"Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!"
"Take him yourselves and crucify him," said the procurator, "for I find no crime in him."
Then said one to Ben Ezra: "Already he hath been tried and condemned before Herod, the king. Also he hath been well examined and scourged duly by the procurator. Let him die!"
There were many who responded in divers forms of speech to the utterance of the procurator, but a ruler among the Jews shouted loudly:
"We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."
When Pontius heard that he arose and went into the palace for a little space, taking the prisoner with him. What further examination was made thus in private the multitude knew not, but when again the procurator came forth, having Jesus brought also, he said to the Jews:
"Which of these twain shall I release unto you, Bar Abbas, the robber, or Jesus who is called the Christ, the King of the Jews?"
But they all answered him with shouts of "Bar Abbas!" for among the rabble were many priests and scribes who were stirring them up to do this thing. Other things were said, both by the procurator and the accusers, but it seemed that he would willingly have refrained from doing any further violence to this man.
"Behold your king!" he said, at last.