A CLOSER LOOK AT THE COURTS AND THE CRUCIFIXION, Ch10 of Who Crucified Christ

In our effort to further understand this issue, let us examine the story more closely. After appearing before Annas and then Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, Jesus was led to the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate. The governor sensed that Jesus was not a criminal when the Jews declared, “We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. . . .” The charge of blasphemy was the only crime worthy of death under the Jewish law; now the crime had to be contorted to another charge for death under the Roman law. Their charge against Jesus was now sedition, a political offense. Pilate took Jesus inside the palace, and after questioning Him, Pilate returned to the Jews saying, “I find in him no fault at all.” Jesus was acquitted! The mob was furious and their mania had been foiled. With their thirst for blood unquenched and their plans frustrated, they now hurled their madness against Pilate saying, “If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: Whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar.” The Jews despised the Roman rule more than any other; now, however, they were befriending it in order to convict Jesus. Pilate became worried. There was friction between Herod and Pilate; so to flatter Herod, who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time, Pilate directed them to take Jesus to him. This would rid himself of the responsibility of judgment on such frail evidence, and at the same time help to amend their personal enmities. Herod’s father had been a murderer of men and women and the babies of Bethlehem. Now one of his sons (Herod) had the blood of John the Baptist upon his hands as a result of granting a request after a seductive dance.