ean. Herod accepted the compliment Pilate paid him, but
{493} refused to judge in a matter which belonged to a Roman officer,
and sent him back to Pilate. (5) The final trial before Pilate, when,
finding that he could in no way escape the responsibility, Pilate
reluctantly condemned Jesus to crucifixion; so, as he himself admitted,
sending an innocent man to death. The Jewish court condemned Jesus for
blasphemy; the Roman, ostensibly, for treason.

_Crucifixion_. This cruel custom came to the west from the Phoenicians,
and was used by Greeks and Romans. Under the Roman emperors it became
common. First it was only used for slaves and persons much despised.
Later it was used more widely, but it was always considered a mark of
deep disgrace.

_Emmaus_. The locality is unknown; possibly at Kolonieh, on the road
from Jerusalem to Joppa.

PART II.

_Pentecost_. The great feast fifty days after the Passover. It was the
Old Testament feast of the first fruits, when the first of the wheat
harvest was presented in thanksgiving to God. The Jews of Christ's time
regarded it as the memorial of the giving of the law at Sinai, but the
Old Testament does not authorize that. Much was made of the feast at the
temple, and crowds came to Jerusalem for its celebration.

_"Had all things in common."_ This was not communism, in which all
property was put into a common stock. Each believer regarded his
property as sacred to the uses of his brethren, did they need it; but
the story of Ananias and Sapphira shows that it was still in his
possession to do what he chose with it.

_Sorcery_. The age of the early church was full of belief in the reality
of possession by evil spirits. Sorcery was the casting out of such evil
spirits by means of magic. This belief continued for hundreds of years
after, both among Christians and others. The belief in magical means of
protection against witches, among our own ancestors, was of the same
sort.

{494}

_Ethiopia_. The region of the Upper Nile, the territory of the modern
Nubia and Abyssinia. Candace seems to have been a title of the dowager
queens of Ethiopia, as Caesar was of the emperors of Rome.

_Eating with Gentiles_. In order to avoid ceremonial defilement, it was
the custom of the Jews never to eat with Gentiles. The early Christians
kept their Jewish customs in this respect as in others. Before the close
of the first Christian century, however, the custom had been dropped by