his case, also, they were well aware that to the ear of a
Roman the claim that He was a king would convey a different meaning
from that conveyed to their ears by the claim to be the Christ.
Indeed, at bottom their objection to Him was just that He did not
sufficiently claim to be a king in the Roman sense. They were eagerly
looking for a king, of splendour and military renown, to break the
Roman yoke and make Jerusalem the capital of a worldwide empire; and it
was because the spirit and aims of Jesus were alien to such ambitions
that they despised and hated Him.

Pilate understood perfectly well with whom he was dealing. He could
only be amused with their zeal for the payment of the Roman tribute.
One of the Evangelists says, "He knew that for envy they had delivered
Him." How far he was already acquainted with the career of Jesus we
cannot tell. He had been governor all the time of the movement
inaugurated by the Baptist and continued by Christ, and he can hardly
have remained in entire ignorance of it. The dream of his wife, which
we shall come to soon, seems to prove that Jesus had already been a
theme of conversation in the palace; and perhaps the tedium of a visit
to Jerusalem may have been relieved for the governor and his wife by
the story of the young Enthusiast who was bearding the fanatic priests.
Pilate displays, all through, a real interest in Jesus and a genuine
respect. This was no doubt chiefly due to what he himself saw of His
bearing at his tribunal; but it may also have been partly due to what
he had already heard about Him. At all events there is no indication
that he took the charges against Jesus seriously. The two first he
seems never to have noticed; but the third--that He was setting Himself
up as a king, who might be a rival to the emperor--was not such as he
could altogether pass by.

III.

Pilate, having heard the accusations, took Jesus inside the palace to
investigate them. This he did, no doubt, for the purpose of getting
rid of the importunity of His accusers, which was extreme. And Jesus
made no scruple, as they had done, about entering the palace. Shall we
say that the Jews had rejected Him, and He was turning to the
Gentiles--that the wall of partition had now fallen, and that He was
trampling over its ruins?

In the silence, then, of this interior hall He and Pilate stood face to
face--He in the prisoner's lonely place, Pilate in the place of power.
Yet how strangely,