multitudes they gathered at Caesarea, and
petitioned the procurator that the standards and other images be removed
from Jerusalem. For five days the people demanded and Pilate refused. He
threatened a general slaughter, and was amazed to see the people offer
themselves as victims of the sword rather than relinquish their demands.
Pilate had to yield (Josephus, Ant. xviii, chap. 3:1; also Wars, ii,
chap. 9:2, 3). Again he gave offense in forcibly appropriating the
Corban, or sacred funds of the temple, to the construction of an
aqueduct for supplying Jerusalem with water from the pools of Solomon.
Anticipating the public protest of the people, he had caused Roman
soldiers to disguise themselves as Jews; and with weapons concealed to
mingle with the crowds. At a given signal these assassins plied their
weapons and great numbers of defenceless Jews were killed or wounded
(Josephus, Ant. xviii, chap. 3:2; and Wars, ii, chap. 9:3, 4). On
another occasion, Pilate had grossly offended the people by setting up
in his official residence at Jerusalem, shields that had been dedicated
to Tiberius, and this "less for the honor of Tiberius than for the
annoyance of the Jewish people." A petition signed by the ecclesiastical
officials of the nation, and by others of influence, including four
Herodian princes, was sent to the emperor, who reprimanded Pilate and
directed that the shields be removed from Jerusalem to Caesarea (Philo.
De Legatione ad Caium; sec. 38).

These outrages on national feeling, and many minor acts of violence,
extortion and cruelty, the Jews held against the procurator. He realized
that his tenure was insecure, and he dreaded exposure. Such wrongs had
he wrought that when he would have done good, he was deterred through
cowardly fear of the accusing past.

8. Judas Iscariot.--Today we speak of a traitor as a "Judas" or an
"Iscariot". The man who made the combined name infamous has been for
ages a subject of discussion among theologians and philosophers, and in
later times the light of psychological analysis has been turned upon
him. German philosophers were among the earliest to assert that the man
had been judged in unrighteousness, and that his real character was of
brighter tint than that in which it had been painted. Indeed some
critics hold that of all the Twelve Judas was the one most thoroughly
convinced of our Lord's divinity in the flesh; and these apologists
attempt to explain the betrayal as a deliber