nd proclamation of truth. Pilate understood nothing of
this grand idealism.[3] Jesus doubtless impressed him as being an
inoffensive dreamer. The total absence of religious and philosophical
proselytism among the Romans of this epoch made them regard devotion
to truth as a chimera. Such discussions annoyed them, and appeared to
them devoid of meaning. Not perceiving the element of danger to the
empire that lay hidden in these new speculations, they had no reason
to employ violence against them. All their displeasure fell upon those
who asked them to inflict punishment for what appeared to them to be
vain subtleties. Twenty years after, Gallio still adopted the same
course toward the Jews.[4] Until the fall of Jerusalem, the rule which
the Romans adopted in administration, was to remain completely
indifferent to these sectarian quarrels.[5]

[Footnote 1: Luke xxiii. 2, 5.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xxvii. 11; Mark xv. 2; Luke xxiii. 3; John xviii.
33.]

[Footnote 3: John xviii. 38.]

[Footnote 4: _Acts_ xviii. 14, 15.]

[Footnote 5: Tacitus (_Ann._, xv. 44) describes the death of Jesus as
a political execution by Pontius Pilate. But at the epoch in which
Tacitus wrote, the Roman policy toward the Christians was changed;
they were held guilty of secretly conspiring against the state. It was
natural that the Latin historian should believe that Pilate, in
putting Jesus to death, had been actuated by a desire for the public
safety. Josephus is much more exact (_Ant._, XVIII. iii. 3.)]

An expedient suggested itself to the mind of the governor by which he
could reconcile his own feelings with the demands of the fanatical
people, whose pressure he had already so often felt. It was the custom
to deliver a prisoner to the people at the time of the Passover.
Pilate, knowing that Jesus had only been arrested in consequence of
the jealousy of the priests,[1] tried to obtain for him the benefit of
this custom. He appeared again upon the _bima_, and proposed to the
multitude to release the "King of the Jews." The proposition made in
these terms, though ironical, was characterized by a degree of
liberality. The priests saw the danger of it. They acted promptly,[2]
and in order to combat the proposition of Pilate, they suggested to
the crowd the name of a prisoner who enjoyed great popularity in
Jerusalem. By a singular coincidence, he also was called Jesus,[3]
and bore the surname of Bar-Abba, or Bar-Rabban.[4] He was a
well-known p