There is question, then, of some of the other Paschal sacrifices which were partaken of during the seven days of the Paschal feast (Deut. xvi. 2, 3; 2 Paral. xxx. 22), perhaps of the special sacrifice [pg 322] known as the Chagigah (חגיגה).[117]

From such a sacrifice, eaten, as we learn from the Mishna in the note below, not only at night, but also during the day, a defilement contracted in the morning would exclude.

In view of the anxiety of the Jews to avoid the legal defilement incurred by entering a house from which all leaven had not been removed, one cannot help wondering, with St. Augustine, at their blind hypocrisy: “O impia et stulta caecitas: habitaculo videlicet contaminarentur alieno, et non contaminarentur scelere proprio!”

29. Exivit ergo Pilatus ad eos foras, et dixit: Quam accusationem affertis adversus hominem hunc?29. Pilate therefore went out to them, and said: What accusation bring you against this man?
30. Responderunt, et dixerunt ei: Si non esset hic malefactor, non tibi tradidissemus eum.30. They answered and said to him: If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up to thee.
31. Dixit ergo eis Pilatus: Accipite eum vos, et secundum legem vestram iudicate eum. Dixerunt ergo ei Iudaei: Nobis non licet interficere quemquam.31. Pilate therefore said to them: Take him you, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said to him: It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.

29-31. As they entered not, Pilate, now first mentioned by St. John, went out to them and asked: What accusation bring you against this man? It is very likely he had already learned something of the nature of the accusation, either on the preceding night when the Roman soldiers were required for Gethsemani, or just now before coming out of his house, but he would naturally wish to have it made formally. They, having already pronounced Jesus deserving of death, and having brought Him to Pilate merely to have the sentence of death pronounced and executed without any formality of trial, are indignant at the Roman's question, and reply as in verse 30: “If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up to thee.” Pilate, wishing to shift from himself responsibility for Christ's death, bids the Jews to take Him, and judge Him according to their own law. This they declined to do, alleging as a reason that the Romans had taken away from the Jews the power to punish [pg 323] by death. This, however, was merely an evasion, for they knew thoroughly that Pilate's permission in the present case was sufficient warrant for their action, even if they put Jesus to death. But the motive of the Jewish leaders was to make the responsibility for His death, in the eyes of the Jewish people, rest upon the Romans.

32. Ut sermo Iesu impleretur quem dixit, significans qua morte esset moriturus.32. That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he said, signifying what death he should die.

32. That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled. The refusal of the Jews to judge Jesus according to their own law came to pass, adds St. John, that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, in which He had foretold that He should die the death of the cross (John [iii. 14]; [xii. 32-34]; Matt. xx. 19). Had He been punished according to Jewish law, having been judged a blasphemer, He should have been stoned to death, according to Levit. xxiv. 14: “Bring forth the blasphemer without the camp, and let them that heard him put their hands upon his head, and let all the people stone him.”

33. Introivit ergo iterum in praetorium Pilatus, et vocavit Iesum, et dixit ei: Tu es rex Iudaeorum?33. Pilate therefore went into the hall again, and called Jesus, and said to him: Art thou the king of the Jews?

33. It was probably at this point, after they had refused to judge Jesus according to their own law, and when they saw that Pilate was not at once proceeding to condemn Him, that the Jews brought forward those three distinct charges against Him, which St. Luke records: “We have found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that He is Christ the king” (Luke xxiii. 2). Upon this, Pilate returned into the house, had Jesus called in[118], and questioned Him on the third count in the indictment just brought against Him. The pretension of any Jew to be the King of Palestine was a point which, as questioning [pg 324] the sovereignty of Rome, a Roman governor was bound to look to. Pilate, therefore, asked Him: Art thou the King of the Jews? The words may mean either, “Art thou He who has just now become notorious under this title?” or, “Dost thou claim the title, as it is said?” The title itself would be likely to arrest Pilate's attention, whether he had heard it spoken of before in connection with the entry into Jerusalem or only now from the Jews. And further, he would rightly conclude that the title, when thus put forward, would be fitted to call out any fanaticism which there might be in a political enthusiast. In each of the four Gospels, the first words of Pilate to Jesus are the same: “Art thou the King of the Jews?” (Matt. xxvii. 11; Mark xv. 2; Luke xxiii. 3). “The form of the sentence (σὺ εἶ) suggests a feeling of surprise in the questioner: ‘Art thou, poor, and bound, and wearied, the the King of whom men have spoken?’ Comp. iv. 12.” Westc. in Speaker's Commentary.

34. Respondit Iesus: A temetipso hoc dicis, an alii dixerunt tibi de me?34. Jesus answered: Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or have others told it thee of me?