Jesus at the Pretorium and before Herod: Part 1 of 2

Chapter III: Jesus at the Pretorium and before Herod

John xviii. 28-40; Matt. xxvii. 2, 11-25; Mark xv. 1-14; Luke xxiii. 1-25.

The Sanhedrin, as we have seen, had determined to deliver Jesus to the jurisdiction of Pilate; the priests, however, because their presence was demanded at the Temple for the morning sacrifice, could not accompany Him; but the rest of the assembly formed a lengthy retinue around Jesus, which, after crossing the town, conducted the Prisoner within the precincts of the Pretorium.

The Roman Governors were accustomed to take up their residence in the palaces of the princes whom they had supplanted, and, generally speaking, the Procurators occupied Herod's royal seat on Mount Sion; but during the Paschaltide, Pilate resided in Antonia, the fortress erected north of the Temple and overlooking the porches.  From the steep heights of this citadel, he could beat down any tumult of revolt, while at the same time he enjoyed its large and kingly appointments, its lofty galleries and baths, with the immense courts where his legionaries could all comfortably be encamped.

Jesus before Pilate. J-J Tissot.

Borne along into one of these halls, Jesus stood at last in Pilate's presence.  He was not altogether a stranger to the Governor, for although Galilee and Perea, the usual field of His Ministry, were not subject to the Roman jurisdiction, yet his preaching had so deeply stirred Jerusalem that reports of these events must have reached Caesarea long before now.  

Besides this, Pilate's wife had come to be secretly drawn to the worship of Jehovah, and thereafter, touched by the virtue of Him Whom she called "The Just," she had often conversed with the Procurator concerning Him.  Accordingly we see him fully informed as to everything concerning Jesus, – His title of Christ, the relentless spite of the Sanhedrin, and the bitter fanaticism which had hunted Him down.

The Captive was alone; His accusers, despite their animosity, could not venture to cross the threshold of the Pretorium.  The dread of being contaminated, and thereby debarred from participating in the Passover, could even overmaster the longings which now filled their breasts to support their denunciations in person.  However, if only by the shackles which pinioned Jesus' arms, Pilate would easily understand that the Sanhedrin desired His death, it being their usage to deliver up in this condition such condemned felons as they judged worthy of the extremest penalty of the law.

At sight of Jesus, the first feeling of the judge was one of pity; there was nothing in His attitude which could be attributed to the pride of a seditious brawler, nothing which in any way invited punishment.  Naturally endowed with the keenness common to all Roman politicians, Pilate suspected some plot and began to think that perhaps he would find occasion to revise rather than to confirm the Sanhedrin's sentence.  Nevertheless, out of respect for the Jews' scruples who refused to enter within the house, he went forth and met them in the outer court.

"What accusation," he enquired, "do you bring against this man?"

The Sanhedrin had hoped that their eagerness and the moment at which they presented themselves would have prevailed with Pilate.  Their disappointment found is utterance in better terms.

"If this man were not a malefactor we would not have delivered him up to you."

This arrogant answer pricked the Governor's temper, and he responded in turn with an accent of irony and disdain.

"Take him yourselves," he said, "and judge him according to your laws."

Would not excommunication, with thirty-nine lashes from the whip, administered in the synagogue, be enough to punish any infringement of their rights?

" We no longer have the power of putting any one to death," replied the Jews, disclosing in this manner how far they wished to proceed.  Mysterious disposition of Providence!  God had deprived them of all power over human life only that they might not stone the Christ, according to the Law, but that Rome should lift Him up upon the Cross, " whereby He shall draw all men unto Him."1 Thus it was necessary that the saying of Jesus wherein He foretold by what death He was to die should be fulfilled.

Evidently Pilate up was not inclined to ratify the condemnation of Jesus, but intended to review the whole procedure and judge the case for himself.  Summoned to produce the leading points in their accusation, the Sanhedrin resigned themselves to necessity.  The title, "the Son of God," which the Saviour had attributed to Himself, though the real cause of His ruin, was left unnoticed; but since by declaring Himself the Christ He thereby proclaimed Himself King of Israel, the latter claim was urged against Him, as of itself crime enough; and the accusation, reduced to these three charges, was so framed in order to stir Pilate up to a vengeance most surely.

" We have found him," they said, "exciting the people, forbidding to pay tribute to Caesar, and calling himself the Christ-King."

But Pilate knew the Jews too well to be duped by their sudden zeal to avenge the wrongs of Rome.  And besides this, his officers had not informed him of any signs of an incipient conspiracy, nor of any refusal to submit to the taxes.  Hence he lent scanty credence to rumours of a sedition which would have given him little trouble to repress; but the word Christ caught his attention.  What was the significance of this title, which seemed to involve at once a civil and a religious dignity?  What royalty could the Prisoner now in his hands lay claim to?  Determined upon getting some light upon this question, Pilate re-entered the Pretorium and summoned Jesus.

Thus, then, the Saviour was left alone with His judge,— far removed from the Jews whose distant cries of "Death to the Nazarene!" still reached His ears. Pilate, by screening Him from their furious clamour, had already let it be seen that his heart was not indifferent to the spectacle of such misfortunes.  Jesus, far from profiting by this to plead His own interests, was altogether absorbed in the cause of eternal Truth, and sought only to make it to descend within the soul of this man now standing before Him, – puzzled and uncertain, still in the darkness, yet just catching a glimpse of some celestial radiance meanwhile. Pilate was the first to speak.

