Those gross insults, those inhuman acts of violence, even if they are to be cast upon the servants of the high priest and the persons in his train, do not excuse those individuals, who, when they took upon themselves the authority of judges, were bound [pg 555] at the same time to throw around him all the protection of the law. Caiaphas, too, was culpable as the master of the house (for every thing took place in his house), even if he should not be responsible as high priest and president of the council for having permitted excesses, which, indeed were but too much in accordance with the rage he had himself displayed upon the bench.
These outrages, which would be inexcusable even towards a man irrevocably condemned to punishment, were the more criminal towards Jesus, because, legally and judicially speaking, there had not yet been any sentence properly passed against him according to the public law of the country; as we shall see in the following section, which will deserve the undivided attention of the reader.
Section VIII.—The Position of the Jews in respect to the Romans.
We must not forget, that Judea was a conquered country. After the death of Herod—most inappropriately surnamed the Great—Augustus had confirmed his last will, by which that king of the Jews had arranged the division of his dominions between his two sons: but Augustus did not continue their title of king, which their father had borne.
Archeläus, on whom Judea devolved, having been recalled on account of his cruelties, the territory, which was at first intrusted to his command, was united to the province of Syria. (Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. 17, cap. 15.)
Augustus then appointed particular officers for Judea. Tiberius did the same; and at the time of which we are speaking, Pilate was one of those officers. (Josephus, lib. 18, cap. 3 & 8.)
Some have considered Pilate as governor, by title, and have given him the Latin appellation, Præses, president or governor. But they have mistaken the force of the word. Pilate was one of those public officers, who were called by the Romans, procuratores Cæsaris, Imperial procurators. [pg 556] With this title of procurator, he was placed under the superior authority of the governor of Syria, the true præses, or governor of that province, of which Judea was then only one of the dependencies.
To the governor (præses) peculiarly belonged the right of taking cognizance of capital cases.[410] The procurator, on the contrary, had, for his principal duty, nothing but the collection of the revenue, and the trial of revenue causes. But the right of taking cognizance of capital cases did, in some instances, belong to certain procurators, who were sent into small provinces to fill the places of governors (vice præsides), as appears clearly from the Roman laws.[411] Such was Pilate at Jerusalem.[412]
The Jews, placed in this political position—notwithstanding they were left in the enjoyment of their civil laws, the public exercise of their religion, and many things merely relating to their police and municipal regulations—the Jews, I say, had not the power of life and death; this was a principal attribute of sovereignty, which the Romans always took great care to reserve to themselves, even if they neglected other things. Apud Romanos, jus valet gladii; cætera transmittuntur. Tacit.
What then was the right of the Jewish authorities in regard to Jesus? Without doubt the scribes, and their friends the Pharisees, might well have been alarmed, as a body and individually, at the preaching and success of Jesus; they might be concerned for their worship; and they might have interrogated the man respecting his creed and his doctrines,—they might have made a kind of preparatory proceeding,—they might have declared, in point of fact, that those doctrines, which threatened their own, were contrary to their law, as understood by themselves.