that the heathen symbol of life and
immortality--the cross[524:2]--should be brought to honor among the
early Christians, and Jesus had to die on the cross (the Roman Gibbet),
_according to John_[524:3] simply because it was so _prophesied_. The
fact is, the crucifixion story, like the symbol of the crucifix itself,
_came from abroad_.[524:4] It was told with the avowed intention of
exonerating the Romans, and criminating the Jews, so they make the Roman
governor take water, "and wash his hands before the multitude, saying,
_I_ am innocent of the blood of this _just person_: see _ye_ to it." To
be sure of their case, they make the Jews say: "_His blood be on us, and
on our children._"[524:5]

"Another fact is this. Just at the period of time when misfortune and
ruination befell the Jews most severely, in the first post-apostolic
generation, the Christians were most active in making proselytes among
Gentiles. To have then preached that _a crucified Jewish Rabbi of
Galilee_ was their Saviour, would have sounded supremely ridiculous to
those heathens. To have added thereto, that the said Rabbi was crucified
by command of a Roman Governor, because he had been proclaimed 'King of
the Jews,' would have been fatal to the whole scheme. In the opinion of
the vulgar heathen, where the Roman Governor and Jewish Rabbi came in
conflict, the former must unquestionably be right, and the latter
decidedly wrong. To have preached a Saviour who was justly condemned to
die the death of a slave and villain, would certainly have proved fatal
to the whole enterprise. Therefore it was necessary to exonerate Pilate
and the Romans, and to throw the whole burden upon the Jews, in order to
establish the innocence and martyrdom of Jesus in the heathen mind."

That the crucifixion story, as related in the synoptic Gospels, was
written _abroad_, and _not_ in the Hebrew, or in the dialect spoken by
the Hebrews of Palestine, is evident from the following particular
points, noticed by Dr. Isaac M. Wise, a learned Hebrew scholar:

The _Mark_ and _Matthew_ narrators call the place of crucifixion
"_Golgotha_," to which the Mark narrator adds, "which is, being
interpreted, _the place of skulls_." The Matthew narrator adds the same
interpretation, which the John narrator copies without the word
"_Golgotha_," and adds, _it was a place near Jerusalem_. The Luke
narrator calls the place of crucifixion "_Calvary_," which is the LATIN
_Calvaria_, viz., "_the p