"Are you truly King of the Jews?" He asked Jesus.

Always more attentive to the thought than to the words of His questioners, the Saviour answered him:—

" Do you say this of yourself, or have others told you this of Me?"

Surprise at finding his mind so easily penetrated, the Governor responded, brusquely:—

"Am I a Jew, forsooth?  Your nation and your Pontiffs have delivered you up to me.  What have you done?"

This question drew forth no reply.  Altogether intent upon the inward struggle which was now agitating Pilate, Jesus beheld with infinite compassion that he was trying to crush down the movements of grace which were calling him to the truth, his conscience besetting him ever more with that persistent question:—

"What, then, is this kingdom of his?"

Accordingly it was rather to this unspoken and secret question that the Christ made the answer,—

"My Kingdom is not of this world.  If My Kingdom were of this world, My Ministers would strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews." But—as you may see from My fetters, from My forsaken state—"My Kingdom is not from hence."

"Then you are a king?" exclaimed Pilate.

"Thou hast said it," answered Jesus; and He added words which Saint John has not recorded at length, but certainly they were sufficient to confirm this declaration:

" I was born and I came into the world in order to render homage unto the Truth.  Whosoever is of the Truth heareth My voice!"

"What is truth?" queried Pilate, and then at once turned away, to escape the ascendancy which Jesus was exerting over him.

And with this thought he went out to the Jews and bespoke them again, with the assertion,—

"I find nothing worthy of death in this man."

At this answer to their appeals, the cries of rage burst out more wildly than before.  The priests and ancients persisted with great violence, besieging the Governor's ears with accusations which grew ever vaguer, more contradictory and often entirely incomprehensible to him.  He had Jesus brought forth.  His very presence excited a new fury of abuse; indeed it would seem, from Saint Matthew's text, that the Sanhedrin-Councillors began to cross-question Him directly, but all to no purpose.

"Do you not hear," Pilate said, turning toward Him, "of how many things they accuse you?"

Still Jesus answered not a word.  This silence, this peaceful calm in the midst of a raging rabble, filled the Governor with admiration.

He was now casting about for some escape from his predicament, while still the Jews pleaded with fiercer persistency; this time asserting,—

" He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee to this place."

The name " Galilee" was a ray of light,—thrown out with the design of reminding the judge of the uneasy character of that province and the blood of its conspirators lately shed in the Temple; but on the contrary, it only suggested an expedient whereby he might extricate himself from all responsibility in the affair.  Immediately Pilate demanded whether Jesus was a Galilean, and having learned that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he remanded Him to the Tetrarch forthwith.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Death of Judas

V: Death of Judas

Matt. xxvii. 3-10; Acts i.16-19.

By a righteous retribution of human nature, the first victim of this iniquitous judgment was the very man who had been its prime mover and first cause.  Standing unheeded among the rubble of onlookers, in silence Judas had looked long and intently upon his Victim, now finally separated from him; disquieted at heart, uneasy, still cherishing some secret hope perhaps that Jesus would overwhelm His judges and escape them in the end.  But when he had witnessed His condemnation and had followed Him as far as the Governor’s Palace, remorse was at last fully aroused in him.  The life of Jesus, as he had witnessed it day by day, seemed to repass before his eyes in one mighty but distinct whole, and the last words of the Master resounded in his ears like an audible rebuke.  Crushed and distraught with shame, possessed with a sort of madness, he started forthwith, not in search of Jesus Who would have repaid him with peace and salvation, but bent upon finding the priests who had been his accomplices in crime. He had noted that, upon leaving the Palace of Caïphas, they turned down the street leading to the Temple; thither he repaired and mounted the stairway which divides the Sanctuary from the Gentiles' Court.  Between the Priests' porches and those of the Jews stood there Hall of Gazith.  Although it was no longer the regular assembly-chamber for the Sanhedrin, everything leads us to presume a that it was here Judas found the Priest and ancients gathered together.

" I have sinned," he cried; "I have betrayed the blood of The Just One;" and his shaking hand held out the thirty shekels before their faces.

The only reply to this wretched appeal with disdainful enough:—

"What does that matter to us?  That is your affair."

Judas returns the thirty shekels. J-J Tissot.

Judas drew back the silver; then, in a frenzy of despair, as he crossed the great entrance of the Holy Place, he flung down the price of his treachery, there on the threshold, and disappeared.

The Priests picked up the coins; hard by stood huge coffers destined to receive alms-gifts.

"It is not permitted to us," they said, "to put this money into the Treasury, since it is the price of blood."

O marvelous scrupulousity of these Doctors of Israel, so accustomed to listen to nothing but their own evil passions, yet requiring so much deliberation before deciding as to the disposition of thirty pieces of silver!  Happily Judas came to their aid.

On quitting the Temple, he took the road which descends towards the Fountain of Siloë.  At the spot where Kedron joins Brook-Hinnom, he started up the sombre recesses of the latter, whose aspect was not of a nature to soothe his despairing soul.  Even today, Jerusalem has no chillier nor gloomier region,—the deep, narrow gorge, the beetling cliffs of jagged rocks, overshadowed here and there with dark olive trees, while still in this deep ravine, long ago coerced by Jeremy, the memory of those sacrifices to Moloch seems always to rise uppermost in one's mind.  

