"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus, and led him away into the common hall, called Prætorium"; where fresh insults and sufferings were inflicted upon the holy Jesus, the Messiah: for "they call together the whole band of soldiers," and in mockery and ridicule for His having styled Himself a king, "they stripped him" of his own clothes, "and put on him a scarlet or purple robe," (for the same word signifies both colours,) and then made a crown or wreath, by twisting together some branches of a prickly plant. "And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand," to represent the sceptre, carried by kings. When the soldiers had thus arrayed our Lord, in ridicule of His claim to be a king, they went a step further, and in derision, "they bowed the knee before him, and worshipped him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!" Not satisfied with this mockery, "they smote him with their hands. And they spit upon him," to show the greatest possible degree of hatred and contempt; "and took the reed, and smote him on the head"; thus driving the thorns into Him, and so increasing His sufferings. All this He bore for us; and all He asks in return is, that we should take Him for our King, so as to let Him reign in our hearts, and rule our lives. Pilate made another attempt to save the life of Jesus; he probably hoped, that if the people saw Him bleeding and suffering, they would feel pity, and be ashamed of so treating a man, declared to be innocent, and known to all as going about doing good. "Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"
The Priests, however, were determined that nothing should save the life of their victim, and "therefore, when the Chief Priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him." Pilate finding all his efforts vain, and being still afraid to offend the Jews, "then saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him." As if he had said, If you are determined to crucify Him, do it; but remember it is not my doing, "for I find no fault in him."
"The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." The Jews now changed their ground of accusation, and simply named the sin of blasphemy, as the cause for which their Law required our Lord's death.
"When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid": the heathen governor had clearly seen that Jesus was no common man: if He were put to death for declaring Himself to be the Son of God, He would probably suffer for saying what was true; and though Pilate, as a heathen, had no knowledge of the nature and power of the Lord God Almighty, he was afraid to crucify One, whom he believed to be the Son of God. Hesitating and perplexed, Pilate "went again into the Judgment Hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin."
Jesus meant to tell Pilate, that no earthly Ruler or Governor could have power to put Him to death, unless it had been the Will of God, who dwells in Heaven above, that He should suffer whatever the Jews chose to do to Him. The Jews had cruelly and unjustly persecuted Him, and in spite of His acknowledged innocence, had treated Him as the worst of malefactors: and therefore Jesus told Pilate, that the sin of the Chief Priests and others in insisting upon His death, was far greater than the sin of Pilate in giving way to them, in order to prevent a tumult amongst the people.
The words spoken by Jesus, His whole conduct and manner, so totally unlike that of a guilty person, convinced Pilate more and more, that He had not "spoken blasphemy" in declaring Himself to be the Son of God; and "from thenceforth he sought to release him."
To prevent the escape of their innocent victim, the Jews now returned to their original charge of treason and rebellion against the Roman Emperor, "and cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar." Tiberius, who at that time was Emperor of Rome, was a suspicious and cruel tyrant; and would have punished with death any governor, supposed to have spared the life of a man, who had set himself up to be a king in any of the Roman provinces. Pilate, therefore, did not dare to give the Jews any excuse for thus complaining of him to Tiberius: so "when he heard that saying, (If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend,) he brought Jesus forth," from the Judgment Hall into which the Jews would not enter, "and sat down in the judgment seat, in a place" outside, "that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The Chief Priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified."
As St John's account of the hour at which the crucifixion took place appears to differ from that named by the other Evangelists, it may be well to explain why St. John says, "the sixth hour," and St. Mark "the third."
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, speak according to the Jewish mode of computing time. The Jews reckoned the day to begin at one sunset, and end at the next; so that their night came before the day, instead of after, as with us. From sunset, (about 6 o'clock of our time,) they divided the night into four equal portions or watches, of three hours each. The First from 6 o'clock p.m. to 9 o'clock; the Second from 9 p.m. to 12 o'clock, or midnight. The Third watch, called also the First Cock Crowing, ended at what we call 3 o'clock a.m.; and the Fourth and Last, called the Second Cock Crowing, at our 6 o'clock a.m. The next hour after 6 o'clock was called the 1st hour, and so on; the 3rd hour answered, therefore, to our 9 o'clock a.m.: and this was the hour at which St. Mark states that they crucified Jesus. It must be remarked, that the Jews also divided their day into four portions, calling each by the name of the hour at which it began: thus the 3rd hour, being the beginning of a portion, would include the other two hours in that portion. In this manner, the 3rd hour, our 9 o'clock, would include the 4th and 5th hours, or our 10 and 11 o'clock. Then the 6th hour, answering to our 12 o'clock mid-day, would extend to 3 o'clock, the 9th Jewish hour, and so on.