, for which the
individual must live and die, with or against his will. In Jewish law,
the _person_ is made the main object, for which the State must live and
die; because the fundamental idea of the Roman law is power, and the
fundamental idea of Jewish law is justice."[523:1] _Therefore Caiaphas
and his conspirators did not act from the Jewish standpoint._ They
represented _Rome_, her principles, interest, and barbarous
caprices.[523:2] Not one point in the whole trial agrees with Jewish
laws and custom.[523:3] It is impossible to save it; it must be given up
as a transparent and unskilled invention of a _Gentile Christian_, who
knew nothing of Jewish law and custom, and was ignorant of the state of
civilization in Palestine, in the time of Jesus.

Jesus had been proclaimed the "_Messiah_," the "_Ruler of the Jews_,"
and the restorer of the kingdom of heaven. No Roman ear could understand
these pretensions, otherwise than in their rebellious sense. That
Pontius Pilate certainly understood under the title, "_Messiah_," the
king (the political chief of the nation), is evident from the
subscription of the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," which
he did not remove in spite of all protestations of the Jews. There is
only one point in which the _four_ Gospels agree, and that is, that
early in the morning Jesus was delivered over to the _Roman governor_,
Pilate; that he was accused of high-treason against _Rome_--having been
proclaimed King of the Jews--and that in consequence thereof he was
condemned first to be scourged, and then to be crucified; all of which
was done in hot haste. _In all other points the narratives of the
Evangelists differ widely_, and so essentially that one story cannot be
made of the four accounts; nor can any particular points stand the test
of historical criticism, and vindicate its substantiality as a fact.

The Jews could not have crucified Jesus, _according to their laws_, if
they had inflicted on him the highest penalty of the law, since
crucifixion was _exclusively Roman_.[524:1] If the priests, elders,
Pharisees, Jews, or all of them wanted Jesus out of the way so badly,
why did they not have him quietly put to death while he was in their
power, and done at once. The writer of the fourth Gospel seems to have
understood this difficulty, and informs us that they could not kill him,
_because he had prophesied what death he should die_; so he could die no
other. It was dire necessity,