ad before him a narrative in which
the death of Jesus was erroneously attributed to Herod. In order not
to sacrifice this version entirely he must have combined the two
traditions. What makes this more likely is, that he probably had a
vague knowledge that Jesus (as John teaches us) appeared before three
authorities. In many other cases, Luke seems to have a remote idea of
the facts which are peculiar to the narration of John. Moreover, the
third Gospel contains in its history of the Crucifixion a series of
additions which the author appears to have drawn from a more recent
document, and which had evidently been arranged with a special view to
edification.]

[Footnote 5: John xix. 12, 15. Cf. Luke xxiii. 2. In order to
appreciate the exactitude of the description of this scene in the
evangelists, see Philo, _Leg. ad Caium_, Sec. 38.]

[Footnote 6: See _ante_, p. 351.]

[Footnote 7: Matt. xxvii. 24, 25.]

Were these words really uttered? We may doubt it. But they are the
expression of a profound historical truth. Considering the attitude
which the Romans had taken in Judea, Pilate could scarcely have acted
otherwise. How many sentences of death dictated by religious
intolerance have been extorted from the civil power! The king of
Spain, who, in order to please a fanatical clergy, delivered hundreds
of his subjects to the stake, was more blameable than Pilate, for he
represented a more absolute power than that of the Romans at
Jerusalem. When the civil power becomes persecuting or meddlesome at
the solicitation of the priesthood, it proves its weakness. But let
the government that is without sin in this respect throw the first
stone at Pilate. The "secular arm," behind which clerical cruelty
shelters itself, is not the culprit. No one has a right to say that he
has a horror of blood when he causes it to be shed by his servants.

It was, then, neither Tiberius nor Pilate who condemned Jesus. It was
the old Jewish party; it was the Mosaic Law. According to our modern
ideas, there is no transmission of moral demerit from father to son;
no one is accountable to human or divine justice except for that which
he himself has done. Consequently, every Jew who suffers to-day for
the murder of Jesus has a right to complain, for he might have acted
as did Simon the Cyrenean; at any rate, he might not have been with
those who cried "Crucify him!" But nations, like individuals, have
their responsibilities, and if ever crime was t