Judas made his way up the acclivity which arises opposite Mount Sion, and came to a halt in a clay field belonging to a potter thereabouts.  From this point his eye could sweep the whole pathway, along which he had last night dragged his Victim, from Gethsemane to the Pontiff's Palace; and, as he gazed, his mind altogether gave way under the burthen of mad despair.  Then, says Saint Matthew, "he went and hanged himself;" and in the Acts it is added to that "the rope broke; his body, falling headlong to the earth, burst asunder, and his bowels were spilled over the Field of Blood." When informed of his death the Sanhedrin-Councillors hastened to dispose of their accomplice, whose conscience-stricken end would go far toward witnessing to the innocence of Jesus.  The thirty shekels which were once Judas's, still lay in their hands; with them they purchased the Potter's field, in order to bury the body on the very spot where its bowels had gushed forth; then, hoping to efface the memory of his crime, they consecrated this region as a burial place for such foreign proselytes as should thereafter die in the city.  But the citizens of Jerusalem were informed of the tragic end of Judas, and, as this accursed ground had drunk the blood of the traitor, they called it Haceldama,— "the  Field of Blood." 

Judas hangs himself. J-J Tissot.

Saint Matthew, as he is wont to do, here again refers to the words of the ancient Prophets.  This, then, was the very scene which and Jeremy had had before his prophetic vision when long since he descended Hinnom Valley, before ever it was blasted by God's maledictions.  It was a garden of delight, whose wooded banks were freshened by the waters of Siloë; but beneath its shadowing arches and round about the faggots heaped up in honour of Moloch there had re-echoed unholy choruses, mingling with the clash of symbols and psalteries.  The Prophet advanced, followed by the Elders of the priesthood and the people, holding in his hand a vessel of that very same clay which in after days was to enclose the remains of Judas; and he broke it in their presence, saying:—

" I will break this City and this people even as this vessel whose fragments can never more be put together, and Tophet shall become a field of sepulchres and corpses."

So, likewise, it was Judas' crime which Zachary had predicted when predicting the ingratitude of Israel, Jehovah's chosen flock, he describes these people giving it unto its shepherd, for a recompense, thirty shekels,—which is the price of a slave; and the shepherd seizes this goodly wage, the price whereat Jesus was valued in the eyes of the Jews, that's so it might be thrown to the Potter, in payment of his waste ground.

By these Prophecies the Lord had revealed His betrayal long beforehand, and now He had committed it to be fulfilled.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Second Sitting of the Sanhedrin

II: The Second Sitting of the Sanhedrin

Luke xxii. 63-71, xxiii. 1; Matt. xxvii. 1,2; Mark xv. 1; John xviii. 28.

Handed over to the Sanhedrin-guards, Jesus had to endure still greater indignities.  Saint Luke, who omits the account of that night-session before Caïphas, first depicts the Saviour in the centre of this crowd of lackeys and grooms,1 insulted, beaten, and buffeted.  "They blindfolded His eyes," he says, "and smiting Him on the face challenged Him to prophesy, and they uttered many other taunts and insults against Him."

Jesus remained for more than an hour at the mercy of their pitiless hands, for not until morning and broad daylight did the members of the Sanhedrin summon Him again before them.

Ever since early dawn they had been closeted, advising as to the best means of executing the sentence which they had just pronounced against Jesus.  The first requisite was to obtain the approval of the Procurator, Pontius Pilate; for since the exile of Archelaus and the final subjugation of Judaea the Sanhedrin had no longer any power to punish its prisoners with death.  Rome, tolerant though she always was towards the religion of the vanquished, nevertheless reserved to herself the administration of justice, and charged the pro-consuls to study local customs, in order to make them, if possible, accord with the Roman Code, and so form a body of laws peculiar to each region.  It is true the general control of affairs was left to the ordinary judges of the province; but matters of appeal, any important suits, and especially all cases of capital offence, remained subject to the Governor.  So, however jealous of their authority these Councillors might be, they were obliged to bend beneath the yoke which at present held the world in check; yet in this instance they resigned themselves to necessity more willingly, because the concurrence of Pontius Pilate, by relieving them of all responsibility, would prevent any possible conflict with the people.  For suppose that in a throng like the one which, five days ago, had cheered the Saviour's entry,— suppose that some one of the sick folk, cured by His word, should utter his indignation at the condition to which their hatred had reduced Him; would not this be enough to excite an uprising, in the hope of rescuing Jesus?  This was quite reason enough for their eagerness to have Him put into the safe keeping of Roman power, with a further hope of inducing the Governor to ratify their condemnation.

Their negotiations were destined to meet with considerable difficulties, for Pilate, however ready for bloodshed in moments of confusion and riot, in matters of public business cherished all a Roman’s reverence for juridical forms.  Now everything of the sort had been set at naught in the present procedure.  There were certain prescriptions, wise as they were humane, which ordered that the judges should observe a fast, not pronouncing sentence until after mature consideration, and in cases of capital offence they must even defer a decision until at least one day after the examination.  Furthermore, by the same Rules the Sanhedrin was forbidden to assemble during the night, or to hold any sittings before the early sacrifice, which was offered at sunrise. Caïphas and his colleagues could not have been ignorant either of these statutes or of the contents displayed towards them by such actions as they were now committing.

