sentence (as doubtless they would have done if he had been away at
Caesarea), in defiance of the law, which was entrusted to a weak and
capricious governor. Accordingly they brought their Prisoner to the
procurator's residence--probably Herod's palace, a magnificent building
with two marble wings, containing large rooms sumptuously furnished,
and spacious porticos surrounded by gardens and enclosed in a lofty
wall with towers, situated in the western district of the city, and
approached by a bridge across the Tyropaean valley. The facts that a
later governor, Gestius Florus, resided here, and that Pilate lived in
Herod's palace at Caesarea when in that city, and that he hung the
shields about which there was so much trouble in the Jerusalem palace,
make this view more probable than the traditional idea that the trial
of Jesus took place in the Castle of Antonio, the imperial barracks,
close to the Temple.

The Jews objected to enter this fine palace, because as a Gentile
residence it was defiled, and therefore defiling, and they wished to be
"clean" for the feast they were to eat in the evening. Pilate humoured
them, and had his conferences with them outside the building. Seeing
their object and observing their temper, he must have discovered at
once their miserable hypocrisy. These were the men who affected to be
the leaders of the one pure faith on earth, a faith which looked with
scorn on the "idolatry" of the cultured Roman. He must have regarded
them with immense contempt. If his tone is cynical, it is but a match
for the unmitigated cynicism of their conduct.

Pilate inquires as to the crime with which the Prisoner is charged. At
first, the Jews do not give an explicit reply, only stating that they
have already found Him guilty. Pilate catches at that. His weakness,
so pitiably apparent throughout the whole proceedings, appears at this