r to the sentence of
death already decreed. Caiaphas or Annas[24] invites Him to give some
account of His disciples and of His doctrines. In some cases His
disciples carried arms, and among them was one zealot, and there might
be others known to the authorities as dangerous or suspected characters.
And Annas might expect that in giving some account of His teaching the
honesty of Jesus might betray Him into expressions which could easily be
construed to His prejudice. But he is disappointed. Jesus replies that
it is not for Him, arraigned and bound as a dangerous prisoner, to give
evidence against Himself. Thousands had heard Him in all parts of the
country. He had delivered those supposed inflammatory addresses not to
midnight gatherings and secret societies, but in the most public places
He could find--in the Temple, from which no Jew was excluded, and in the
synagogues, where official teachers were commonly present. Annas is
silenced; and mortified though he is, he has to accept the ruling of his
prisoner as indicating the lines on which the trial should proceed. His
mortification does not escape the notice of one of those poor creatures
who are ever ready to curry favour with the great by cruelty towards the
defenceless, or at the best of that large class of men who cannot
distinguish between official and real dignity; and the first of those
insults is given to the hitherto sacred person of Jesus, the first of
that long series of blows struck by a dead, conventional religion
seeking to quench the truth and the life of what threatens its slumber
with awakening.

Had the Roman governor not been present in the city the high priests and
their party might have ventured to carry into effect their own sentence.
But Pilate had already shown during his six years of office that he was
not a man to overlook anything like contempt of his supremacy. Besides,
they were not quite sure of the temper of the people; and a rescue, or
even an attempted rescue, of their prisoner would be disastrous.
Prudence therefore bids them hand Him over to Pilate, who had both legal
authority to put Him to death and means to quell any popular
disturbance. Besides, the purpose of Caiaphas could better be served by
bringing before the governor this claimant to the Messiahship.

Pilate was present in Jerusalem at this time in accordance with the
custom of the Roman procurators of Judaea, who came up annually from
their usual residence at Caesarea to t