Anxious above all things to cover up any such irregularities on their part, they thought to accomplish their object by causing Jesus to appear before them again just at daybreak.  The short interval which elapsed between the night-sitting and that of the morning did not alter the fact that the rule which commanded a day's delay was in reality infringed; for the Jewish law counted the day from evening to evening.  Yes to this distinction between night and day gave some slight semblance of legality to their proceedings, and therewith their hatred of the Sanhedrin was fain to rest content.

Accordingly Jesus was hauled before His judges, and Caïphas began by repeatedly enquiring:—

" If you are the Christ, tell us."

"If I tell you," He replied, " you will not believe Me, and if I question you, you will not answer Me, nor let Me go."

Thus He reminded these Councillors of State that, only a few hours earlier and in their presence, He had proclaimed Himself the Messiah, and that they had refused to believe Him.  Why, then, should they believe Him now?  Every question which, since His return to Jerusalem, he had addressed to them, whether it concerned John's baptism or had reference to the Christ, was still left unanswered.  They did not intend to answer Him now any more than hitherto they had done; as for releasing Him, that they would never do.  And notwithstanding this, Jesus consented to repeat once again and in the same terms, what He had said during the night just past,— that He was the Son of Man and Son of God.  Vainly had they struck and bruised Him, covering Him with spittle and vile abuse; thereafter, even as before this opprobrium, He revealed to His executioners how, afar off, their Victim was to appear all triumphant in the panoply of celestial Glory, seated at the right hand of the Most-High.

"You, then, are the Son of God?" was ae demand of the Sanhedrin.

"You have said it," reply Jesus; " I am He."

"What further need have we of witnesses?" they cried instantly, "we have heard it for ourselves, from his own mouth."

Storing into their feet at these words, they ordered Jesus to be bound still more closely and hurried him away to the Praetorium forthwith.

Jesus is led away to Pilate. J-J Tissot

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Peter's Denial

II: Peter's Denial

John xviii. 12-18, 25-27; Luke xxii. 54-62; Matt. xxvi. 58, 69-75;Mark mxiv. 54, 66-72.

During this same night was accomplished what was foretold them by the Lord: while He stood for His trial before Annas and Caïphas, Peter, the Chief of the Apostles, denied Him thrice.

The Evangelists note with considerable care the moment of these acts of infidelity; but they report the language and the circumstances so differently that it is quite impossible to regard them as the same words uttered on the same occasions.  Instead of limiting the recusancy of the Apostle to three disavowals framed by his lips, we believe it more likely that three distinct times during this night Peter was recognized by various persons, and that on least three occasions he proved false to his master, each time reiterating his denial under different forms and before more than one witness.  No one thing goes so far toward proving the independence of each single Evangelist regarding the others as the freedom which they display in making their selections from the words and actions which still remained fresh in their memories, and the little pains they are at in order to make their narratives agree upon such points as this.  

When we compare the evidence, with this idea in mind, and without confusing their testimony, we find that each of them furnishes us with some new features in the stories, wherein the abundance of details, the variety and stirring movements of the characters serve to set Peter's falsehoods and downfall in stronger relief.  To clearly understand the order of the incidents it behoves us to return to the first hours succeeding the scene in the garden.

Peter and John follow Jesus. J-J Tissot

Two of the Apostles, after recovering from their first terror, retraced their steps in order to follow the road taken by the Saviour.  Peter, who was one of them, lingered at a distance, but the other disciple drew nearer the troop of armed men; it was John, henceforth steadfastly exposing himself to every peril at the Master's side, and never quitting His sight.  As he was known at the pontifical palace he managed to enter there with Jesus, not noticing that his companion no longer followed him.  The latter, fearing to appear inside the courtyard, hung back in the darkness without.  

Perceiving his absence John went out, spoke a word to the servant-maid who tended the wicket, and so introduced him into the house.

Casting a curious glance at the stranger, the portress asked sharply: " Aren't you to one of this man's disciples?"

Peter's first denial.J-J Tissot.

"No, I am not!" Replied Peter, and hurried quickly out of her away. 

At this season of the year the night time in Judaea is all the cooler in proportion to the extreme heats of the day.  To protect themselves from the cold the guards and manservant had lighted in the lower court a small pile of such thorny brushwood as grows in abundance about Jerusalem.  Seated in this little circle Peter was warming his trembling hands, "awaiting the end," when for the second time he encountered the keen glance of the portress.

She was scrutinising him fixedly by the aid of the firelight.

" Certainly," she said, " you were with Jesus of Nazareth."

Then before all present Peter denied Him, saying, " I do not know what you mean to assert."

But she persisted that she was right, telling the others:—

"Certainly, I know he was with him."

Peter's second denial. J-J Tissot.

"Woman," Peter retorted again, "I do not even know Him."

Then in great trouble of mind he walked away from the group of curious bystanders; and at that moment was heard the first crow of the cock.

As he neared the great door he met with another maidservant, to whom it would seem the portress had confided her suspicions.  She too said to the waiting men and the rest standing about,—

"This man was with Jesus of Nazareth."

And Peter denied it with an oath.

The other maid in charge of the doorr had persisted in following after him, and at this she spoke up again,—

"Surely," she said, "this is one of them."

Again he denied it.

One of the spectators in this scene addressed the Apostle with the query: "What!  Are you one of that set yonder?"

"Man," retorted Peter, "I am not one of them."

