Mtxxvii.25. his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of Jerusalem, the blood of this just person; see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children ". Mark xv. 15. 25. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, Lu. xxiii.24. Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them, him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired. John xix. 1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. 17 The guilt of condemning our Lord must almost entirely rest upon the unhappy nation whom he had designed to save, (John xix. 11.) Pilate made five successive efforts to deliver Jesus from their inveterate hatred, and was induced at last, unwillingly to yield him up, from the apprehension of his own personal safety. Perhaps, likewise, if he had not complied with the violent and clamorous importunities of the Jewish rulers, he might have feared a commotion among the people, who were seditiously inclined, and were assembled at this time in great numbers, from all parts of Judea, for the celebration of the Passover. In all probability Pilate was not provided with sufficient force to ensure perfect tranquillity on these great festivals: their very solemnity would be considered as the best guarantee for the observance of propriety and good conduct." 18 This is one of those passages in which the Evangelists are supposed to be inconsistent. St. Mark says, chap. xv. 25. it was the third hour, and they crucified him: St. John tells us, it was about the sixth hour; and Pilate delivered him to be crucified, John xix. 14-16. Various modes have been adopted to reconcile these apparent differences. One, and that the most usual, and at all times the most objectionable, is the supposition of a false reading. It is urged, that in ancient times all numbers were written in manuscripts, not at length, but with numeral letters, it was easy for r, three, to be taken for s, six. Of this opinion are Griesbach, in his elaborate edition of the New Testament, Semler, Rosenmüller, Doddridge, Whitby, Bengel, Cocceius, Beza, Erasmus, and by far the greater part of the most eminent critics. Besides the Codex Bezæ, and the Codex Stephani (of the eighth century,) there are four other manuscripts, which read rpern. the third, in John xix. 14. as well as the Alexandrian Chronicle, which professes to cite accurate manuscripts-even the autography of St. John himself. Such also is the opinion of Severus Antiochenus, Ammonius, and some others, cited by Theophylact on the passage; to whom must be added Nonnus, a Greek poet of Panopolis, in Mt.xxvii.27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus, Egypt, who flourished in the fifth century, and wrote a poetical Others have supposed, that the Evangelists have adopted dif- There is, however, in fact, no real difference between the Evangelists: and this is fully shewn by the admirable reasoning both of Dr. Townson and Pilkington. If we review the whole of the transaction which took place at the crucifixion, and endeavour to assign their respective periods to each, it will be found that St. John calculated his time by the Roman or Asiatic method, from midnight to mid-day, and from mid-day to midnight. If we allow the sixth hour, mentioned by St. John, to mean the sixth hour in the morning, it will suit the place in which it stands admirably well, which the third hour would not. The night was divided into twelve hours, or four equal watches. Of the latter division we have several traces in the Gospel. St. Mark thus enumerates them: oè μEσOVUKTIÓV, ǹ άλEKTρоowvias, rowi, Mark xiii. 25; the cock crowing was from twelve to three, and the last from three to six. The six o'clock of St. John was the end of the Proi. Let us examine the division of time from the beginning of the ¿λEKTρopwviα, (cock-crowing,) to the end of the (pot,) last watch. The apprehension in the garden appears to have been made about ten o'clock on Thursday night, and Jesus was then led away to Annas. About eleven he was sent to Caiaphas. About midnight Peter denied him the first time, at the first cockcrowing. Soon after midnight he was condemned by the High Priest, &c. after that he was abused by the officers and servants, and Peter denied him a second time. About three in the morning, i. e. at the second cock-crowing, Peter denied him the third time. About four, "as soon as it was day," the Sanhedrim met; and in a little time they again condemned him. Jerusalem. Mt.xxvii.27. into the common-hall, About five," when it was early," they led him away to Pilate; If Caiaphas did not send to Herod and Pilate when our Lord There was great eagerness for a speedy determination on one side, and a necessity for it on the other. The Jewish rulers, jealous of delay, and of a variable multitude, pressed on while circumstances favoured. Pilate well knew the seditious spirit of the nation, restless under a foreign yoke, and rendered confident by their great increase of numbers in consequence of the passover. He