7 Or, authority.

8 Or, opposeth Cæsar.

a It appears that John, who wrote in Asia Minor, long after the destruction of Jerusalem, makes the day begin at midnight, as the Greeks and Romans did. We seem compelled so to understand him in [20:19] (comp. [Luke 24:29-39]); and in no passage of his Gospel is that view unsuitable. Here then we understand that Pilate passed the sentence about sunrise, which at the Passover, near the vernal equinox, would be 6 o'clock. The intervening three hours might be occupied in preparations, and the Crucifixion occurred at 9 o'clock, viz. the third hour as counted by the Jews ([Mark 15:25]).

b Pilate, of course, could not escape full legal and moral responsibility for his cowardly surrender to the Sanhedrin to keep his own office. The guilt of the Sanhedrin (both Pharisees and Sadducees unite in the demand for the blood of Jesus) is beyond dispute. It is impossible to make a mere political issue out of it and to lay all the blame on the Sadducees, who feared a revolution. The Pharisees began the attacks against Jesus on theological and ecclesiastical grounds. The Sadducees later joined the conspiracy against Christ. Judas was a mere tool of the Sanhedrin, who had his resentments and grievances to avenge. There is guilt enough for all the plotters in the greatest wrong of the ages.

§ 162. THE ROMAN SOLDIERS MOCKa JESUS

Friday, between 6 and 9 A.M.

Mark 15:16-19Matt. 27:27-30
16 And the soldiers led him away
within the court, which is the
4Prætorium; and they call together
the whole 2band. 17 And they clothe
him with purple, and plaiting a
crown of thorns, they put it on
him; 18 and they began to salute
him, Hail, King of the Jews!
19 And they smote his head with a
reed, and did spit upon him, and
bowing their knees worshipped
him. 		27 Then the soldiers of the
governor took Jesus into the 1palace,
and gathered unto him the whole
2band. 28 And they 3stripped him,
and put on him a scarlet robe.
29 And they plaited a crown of thorns
and put it upon his head, and a
reed in his right hand; and they
kneeled down before him, and
mocked him, saying, Hail, King
of the Jews! 30 And they spat upon
him, and took the reed and smote
him on the head.

1 Gr. Prætorium.

2 Or, cohort.