governors were at this time permitted to go 

 down to the province with their husbands, which turns 

 out in favor of Claudia Procula. 



poses a series of incidents which are now as be- 

 fore noted with the finest characterization and the 

 most delicate verisimilitude. He alone records 

 the "Behold the man ! " with which the struggling 

 procurator, whose "faith unfaithful" still made 

 him " falsely true," sought to move the multi- 

 tude. He alone records the response, "We have 

 a law, and by our law he ought to die, because 

 he made himself the Son of God " — an utterance 

 in exact accordance with that narrative of the 

 Hebrew trial which is given by all the Synoptics, 

 but which John has omitted. It is he who no- 

 tices the unexpected but most natural effect of 

 this claim upon the governor, whom the former 

 utterances of the king "come into the world" 

 had deeply impressed. " Whence art thou ? " he 

 almost tremulously demands. But from the first 

 moment of his vacillation Jesus had given him 

 no answer. Pilate, accordingly, at the very time 

 when he is described as inwardly " more afraid," 

 flashes out in that insolent tone which less 

 discriminating secular historians regard as the 

 only one characteristic of him : " Speakest thou 

 not unto me? knowest thou not that I have 

 power to crucify thee, and power to release 

 thee ? " Jesus breaks the silence by a final word 

 of answer, which is of high importance for our 

 subject: "Thou couldest have no power at all 

 over me, unless it were given thee from above : 

 therefore he that delivered me unto thee had the 

 greater sin." Some winters who hold that Pilate 

 alone had "jurisdiction " in this case, and that 

 the proceedings of the Sanhedrim were a usurpa- 

 tion, have appealed to this text, as containing in 

 its first clause an acknowledgment of the exclu- 

 sive right of the Roman tribunal, and in its last 

 a denunciation of the illegality, as well as treach- 

 ery, of Caiaphas. This is unwarranted, and in 

 the circumstances grotesque. Yet while we no- 

 tice here first of all the extreme consideration 

 and almost tenderness with which the sufferer 

 judges his judge, 1 we must confess that the 

 words, " Thy power (i^ovala) is given thee from 

 above," do relate themselves to the previous 

 acknowledgment of a " kingdom of this world," 

 a cosmos in which men are to give to Caesar the 

 things that are Cresar's ; while they add to that 

 former acknowledgment the explicit idea (after- 

 ward enforced by the apostles) that this earthly 

 kingdom with its earthly aims is also from above. 

 The powers that be are ordained of God; Pilate, 

 who knew this not, was abusing a great and le- 

 gitimate office partly through a heathen's igno- 

 rance ; and in so far he was less guilty than the 

 i "Judex judicantiuni.'" — Gocsius. 



