The view given in the Apostolical Constitu tions (ver. 14), where unmanliness an-an-dree' ah (dvav&pta) is ascribed to him, we take to be correct. This want of strength will readily account for his failing to rescue Jesus from the rage of his enemies, and also for the acts of in justice and cruelty which he practiced in his gov ernment—acts which, considered in themselves, wear a deeper dye than does the conduct which he observed in surrendering Jesus to the malice of the Jews. And this same weakness may serve to explain to the reader how much influence would be exerted on this unjust judge, not only by the stern bigotry and persecuting wrath of the Jewish priesthood, but specially by the not concealed intimations which they threw out against Pilate, that, if he liberated Jesus, he was no friend of Tiberius, and must expect to have to give an account of his conduct at Rome. And that this was no idle threat, nothing beyond the limits of probability, Pilate's subsequent deposi tion by Vitellius shows very plainly ; nor could the procurator have been ignorant either of the stern determination of the Jewish character, or of the offense he had by his acts given to the heads of the nation, or of the insecurity, at that very hour, when the contest between him and the priests was proceeding regarding the innocent victim whom they lusted to destroy, of his own position in the office which he held, and which, of course he desired to retain. On the whole, then, viewing
the entire conduct of Pilate,his previous iniquities as well as his bearing on the condemnation of Jesus—viewing his own actual position and the malignity of the Jews, we cannot, we confess, give our vote with those who have passed the severest condemnation on this weak and guilty governor. J. R. B.
(Hase, in his Leben Jesu, p. 245, affords valuable literary references on this, as on so many other New Testament subjects. Ellicott, His torical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord; Neander, Life of Christ; Edersheim, Life of Jesus.)