Chapter
9.
Then he summoned Nicodemus and the twelve
God-fearing Jews, and said to them: What do you say that I should
do? because the people are in commotion. They say: We do
not know: do as thou wilt; but what the people do, they do
unjustly, in order to kill him. Pilate again went outside, and
said to the people: You know that in the feasts of unleavened
bread it is customary that I free on your account one of the criminals
kept in custody. I have, then, one malefactor in the prison, a
robber named Barabbas. I have also Jesus, who has never done any
evil. Which of the two, then, do you wish that I release to
you? The people answered: Release to us Barabbas.
Pilate says: What then shall I do with Jesus? They
say: Let him be crucified.1893
Again, others of them
cried out: If thou
release Jesus, thou art
no
friend of Cæsar,
1894
because he
calls himself Son of
God, and king. And if thou free him, he
becomes a king, and will take Cæsar’s
kingdom.
Pilate therefore was enraged, and said:
Always has your nation been devilish1895
and
unbelieving; and ever have you been
adversaries to your
benefactors. The Hebrews say: And who were our
benefactors?
Pilate says:
God, who freed you out of the
hand of
Pharaoh, and brought you through the
Red Sea as upon dry
land,
and fed you with quails, and gave you
water to drink out of the dry
rock, and who gave you a
law which, denying
God you broke; and if
Moses
had not stood and entreated
God, you would have
perished by a
bitter
death. All these, then, you have forgotten. Thus also, even
now, you say that I do not at all
love Cæsar, but
hate him, and
wish to plot against his
kingdom.
And having thus spoken, Pilate rose up from the
throne with anger, wishing to flee from them. The Jews therefore
cried out, saying: We wish Cæsar to be king over us, not
Jesus, because Jesus received gifts1896
1896 The word here,
χάρισμα, is used in
the New Testament only of gifts and graces bestowed by God, and
specially of the miraculous gifts imparted to the early Christians by
the Holy Ghost. The word in Matt. ii. 11 is δῶρα. |
from the
Magi. And
Herod also heard this—that there was going to be
a king—and wished to put him to
death, and for this purpose sent
and put to
death all the
infants that were in Bethlehem. And on
this account also his
father Joseph and his mother fled from
fear of
him into Egypt.
1897
So then Pilate, hearing this, silenced all
the people, and said: This, then, is the Jesus whom Herod then
sought that he might put him to death? They say to him:
Yes. Pilate therefore, having ascertained that he was of the
jurisdiction of Herod, as being derived of the race of the Jews, sent
Jesus to him. And Herod, seeing Him, rejoiced greatly, because he
had been long desiring to see Him, hearing of the miracles which He
did. He put on Him, therefore, white garments. Then he
began to question Him. But Jesus did not give him an
answer. And Herod, wishing to see also some miracle or other done
by Jesus, and not seeing it, and also because He did not answer him a
single word, sent Him back again to Pilate.1898
1898 Luke xxiii. 6–11. [The only passage directly
interpolated into Luke’s narrative is “as being derived of
the race of the Jews.” A curious blunder of the
compiler!—R.] |
Pilate, seeing this, ordered
his officers to bring
water. Washing, then, his
hands with the
water, he said to the people: I am
innocent of the
blood of this
good man. See you to it, that he is unjustly put to
death, since
neither I have found a fault in him, nor
Herod; for because of this he
has sent him back again to me. The
Jews said: His
blood be
upon us, and upon our
children.
1899
Then Pilate sat down upon his throne to pass
sentence. He gave order, therefore, and Jesus came before
him. And they brought a crown of thorns, and put it on His head,
and a reed into His right hand.1900
Then he
passed sentence, and said to Him: Thy
nation says, and testifies
against thee, that thou wishest to be a king. Therefore I
decree
that they shall beat thee first with a rod forty strokes, as the laws
of the kings decree, and that they shall mock thee; and finally, that
they shall crucify thee.
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