John had heard the first denial at the entrance way of the palace, but altogether bent thereafter upon watching the trial of Jesus he was not a witness to the scenes just enacted, and related by the Synoptic Writers only.  When he glanced out into the court the servants were stirring up the fire and warming themselves, for the night air was growing exceeding chill.  Peter, stationed near them, still stood there warming himself.  Driven back from the door by his harassing questioners he had returned to his former standing place.  John overheard the voice of someone saying to him:—

"You too are one of his disciples;" whereat he replied:—

"No, I am not."

Tired at last of questioning him they left him unmolested for nearly an hour, but at length, after he had been drawn into a moment's conversation with his neighbours, they exclaimed:—

"Certainly you are one of his disciples, for your accent betrays you.  You are a Galilean."

One of the High-Priest's servants, a kinsman of Malchus whose ear Peter had cut off, added:—

"Did I not see you in the garden with him?"

Once more Peter's courage failed him.

"I do not know what you're talking about," he cried; "I do not know this Man of Whom are you speak." And his fear betrayed itself in a stream of curses and oaths.  He was still fiercely protesting when the cock crew for the second time.

Peter's third denial. J-J Tissot.

It was then that Jesus turned and looked at him.

This was more than Peter could bear.  Suddenly he remembered how the Master had said to him:—

"Before cock-crow thou shalt have denied Me thrice."

Overwhelmed with despair and beside himself, he had no further thought of the danger which threatened his steps.  At his great outburst of grief the crowd fell back in surprise, leaving him a free passage.  Rushing by the more he found his way out of the palace, and, thinking upon the words of Jesus, he wept bitterly.

Peter wept bitterly. J-J Tissot.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Jesus before Caïphas and the Sanhedrin

II: Jesus before Caïphas and the Sanhedrin

Matt. xxvi. 59-68; Mark xiv. 55-65.

Jesus was brought away and introduced into the presence of the Sanhedrin, over whose deliberations it would seem that Caïphas was presiding during this night-session.  Rightfully this function belonged to Rabban Gamaliel, who had held the presidency since the death of his father Simon; and without doubt he had been kept away designedly.  A man of broader mind and sincerely attached to the doctrine of Hillel, his ancestor, like him he had broken clean away from the narrow and austere formalism of Shammaï and the Scribes, while later on we even find him pleading the cause of the Christians.  Such a man was not likely to be invited to the condemnation of Jesus.  Accordingly the High-Priest assumed the direction of the trial himself.  And, further than this, it was no unusual thing for the Pontiffs to reserve this right to themselves, especially in any cases where the worship of Jehovah was in question.

The false witnesses before Caïphas. J-J Tissot.

The gathering before which Jesus appeared was the High Court of Justice in Judaea.  In full conclave it numbered 71 members, but the presence of 23 was sufficient to constitute a tribunal and give authority to its decrees.  The Nasi, or "Patriarch," of the Sanhedrin, seated upon a platform, presided over their deliberations; around him, upon cushions arranged in a semicircle along the ground, were seated the other judges.  The Nasi had, at his right hand, the Vice-President who directed the debates, and close at hand the Sages, who were the usual legal Councillors of the Court.  At either extremity of the space were posted two secretaries, occupied in recording in order, one everything charged against the accused party, the other anything favourable to his cause.  Besides these there were various subaltern officials who surrounded the accused, armed with ropes and thongs with which to bind or beat him at the first order from the court.  Such was the general aspect of the tribunal before which Jesus was no conducted.

From the beginning it was easy to see just how far the prejudice entertained by the judges against their prisoner was likely to carry them.  There is nothing to indicate that they in any way respected the Rules of the Sanhedrin, which commanded that for capital offences everything in favour of the accused must be exhibited first.  No counsel, not a single witness for the defence, was engaged in this case.  Then, too, the accusation was of a different tenor this time; it was no longer a question of some secret doctrine, but of His public instructions His blasphemies against religion.

As if in derision of the Lord’s request that "they should interrogate His hearers," the Chief of the Sanhedrin replied by producing various suborned witnesses, who asserted that they had heard Him uttering scandalous sayings,— these were some of His expressions, either misunderstood or distorted, of which we find numerous examples in the Gospels.

The regular formalities were gone through with for the benefit of these informers, the oath was proffered them, and they listened to the solemn voice of the Nasi:—

" Know ye, that the blood of the innocent man and of his posterity shall return upon your heads now and for evermore."

Nevertheless, determined as they were to utter their calumnies, they were unable to concert up on all points; and before this tribunal, where they now appeared one after the other, their depositions did not agree.  Thus Jesus had simply to listen in silence, and behold the artifices of His adversaries annul themselves.

But in the end two men testified that they had heard Jesus say, " I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and in three days rebuild it." This testimony Saint Mark reports under another form:—

" We have heard him say,'I will destroy this Temple, the handiwork of man, and in three days I will build another, which shall not be the handiwork of man.'"

Even upon this point they could not manage to agree.

The prosecution was falling to the ground amid all this contradictory evidence; moreover, the falsity of the whole thing was manifest, for it was in public and in the open courts of the Temple the Jesus had said: " Overthrow this Holy of Holies," as by your faithlessness and your crimes you are doing, and "in three days I will re-erect it." And thereby, we must bear in mind, He referred to His Body, destined to become the Holy of Holies of a New Covent to mankind.

Mighty in the testimony which the simple truth had tendered to His cause Jesus stood there, silent still, and let the confusion have free sway about Him. Caïphas realized how eloquently the silence spoke for the defence.  Suddenly he stepped down from the judicial daïs and advanced into the centre of the hall, until he was face to face with the Prisoner.

