ict his accusers or their
witnesses, Pilate having naturally no idea that the prisoner conceives
himself as going through an inevitable process of torment, death, and
burial as a prelude to resurrection. Before the high priest he has also
been silent except that when the priest asks him is he the Christ, the
Son of God, he replies that they shall all see the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. He
maintains this attitude with frightful fortitude whilst they scourge
him, mock him, torment him, and finally crucify him between two thieves.
His prolonged agony of thirst and pain on the cross at last breaks his
spirit, and he dies with a cry of "My God: why hast Thou forsaken me?"

NOT THIS MAN BUT BARRABAS

Meanwhile he has been definitely rejected by the people as well as by
the priests. Pilate, pitying him, and unable to make out exactly what he
has done (the blasphemy that has horrified the high priest does not move
the Roman) tries to get him off by reminding the people that they have,
by custom, the right to have a prisoner released at that time, and
suggests that he should release Jesus. But they insist on his releasing
a prisoner named Barabbas instead, and on having Jesus crucified.
Matthew gives no clue to the popularity of Barabbas, describing him
simply as "a notable prisoner." The later gospels make it clear, very
significantly, that his offence was sedition and insurrection; that he
was an advocate of physical force; and that he had killed his man. The
choice of Barabbas thus appears as a popular choice of the militant
advocate of physical force as against the unresisting advocate of mercy.

THE RESURRECTION.

Matthew then tells how after three days an angel opened the family vault
of one Joseph, a rich man of Arimathea, who had buried Jesus in it,
whereupon Jesus rose and returned from Jerusalem to Galilee and resumed
his preaching with his disciples, assuring them that he would now be
with them to the end of the world. At that point the narrative abruptly
stops. The story has no ending.

DATE OF MATTHEW'S NARRATIVE.

One effect of the promise of Jesus to come again in glory during the
lifetime of some of his hearers is to date the gospel without the aid
of any scholarship. It must have been written during the lifetime of
Jesus's contemporaries: that is, whilst it was still possible for the
promise of his Second Coming to be fulfilled. The d