They all declare he is worthy of death, and abuse him. witness for we our 373 clxxxv. What further need have we of witnesses? Behold SECT. now you have heard his blasphemy with your own ears. What think ye therefore as to the punish- Mat. 66 What think ye? ment he deserves? They answered and said, He XXVI. They answered and is guilty of the most notorious of all crimes, and 66 said, He is guilty of death: [LUKE, What deserves immediately to be put to death; what need we any further need have we indeed of any other testimony? for selves have heard of we ourselves have heard [it from his own mouth. his own mouth. [And And thus they all condemned him as guilty of a they all condemned capital crime; and accordingly sentence was him to be guilty of death.] [MARK XIV. passed upon him, no witness appearing in his -64. LUKE XXII. defence, and none daring to plead his cause1; though some of the council, who had a friendship, for him, and particularly Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, disapproving these unrighteous proceedings, either absented themselves, or withdrew, (Compare Luke xxiii. 50, 51, and John xix. 38. sect. excii.) 71.] LUKE XXII. 63. [Then] the men that held Jesus, mocked Then the men that attended the court, and had Luke Jesus in custody, finding he was condemned by XXII.63 him, [MARK, and the sanhedrim, insulted him with renewed injusome began to spit in ries and affronts, and carried that insolent usage his face,] [MARK, and to buffet him:] and yet further than they had done before; for [others] smote him. some of them with rude indignity began even to MAT. XXVI. 67. spit in his face, and to buffet him; and others MARK XIV.65.-] scornfully abused and beat him: And, in de- 64 had blind folded him, vision of his title to the character he claimed, [MARK, the servants] having covered his eyes, the officers and servants struck him on the face struck him on the face with the palms of their [with the palms of their hands,] and asked hands, and on the head with staves: and, in a him, scoffing and contemptuous manner, asked him, 64 And when they They answered and said, He is guilty of death.] A man who did not know the mighty influence of attachment to an hypothesis by frequent observation, would be astonished that any learned, accurate and candid writer, should not be able to see the mark of a judicial process and sentence here; and yet should see them in the case of Stephen. Yet this is really the case. 1 No witness appearing in his defence, &c.] Dr. Samuel Harris, in his Observations on the Old Testament, (p. 109. & seq. quarto edit.) has, with much greater learning and ingenuity than solidity, endeavoured to prove this circumstance referred to in Isaiah's words, chap. liii. 8. Who shall declare his generation? and his first and second dissertation prefixed to his essay chiefly centre in this point. saying, council, in which he tells us he was exa- m Carried that insolent usage yet farther than they had done before.] Luke mentions these indignities before his being led to the 3 A 2 n Many 374 SECT. 65 Reflections on the examination of Jesus by the Jews. saying, Now shew us how thou canst divine; him, saying, Prophesy clxxxv. and, if thou art indeed the true Messiah, pro- who is it that smote [unto us thou Christ,] Luke phesy to us, O [thou] Christ, who is he that smote thee? [MAT. XXVI. XXII.64 thee? Such were the vile indignities they of--67, 68. MARK XIV. fered him, and many other things they blasphe-And many mously spake against him": so that, on the ther things blasphewhole, had he been the vilest malefactor, they mously spake they a could not have used him worse; and common gainst him. humanity, even in that case, would not have allowed of such barbarous insults. 0 Luke 63--65 XIV. 60, 61 IMPROVEMENT. THUS was the patient Lamb of God surrounded by his bloodthirsty enemies: Thus did the dogs encompass him, and the strong bulls of Bashan beset him on every side; (Psal. xxii. 12, 16.) Thus was he brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth: (Is. liii. 7, 8.) He Mark was taken from judgment, and suffered the worst kind of murder, even that which had the appearance of being legal. But those gentle words which he dropped in the midst of all the injuries which were offered him are surely worthy ever to be recorded xviii. 