twice interrogated Jesus in the Pretorium, with the sound of their outcry, as it were in his ears; and found it requisite to determine speedily whether he would appease them by compliance, or repel them by force, which on the present occasion would not have been expedient. This brings us, then, either to the sixth hour in the morning, or to the sixth hour of Jerusalem. Mtxxvii.27. of soldiers. mid-day. But the latter construction corresponds neither with We come to the same conclusion by a calculation of the 1. Although Mount Calvary was near to the city, the procession must have been slow. Christ was weakened by his agony in the garden, and by the pain and loss of blood he sustained from the cruel scourging, and from the insulting mockery of the soldiers. It was usual for the people to ill treat the criminals who went to crucifixion. He himself carried his cross to the gate of the city, and although it was there laid on Simon the Cyrenian, He had still farther to go, and an eminence to ascend To this procession, and the necessary preparations for the crucifixion, we cannot allot less than an hour, and this brings us to eight in the morning. 2 Before he was led forth the two robbers were to be condemned; for in cases where no appeal lay to the emperor, or Roman senate, the examination for atrocious offences was little more than nominal; and the speedy sentence of the judge was followed by the immediate punishment of the criminal. Probably, while our Saviour's trial was pending, these malefactors were brought from the prison to the hall, where the soldiers kept guard, that they might be in readiness. In this place, perhaps, the penitent thief might have witnessed the deportment of Jesus, while he was scourged and insulted by the Roman soldiers; and might have conceived that sense of his meekness, holiness, and majesty, which prepared him for the grace of a perfect confession of faith upon the cross. To the time employed in the trying, condemning, and scourging of these men, (according to the Roman law,) may we not reckon another full hour? In the meanwhile Christ was guarded by the soldiers; into whose hands therefore he was delivered at seven, or rather earlier. 3. When Pilate bad taken his seat on the tribunal, to pronounce sentence of death on Christ, he was interrupted by the message of his wife, still hesitating—be again expostulated with the Jews, and declared the innocence of Jesus-and, when he could prevail nothing, he washed his bands before the multi.. tude, and then decreed his condemnation. These various particulars might altogether occupy about another hour, and they bring us again to the same point—within half an hour of six. Here then the computations meet, whether we reckon on from the Proi, or back from the third hour: by either account, Pilate "sat down in the judgment seat" between six and seven in the morning. The conjecture of Grotius, adopted by Dr. Randolph, and Jerusalem. Mtxxvii.28. And they stripped him, and they put on him a scarlet Jerusalem. robe 19, John xix. 2. a purple robe, Mtxxvi).29. And when they had platted a crown of thorns 20, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him, Mark xv.19. and worshipped him. Mtxxvii.29. and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Mtxxvii.30. John xix. 4. And they spit upon him, and took the reed and smote Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, other learned men, is very ingenious; but is unsupported by au- (a) Vide Horne's Introd. (h) Campbell, on John xix. 14. 19 There is no greater difference between the meaning of the words KÓKKIVOV and Toppupa, than there is if one English reader should say a red robe, and another a reddish robe; or than if one French author should use the word rouge, and another rougeatre.-Pilkington, notes to sect. 442. 20 Thorns were the first produce of the earth after the fall of man, and they were worn by our Lord, as a part of his punishment. They were the first fruits of the curse, and were appropriately placed on the head of the sacred victim. Bishop Pearce and Michaelis are of opinion that the crown of thorns was not intended to be an instrument of punishment or torture to his head, but rather to render our Lord an object of ridicule; for which cause they also put a reed in his hand, by way of sceptre, and bowed their knees, pretending to do him homage; and that the crown was not probably of thorns, in our sense of the word. Mark xv. 17. and John xix. 5. term it spavov akavēɩov, which might be translated an acanthine crown, or wreath formed out of the branches of the herb acanthus, or bear's foot. This is a prickly plant, though not like thorns, in the common meaning of that word. Doddridge, however, observes very justly on this idea, that if the soldiers wished only to insult Christ, a crown of straw would have equally answered that purpose. Unless they had intended to have added to the cruelties, it is difficult to know on what account the thorns should have been selected. |