" You understand nothing!" He said sharply.  "What it is all this they are testifying against you?"

Still Jesus was silent.

The disconcerted Pontiff perceived now that he must bring matters to an issue.  Accordingly, thrusting aside technical shifts and captious questions, he administered a solemn oath to Jesus which, according to the Law, obliged Him to make answer.

" I adjure you, in the Name of the living God, tell us if you are the Son of God."

Caïphas's language really anticipated his thought; he did not say: "Tell us if you pretend to be really the Son of God;" his words were "whether you are the Christ, the Son of the Blessed God."

" I am He," replied Jesus, and, with this declaration, He spoke some few words following upon the thought, of which the Evangelist has preserved only this single noteworthy utterance:—

" Moreover, I say unto you, one day you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Majesty of God, and coming on the clouds of Heaven."

The Scribes could not fail to recognise how, in these words, there was a twofold reference to the Prophecies of Scripture; on the one hand, it recalled the Psalm which foretold the Divinity of the Christ: " the Lord hath said to My Lord:'Sit Thou at My right hand;'" and on the other, it contained an allusion to Daniel's Vision, where there Messiah "advanceth upon the clouds of Heaven unto the Ancient of Days." And therefore Jesus thereby proclaimed that He was the Christ for whom Israel had so long been waiting; that His place was on the right hand of God, and His Mission to come at the end of time to judge the world.

But the Sanhedrin-Council turned a deaf ear to this testimony, and the High-Priests sole answer was to rend his garments.

The High-priest rent his garments. J-J Tissot.

" What further need have we of witnesses?" He cried aloud.  "You have heard the blasphemy.  How seems this matter unto you?"

"He is worthy of death!" they all made answer.

Forthwith commenced a scene of unspeakable outrages.  It seems, following Saint Mark's account, that even here, in the centre of the National Council, some of these high functionaries, as if to give a signal for the indignities which ensued, were the first to spit full in the face of Jesus; then when they had so covered His face they struck Him with the flat of their hands, while others, says Saint Matthew, smote Jesus, and at every blow shouted,—

" Christ, prophecy!  Who struck you?"

When their rage and fury had spent itself the Sanhedrin-Councillors handed Jesus over to their servants and the understrappers of the court.  This throng received Him with a shower of blows from their sticks, according to the reading of the sacred texts; while in another place we are told that they drove Him before them, maltreating Him in every manner.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Jesus before Annas

Chapter II: The Trial of Jesus

I: Jesus before Annas

John xviii. 13, 14, 19-24; Luke xxii. 54; Mark xiv. 53.

From Gethsemane, the road leading Sionwards crosses the Brook, then, winding its way among the Tombs at the base of Mount Moriah, finally scales the steep ascent of Ophel the city by one of its southern gates.  The soldiers followed this route in order to bring Jesus to the palace where dwelt the two Highly-Priests, Caïphas and Annas.

Annas and Caïphas. J-J Tissot.

We have explained elsewhere the part played by the latter personage at this period; how, when deposed by Valerius Gratus, he nevertheless managed to preserve an actual pre-eminence in public affairs, succeeded in keeping the sovereign priesthood in his family, and in the eyes of his countrymen always remained the only legitimate Pontiff.  In fact the Gospel shows him received with every honour by the Sanhedrin, the first to be made cognizant of the accusation and arrest of Jesus, in contravention of the rights of Caïphas, his son-in-law and the High-Priest put over them by Rome.  As, in all probability, the two Pontiffs occupied separate wings of the same palace, there was nothing to betray this sharp double-play on the part of the Jews, and indeed it only would have been necessary, in order to conduct Jesus from Annas to Caïphas, that they should lead Him across the court which lay between their respective residences.

And they led him away to Annas. J-J Tissot

Thus, then, the Saviour was brought, in the first place, into the presence of Annas; and he, in order to give the Council time to assemble, questioned Him at some length "as to His disciples and concerning His doctrine." It is easy to see that, in the eyes of the High-Priest, the main object in view was not so much to give judgment touching a system of teaching, as it was to discover and frustrate the plot.  He treated the much-talked-of "Kingdom" of Jesus as one of those visionary movements which were forever agitating the East at this period, especially Judaea,— and thus, by linking the adventurers participating in it under the bonds of secretly cherished hopes, had kept the country continually involved in the dangers of a new uprising against Rome.  And it was for this reason they desired to find some of His accomplices, that they might extort from their confessions a condemnation of the Nazarene, and so overwhelm Him with one well-aimed blow.

It was not meet that the Christ should assume this character of a conspirator before the world.  Without making any answer as to His disciples, He rose straightway to a plane of thought of which Annas had little conception.

" I have spoken publicly," He said, "I have taught always in the synagogues and the Temple, whither the Jews resort; and I said nothing in private.  Why question Me?  Ask those who have heard Me as to what I have said to them.  They know what I have taught them."

By its bold inversions, its repetition of words, the original text alone can portray the power of these few sentences; showing how Jesus withdrew the Pontiff's mind from every foreign object, to fasten it solely and singly upon His divine Person.  "It is I, and I alone," He tells them, "Whom it behoves you to know.  My doctrine is — Myself.  And of Myself have I spoken to the world, freely, without any dissimulation.  Myself,— this everywhere and at all times, in the synagogues, beneath the temple-porches, everywhere where Jews assemble, this has been My Teaching.  Why speak of secrecy?  I've never concealed anything I said.  Why then do you question Me?  Do not examine My disciples, but ask those who have heard Me. See, even in these men here," He added, pointing to those who surrounded Him,— "they know what I have said."