23, and remembered. It had always been his care to provide things honest in the sight of all men and as he answered with a most graceful and courageous appeal to all that heard him, as to the innocence and usefulness of his doctrine; so it is well worthy our observation and reflection that God so far restrained the rage and malice of hell, that no such false witnesses arose against him, Mat. as could on the whole asperse his character, or bring it under any xxvi. brand of public infamy; though Judas, as well as others, might John 59, 60 63, 64 have sought a reward, or at least an indemnity, for their own villainy, in accusing him. And indeed it is no inconsiderable instance of God's providential government of the world, that wicked men are restrained by this one remainder of reverence for the Divine omniscience, and dread of his vengeance, from destroying the reputations and lives of his children; especially in countries where (as in our own) the punishment which human laws inflict on perjury is so much below its desert. When Jesus was examined on oath he witnessed a good confession, and cited those that were now his judges to appear at his bar. Nor was it a vain boast! The Son of man is now sitting at the right-hand of power, and will ere long come in the clouds of n Many other things they blasphemously spake against him.] There is something very remarkable in this expression. They charged him with blasphemy in asserting heaven: himself to be the Son of God; but the evangelist fixes that charge on them, because he really was so. a An The Jews consult how to put Jesus to death. 375 clxxxv. heaven and then they that condemned, and insulted, and pierced SECT. him, shall mourn because of him, (Rev. i. 7.) May we be now so wise as to kiss the Son in token of our humble allegiance to him, lest he be then justly angry with us: yea, lest we immediately perish from the way, when his wrath is but beginning to be kindled! (Psal. ii. 12.) SECT. CLXXXVI. Jesus is brought before Pilate: The Jews demand judgment against him, and Pilate examines him. Mat. XXVII. 1, 2, 11—14. Luke XXIII. 1—4. John XVIII. 28-38. Mark XV. 1—5. MAT. XXVII. 1. [AND straightway] when the morn elders of the people, [and scribes, and the whole council,] against Jesus, to put him to MAT. XXVII. 1. clxxxvi. Mat. SUCH were the vile proceedings of this hor- SECT. ing was come, all the rid and malignant night, and thus was Jesus chief priests [held a condemned, and treated as a malefactor by the consultation with the] Jewish rulers. And as soon as morning was XXVII. come, all the chief priests, having put Jesus out 1 of the room where the sanhedrim met, consulted with the elders of the people, and the scribes, and the whole sanhedrim, what method they should take to execute this sentence they had passed against Jesus, and how they might contrive to put him to death in the most severe and contemptuous manner. death. [MARK XV. 1.-] 2 And when they the whole multitude And after he had been insulted by the ser- 2 had bound him, [LUKE vants at the council-chamber, when for the of them arose, and] greater security they had bound him again', the they led him away, whole multitude of them arose, and led him away [Joy, unto the hall from thence to the prætorium (as it was properly of judgment], and delivered called) or to the judgment-ball, in which the Roman magistrate was used to sit for the dispatch of public business: for the Jews being now a conquered people, and not having the power of life and death in their hands, they could not execute Jesus without a warrant from the a All the chief priests consulted, &c.] Many critics explain this of their adjourning to consult together, from the house of Caiaphas, to the place where the sanhedrim used to meet but it appears from Luke this was the place where they had before assembled and passed sentence upon Jesus after his first examination in the house of Caiaphas; and his account of this matter is so circumstantial, that I think it more reasonable to take these words in the order in which they are explained in the para- b When they had bound him again.] They ❤ Not 576 They carry him to Pilate, to order his execution; [MARK XV.--1. LUKE SECT: the Romans; and therefore, to procure their livered him to Pontius clxxxvi. order for his death, as well as to render it the Pilate the governor. more ignominious and painful, they determined XXIII.1. JOHN XVIII. XXVII. immediately to carry him to them; and to ask, -28.-] Mat. John 2 not a confirmation of the sentence which they 28 JOHN XVIII.-28. passover. And though by this time it was broad dayXVIII. light, yet it was very early in the morning, and And it was early, and much sooner than the governor used to appear: they themselves went not into the judgmenthe was therefore called up on this extraordinary hall, lest they should occasion, but they themselves went not into the be defiled; but that palace, of which the judgment hall was a part, they might eat the because it was the house of a Gentile, and they were apprehensive lest they should be polluted, and so prevented from eating those sacrifices which were offered on this first day of unleavened bread, and were looked upon as a very considerable part of the passover, of which the paschal Jamb, which they had eaten the evening before, was only the beginning. 