Again Pilate took his seat in the Prætorium, and questioned our Lord whether He was King of the Jews. For the priests brought no charge of blasphemy against Him before the procurator, but endeavoured to represent Him as a dangerous rebel against Rome, and as claiming to be “the King Messiah.” Another mode of escape suggested itself to the vacillating governor. He “went out” to the stairs, and offered to the mob the release of their King as a concession at Passover. Again he failed, for the people began to understand that he was afraid—afraid of the mob, afraid of what would be said in Rome, afraid of his wife’s face, afraid to do his duty. He saw that “he could prevail nothing but rather that a tumult was made.” No one listened to his question, “What evil hath He done?” They demanded that Jesus be crucified, and Barabbas released. Meanly Pilate yielded his authority, and vainly he washed his hands. Barabbas was no doubt in Antonia also, and was brought out to appease the people. Jesus was scourged, and the soldiers in the Prætorium clad Him again in the purple robe of Antipas, crowned Him with thorns, placed in His hand the reed, and mocked Him in the hall which afterwards became the Christian “Chapel of the Mocking,” still existing on the Antonia rock. He was brought out and shown to the multitude below, with the words, “Behold the man.”
Yet again Pilate hesitated, and went in to re-examine his prisoner, seeking some means of escape from crime. But the power of which he boasted was gone, and Jesus answered, “He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin”—no doubt meaning Caiaphas, who worked on the fears of the procurator through the mob that cried, “Thou art not Cæsar’s friend.” For the last time he came forth to appease the people, saying, “Behold your King,” and “gave up” Jesus to the Jews, who “had no king but Cæsar,” conniving at the unlawful death doom (while seeking not to admit his consent) by providing a guard. The white-robed figure came down the broad flight of steps to where the cross was already prepared, and bearing this He passed through the courts of Antonia to the most northern of the Temple gates, and so down to the rough pavement of the street, which ran northwards west of the sanctuary to the city gate. This we may regard as the true Way of Sorrow, lying below the street to-day.
CALVARY
We come therefore to the final question, where we should look for Golgotha, and for the new tomb in the garden hard by. No one doubts that these sites lay outside the city. The first and fourth Gospels and the Epistle to the Hebrews alike make this conclusion quite certain.[303] The first tells us that the guard of the sepulchre came “into the city” afterwards; the second that Calvary was “nigh to the city”; the third that “Jesus ... suffered without the gate.” It was near this gate apparently that Simon the Cyrenian was found “coming out of the field,” and forced to carry the cross. The only other indications of the position of Golgotha are, that it was apparently near a road and visible to those that “passed by,” and that it was probably on a height because it was to be seen “afar off.”[304] There is no reason to doubt that it was the usual place of execution, which was familiar to the Gospel writers, and the same place outside the city where Stephen and James were afterwards stoned.[305]
We must remember that although the punishment of crucifixion was not one of the four death penalties of the Jews, yet it was not exclusively a Roman mode of torture. It was usual among the Greeks in Alexander’s age, and among Carthaginians a century later. It had been used by Alexander Jannæus—as already mentioned—who was a pure Hebrew, and who crucified eight hundred Jews. It was also customary, according to the Mishnah, to crucify those who had been stoned: “They sank a beam into the ground and a cross beam proceeded from it, and they bound his hands one over the other, and hung him up.”[306] It was thus a Jewish practice; and Pilate, though he provided the “title” to be borne before the condemned—“The King of the Jews,” written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin—did not order the Crucifixion, but “gave up” the Son of Man to His foes. There also seems to be no reason why a separate place of execution, other than that generally used, should have been peculiar to Roman executions at any time.
THE SUPPOSED SITE OF CALVARY.
From the Author’s sketch, looking north-west.
THE HOUSE OF STONING
The “House of Stoning” was the Jewish place of death. It is mentioned in the Mishnah,[307] and it was not at the judgment hall, but some distance from it and out of sight; for a man was stationed at the door of the hall, with a cloth in his hand, “and another man rode a horse at a distance from him, but so that he might see him.” Thus if any one desired to bring further evidence at the last moment for the acquittal of the condemned, the cloth was waved, and the “horseman galloped” after the prisoner, and brought him back to be tried again. This description shows that a considerable distance separated the “House of Stoning” from the vicinity of the Temple. At the place of execution there was also apparently a precipice, for it was “the height of two men,” or nearly 12 feet, and the two witnesses who cast the first two stones seem to have stood above the victim on this cliff. It must also have been outside the city in accordance with the law,[308] but unfortunately the Rabbis have not told us in which direction. It was close to a garden, in which was the private sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathæa, “wherein was never man yet laid,” and this serves rather to point to the north, which is the only direction in which we have any notice of gardens outside Jerusalem[309]—the hill of Gareb (or “plantations”) mentioned by Jeremiah being also on the north. The north was regarded by the Jews as the unlucky side, and even down to the sixteenth century the Ṣahrah, or “plateau” north of the city, is described by an Arab writer as a place of evil repute,[310] while in the fifth century the place of Stephen’s death by stoning was thought to have been outside the north gate of Jerusalem. We have thus a consensus of Jewish, Christian, and Moslem tradition on this subject.