An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists Part 67

413 "To carry one from Caiaphas to Pilate" has since become a proverb.

414 Lysias thus wrote to Felix the Governor, in relation to Paul: Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or bonds. Acts xxiii. 29.

415 Gerhard makes the following unanswerable dilemma upon this point.

"Be consistent with thyself, Pilate; for, if Christ is innocent, why dost thou not send him away acquitted? And if thou believest him deserving of chastis.e.m.e.nt with rods, why dost thou proclaim him to be innocent?" _Gerh. Harm._ ch. 193, p. 1889.

416 We will cite here the words of one of the finest laws of the Romans: Vanae voces populi non sunt audiendae, quando aut noxium crimine absolvi, aut innocentum condemnari desiderant-The idle clamour of the populace is not to be regarded, when they call for a guilty man to be acquitted, or an innocent one to be condemned. _Law 12, Code de Pnis_. Pilate might also have read in Horace: Justum et tenacem, &c.-

"The man in conscious virtue bold, Who dares his secret purpose hold, Unshaken hears the crowd's tumultuous cries, And the impetuous _tyrant's_ angry brow defies."