29 Pilate therefore, willing in this instance to oblige the heads of the nation he governed, com c Not having the power of life and death in their hands, &c.] That the Jewish sanhedrim had a power of trying and condemning men for crimes which the Jewish law made capital, cannot I think be doubted, and has all along been taken for granted in this work and since the publication of the first edition it has been abundantly confirmed by Mr. Biscoe's learned and elaborate dissertation on the subject, in his Sermons at Boyle's Lecture, chap. vi. part i. p. 123, & seq. But that they had at this time a power of executing such sentences without the express consent of the Roman governor, reither Mr. Manne's remarks (Essay i. p. 13-19), nor Mr. Biscoe's much larger argumentation, seem to me satisfactorily to prove. I still think what Dr. Lardner has written on the other side of the question unanswerable; and indeed wonder that any can doubt of the matter after reading this story. For surely nothing but a sense of necessity could, on the whole, have brought the Jewish rulers to Pilate on this occasion; plied 29 Pilate then went out since the rendering the execution itself precarious would have balanced the argument their cruelty might find, in the contingency of its being more painful, if it should in fact be obtained. Compare John xviii. 31, p. 377. (See Dr. Lardner's Credib. part i. book i. chap. 2, § 5, 6, Vol. I. p. 65-106, and Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. xx. cap. 9 (al. 8.) § 1.) And indeed the Jewish writers own that no such power was exercised by the sanhedrim for forty years before the destruction of the temple, as Dr. Lightfoot shews by several quotations from the Talmud (Hor. Heb. on Mat. xxvi. 3, and John xviii. 31.) though he supposes it was only lost by their disuse of it, and was not taken from them by the Romans.-The chief arguments for their having such a power (from Mat. xxvi. 66. John viii. 33. xviii. 31. Acts vii. 57, 58. xii. 2. xxii. 4, 3. xxiii. 27. xxiv. 6. xxvi. 10.) are either directly answered in the notes, or obviated in the paraphrase, on those places. d A notorious But Pilate endeavours to shift off the affair. 377 out unto them and plied so far with their religious scruples that, SECT. bring ye against this leaving the prætorium, he came out of his house said, What accusation man? clxxxvi. to them; and finding it was an affair of solem- John They answered and said to him, with some in- 30 decent smartness in the expression (the consequence of a secret indignation to find themselves curbed by a superior power), We could not but have hoped you were so well acquainted with the sanctity of our court, and the integrity of our character, as to conclude, that if this man were not a notorious offender, we would not have brought and delivered him to thee; for as we would be far from any thought of punishing an innocent man, so if his crime had not been very great, we might have dealt with him ourselves without thy concurrence. Then Pilate said to them, Take ye him back to 31 your own court again, and judge him according to your law; for I am by no means desirous of interfering with you in the regular exercise of your judicial power. And this he said with a view of shifting off from himself an affair to which in the general he could be no stranger; and which he easily saw would be attended with many perplexing circumstances. Then the Jews said to him again, You well know that it is not now lawful for us to put any man to death without your concurrence (compare Mat. xxvii. 2, p. 576): but it is a capital crime d A notorious offender.] So I render xx in this connection, because they had still the power of inflicting slighter punishments; so that their bringing him to Pilate was a proof that they judged him to have incurred a capital sentence. The word malefactor has much the same sense in our ordinary speech. e With a view of shifting off from himself, &c.] Pilate could not be entirely ignorant of the case before him; for he began his government at Jerusalem before Jesus entered on his public ministry; and, besides many other extraordinary things which he must formerly have heard concerning him, he had, no doubt, been informed at large of his public entrance into Jerusalem the beginning of the week; and also of his apprehension, in which the Jewish rulers were assisted by a Roman cohort, £ And |