nd them. So he
bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon
him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed
on; who laid upon them with much greater blows than Pilate had commanded
them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that
were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people
were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about,
there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others ran
away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition."[522:1]

It was such deeds as these, inflicted upon the Jews by their oppressors,
that made them think of the promised Messiah who was to deliver them
from bondage, and which made many zealous fanatics imagine themselves to
be "He who should come."[522:2]

There is reason to believe, as we have said, that Jesus of Nazareth
assumed the title of "_Messiah_." His age was throbbing and bursting
with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman Empire was required to
keep it down. "The Messianic hope had such vitality that it condensed
into moments the moral result of ages. The common people were watching
to see the heavens open, interpreted peals of thunder as angel voices,
and saw divine potents in the flight of birds. Mothers dreamed their
boys would be Messiah. The wildest preacher drew a crowd. The heart of
the nation swelled big with the conviction that the hour of destiny was
about to strike, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. _The crown was
ready for any kingly head that might assume it._"[522:3]

The actions of this man, throughout his public career, we believe to be
those of a zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom; in fact,
a Galilean fanatic. Pilate condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is
a harmless visionary, but is obliged to condemn him as one of the many
who persistently claimed to be the "_Messiah_," or "_King of the Jews_,"
an enemy of Caesar, an instrument against the empire, a pretender to the
throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he undergoes is the death
of the traitor and mutineer,[522:4] the death that was inflicted on many
such claimants, the death that would have been decreed to Judas the
Galilean,[522:5] had he been captured, and that was inflicted on
thousands of his deluded followers. _It was the Romans, then, who
crucified the man Jesus, and not the Jews._

"In the Roman law the _State_ is the main object