These last words of Jesus amounted to a refusal to justify Himself.  This the bystanders comprehended, and one of the officers of Annas' suite, standing almost beside the Saviour, gave Him a blow, saying at the same time,—

"Is that the way you answer the High-Priest?"

"If I have spoken evil," Jesus was content to answer, "show what evil I have said; but if I have spoken well, why do you strike Me?"

Annas, unable to contend with this calm, broke off the examination at once and dispatched Jesus bound to Caïphas, thereby instructing him that he delivered Him over as a victim, not so much that He might be examined, but only in order to have Him condemned.  A superfluous precaution indeed, for it was this very Caïphas, as Saint John reminds us, who had explained, but a few days earlier:—

"Is it not right that one man should die for the whole people."

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Jesus in the Garden of Olives

 Jesus in the Garden of Olives

John xviii. 1-13; Matt. xxvi. 36-56; Mark xiv. 32-52; Luke xxii. 39-53.

On the further side of Kedron the, at the foot of the hillside, there lies a garden overshadowed by olive trees, and called Gethsemane, because of an olive press which formerly stood there.  Nothing disturbed the solitude of this region, where the Saviour was accustomed to pass the night-time whenever He did not return to Bethany in the early evening.  Judas was well aware of the secluded retreat, for a few hours later he led the band sent in search of the Divine Master unhesitatingly in this direction.

Hardly had Jesus entered the garden when He felt the awful throes of an anguish, like the first icy chills of the death struggle.

"Sit ye here," He said to His disciples, "while I will go yonder and pray." There is a rock still pointed out, near the gateway of the garden, where Tradition says the Apostles found a resting place.

The Saviour took with Him Peter, James, and John, to whom He had promised that they should drain the cup of His grief; so now He led them under the black shadows of the olive orchards into the dimmest corner of the garden.  Never had His Apostles seen Him plunged in such sadness as this; terror, dejection, something like a stupor, says Saint Mark, seized his soul.  And here He stopped His companions.

" My Soul," He groaned, "is sorrowful even unto death!  Wait here, watch and pray!"

Then withdrawing from them about a stone's throw He fell upon His knees, His head bowed down till His face pressed the ground, while He prayed that if it were possible this hour might pass from Him.

" Father, all things are possible to Thee; take away this cup from Me," this cup of anguish, wherein He tasted beforehand all the bitterness of His Passion.  So greatly did Jesus suffer that He shrank from enduring any more as yet, and so for a long while He remained motionless, only beseeching the Father to grant Him sufficient strength and comfort.  And, at the last, His words were words of resignation.

"Let Thy will, not Mine, be done!"

Then He returned to the disciples, craving some relief for His trouble; yet it only resulted in making the sense of His loneliness and abandonment more vivid and overpowering.  There was not one human heart to watch with Him or to take compassion on His anguish.  Peter, the intrepid champion of a few hours back, James, despite all his sturdy courage, and John, the well beloved, every one of them was sleeping, notwithstanding all the love they bore Him, Who was racked with anguish almost before their very eyes,— Who had besought them not to leave Him alone, but to uphold and sustain Him by their presence!

Addressing the most presumptuous of those three:—

"Simon," He said, "so, thou sleepest!  Couldst thou not then watch one hour with Me?  Watch ye and pray that you enter not into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

The disciples saw Him withdraw from them again, once more casting Himself down, and in the dust exhausting Himself in the throes of His awful Agony, while His lips still murmured the same prayer as before.

" Father, if this Chalice cannot pass except I drink it, Thy will be done."

Soon weariness once more overweighted their eyelids, and returning Jesus found them for the second time asleep.  " They knew not what to answer Him," says Saint Mark.  The Saviour left them for the last time; it was to engage in that mightiest combat of all, the one which Saint Luke has recounted.

What transpired in that dread hour within the Soul of the Christ?  Was Hell let loose upon the Lamb Who bore the sins of the world?  Did it hope, with the weight of all wicked deeds, past and future, to crush this Jesus, before Whose eyes was now marshalled the whole empire of evil, far up and down the ages?  But this is no place for such conjectures.  All that we may know is that in this trial not only were the Saviour's eyes wet with bitter woe, but tears of blood poured from His limbs.  "And, as He was torn with His Agony, there came a sweat upon Him, like drops of blood trickling down upon the ground."

Jesus did but pray the more ardently, ever more repeating the same words:—

"Father, if this Chalice may not pass except I drink it, let Thy will be done!"

This blood, these tears, His suppliant cries, ascended unto God.  At the voice of the spotless Victim of love Heaven, which had been closed against sin-stained humankind since Adam, now threw wide its gates, and an Angel descended thence to strengthen and console the Saviour.  

And Jesus rose up, once again stronger than His sorrow, "knowing all things that were to come upon Him," yet nonetheless calmly awaiting the hour of torture and death.

Then He returned to His slumbering disciples.  They had failed in the duty entrusted to them of watching beside their Master in His Agony, and this their sole privilege was lost to them for ever.  But the Saviour addressed to them in words wherein tenderness is marvellously mingled with reproachfulness.

" Sleep on now and take your rest;" there is no more time for watching with Me hereafter.  Then, as tokens of the arrival of Judas began to break in upon His words,—

"It is enough," He added; "the hour is come wherein the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of sinners; rise up, come!  Lo, he that will be tray Me is at hand!"

Jesus was still speaking when at the foot of the garden appeared and armed band bearing swords and staves.  It was a Roman Tribune with his legionaries, accompanied by a crowd of Jews of every rank and condition, officers of the Sanhedrin, Temple-guards, the serving-people of the High-Priests,— a motley assemblage at whose head marched Judas, " one of the Twelve." Torches flared and lanterns glimmered in every direction over the heads of the multitude.

Arrived at Gethsemane they halted near the garden, to arrange measures.  Judas reminded them that a kiss was the sign agreed upon to indicate the Saviour, Whom they were forthwith to seize and hurry away,— cautiously, however, for fear of His supernatural powers.

While they were thus lingering in consultation, of a sudden the Master appeared; at sight of Him Judas hesitated; all his plot seemed to fall to the ground.

" Whom do you seek?" said Jesus.

The Apostle and those who like him knew the Saviour were silent and dumbfounded at finding their purpose anticipated.  But the rest, seeing Judas speechless and motionless in the midst of them, and by chance thinking that the newcomer was only some stranger, responded at once,—

"Jesus of Nazareth."

" I am He," the Saviour said.

Terrified they one and all recoiled and fell at His feet.

" Whom do you seek?" again Jesus demanded.

At last they knew Who He was, that stood before them; still they durst not say, " Thyself," but answered only,—

"Jesus of Nazareth."

" I have already told you, it is I, Jesus of Nazareth."

For the second time the Christ delivers Himself into their hands by these words, they even now He does not fall get His own.

" Then if you are seeking Me," He added, "let these go their way."

In the depth of His humiliations and in the clutches of His foes, He still decrees how far their violence may venture, and this limit they must needs respect.  Thus was fulfilled the Saviour’s promise to His flock, when He said, "Father, I have lost no one of them that Thou hast given Me."

But there must be an end to this faltering and hesitation; the soldiers and the tribune, dismayed at what had just occurred, now looked at Judas, as if waiting for the covenanted signal.  Hastily the traitor approached His Lord.

" Master, Master, hail!" He said, and his lips touched the cheek of the Christ.

" Judas," the Saviour replied, " friend, is it for this that thou art here?  To betray the Son of Man with a kiss!"

Immediately the soldiers came up and seized Jesus.  The Apostles were still around Him and holding their two swords drawn and ready; seeing what was about to happen, one of them cried,—

"Master, shall we strike at them?"

At the same instant the blade in Simon's hand flashed in the torchlight and glanced above the head of a servant of the High-priest, named Malchus; swerving to one side, the fellow received the blow upon his right ear, which was asked cut away.

Fierce feelings were beginning to surge in their hearts, that Jesus quelled the storm with a word. 

" Suffer ye thus far!" He said, and perceiving that Malchus was bleeding, with His own hands, which though He was their captive were not yet bound, He touched the servant’s ear and healed it.

Then turning toward Peter, Jesus rebuked him for thus disturbing His Passion and degrading the dignity of His estate to the likeness of some criminal, apprehended in an act of revolt.

" Return thy sword to its sheath, for whosoever taketh the sword shall perish by the sword."

Then as His Agony and the cup of anguish rushed back upon His mind,—

" What!  Shall I not drink the Chalice which My Father hath given Me to drink?  Thinkest thou that I cannot pray unto Him, and presently He will send hither unto Me more than twelve legions of Angels?  Yet how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, wherein it says that even so it must needs be?"

Such abnegation as this confounded Peter; nevertheless he at least understood that, in this very hour of humiliation, the Saviour called God His Father, and that, instead of the twelve trembling Apostles, He might summon as many legions of Angels to overwhelm His foes.

No longer hoping to fathom the Master’s designs, he dropped back in silence.

Hereupon Jesus perceived, coming toward them, some members of the Sanhedrin.  Among them were certain Temple-officials, leading men of the priesthood, with some Ancients of the people, who had followed after their satellites at a distance.  Addressing them in a tone devoid of anger, Jesus protested against the violence of which He was the Victim.

"You are come out against Me as against a thief, to seize Me with swords and staves.  I was every day in the midst of you, teaching in the Temple, and you did not hinder Me; but lo!  This is your hour, and the powers of darkness."

Thus Jesus declared, in the presence of His enemies, that they had been obliged to wait for the hour marked out by God wherein He should be apprehended.

"And all this," He said, "happeneth, that that which was written by the Prophets may be accomplished."

Hearing these words, the disciples took to flight, and left the armed bands to surround their Master unhindered.  The soldiers with their tribune, together with the mass of Jews, all rushed upon Him, in order to see Him fast bound; for they still trembled before Him at whose least word they but just now had been dashed to earth.  Forsaken by His own, Jesus was dragged and pushed along to Jerusalem.  One young man alone clung close about His footsteps; dwelling in Kedron Valley doubtless and wakened by the uproar, he had had only time to throw a light mantle about him.  His eagerness in following the Saviour gave rise to suspicions, and the guards made some effort to detain him, but he left his garment in their hands, and with naked limbs fled from them into the shadows of the night.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.