Jerusalem. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I Matt.xxvi.74. know not the man; I know not this man of whom ye speak. Mark xiv. 71. And immediately while he yet spake, the cock Luke xxii. 60. crew; the second time the cock crew. Mark xiv. 72. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. Luke xxii. 61. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord. how that he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me Mark xiv. 72. *Or, he wept thrice. abundantly, or, he began to wept; weep. he went out, and wept bitterly. MATT. XXVI. part of ver. 73, 74, 75. Matt.xxvi.75. 73 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Pe ter 74 -And immediately the cock crew 75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. MARK xiv. part of ver. 70, 71, 72. 70 -And a little after-Surely thou art one of them 71 But he began to curse and to swear 72 And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him SECTION VIII. Christ is taken before the Sanhedrim, and condemned. And straightway in the morning, as soon as it was day, Mark xv. 1. Luke xxii. 66. the Chief Priests held a consultation with the Mark xv. l. elders of the people, and the Scribes, and the whole council, Matt. xxvii.. Mark xv. 1. [and] took counsel against Jesus to put him to Matt. xxvii. 1. death. And they led him into their council, saying, Luke xxii. 66. Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto Lnke xxii, 67. them, If I tell you, ye will not believe. And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, Luke xxii. 68. nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right Luke xxii. 69. hand of the power of God. Luke xxii. 70. Luke xxii. 71. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of Jerusalem. God? And he said unto them, Ye say that & Mark xiv. I am. And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth. MATT. xxvii. part of ver. 1. 1 When the morning was come, f all the Chief Priests and elders— LUKE Xxii. part of ver. 66. 66 And the elders of the people, and the Chief Priests, and the Scribes, came together 62. f John xviii. 28. Matt. xxvii.3. Matt. xxvii.4. Matt. xxvii.5. Matt. xxvii. 6. SECTION IX. Judas declares the Innocence of Christ". MATT. Xxvii, 3-11. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged i Acts i. 18. himself11. And the Chief Priests took the silver pieces, and 10 I am induced to place this section here, because it does not appear that the Sanhedrim returned to their council chamber in the temple after our Lord had been condemned by Pilate, and we must therefore refer the repentance of Judas to his condemnation by the Sanhedrim in the temple. "The account of the death of Judas is attended with some difficulty. The manner in which Weston reconciles St. Matthew and St. Luke, seems to be the most preferable. St. Matthew says άлýуžαто," he hanged himself," and St. Luke that he πpyvǹs yevóμevos, "falling headlong," as we have translated it, (Acts i. 18.) "burst asunder in the midst, and his bowels gushed out." Some suppose Judas to have fallen on his face after hanging, by the breaking of the rope. Others, that he was choked with grief, and burst asunder. Weston renders the passage, Matt. xxvii. 5, "he strangled himself, and the rope failing, he fell headlong, and his bowels gushed out." This solution appears to be more satisfactory than any other. See Weston apud Bowyer's Critical Conjectures, p. 128, 129. See also the references in Archbishop Newcome's note, and the commentators. Jerusalem. said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. k Acts i. 19. 13. And they took counsel, and bought with them Matt. xxvii.7. the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of Matt. xxvii. 8. blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Matt. xxvii. 9. 1 Zech. xi. 12, Jeremy the prophet", saying, 'And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was *Or, whom valued, *whom they of the children of Israel did they bought of the children of value; Israel. 10. And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord Matt. xxvii. appointed me. 12 The words quoted here are not in the prophet Jeremiah, but in Zech. xi. 13. But St. Jerome says, that a Hebrew, of the sect of the Nazarenes, shewed him this prophecy in a Hebrew apocryphal copy of Jeremiah; but probably they were inserted there, only to countenance the quotation here. One of Colbert's, a MS. of the eleventh century, has Zaxápiov, Zechariah; so has the later Syriac in the margin, and a copy of the Arabic, quoted by Bengel. In a very elegant and correct MS. of the Vulgate, in the possession of Dr. A. Clarke, written in the fourteenth century, Zachariain is in the margin, and Jerimiam is in the text; but the former is written by a later hand. Jeremiah is wanting in two MSS. the Syriac, later Persic, two of the Itala, and in some other Latin copies. It is very likely that the original reading was dià roũ πрopýrov, and the name of no prophet mentioned. This is the more likely, as Matthew often omits the name of the prophet in his quotations. See chap. i. 22. ii. 5. 15. xiii. 35. xxi. 4. Bengel approves of the omission. "It was an ancient custom among the Jews," says Lightfoot, "to divide the Old Testament into three parts; the first, beginning with the law, is called the Law; the second, beginning with the Psalms, was called the Psalms; the third, beginning with the prophet in question, was called Jeremiah: thus, then, the writings of Zechariah and the other prophets being included in that division that began with Jeremiah, all quotations from it would go under the name of this prophet." If this be admitted, it solves the difficulty at once. Lightfoot quotes Bava Bathra, and Rabbi David Kimchi's preface to the prophet Jeremiah, as his authorities; and insists that the word Jeremiah is perfectly correct, as standing at the head of that division from which the Evangelist quoted, and which gave its denomination to all the rest (a). (a) Vide Dr. A. Clarke's Comment. in loc., Lightfoot's Harmony, Pitman's 8vo. edit. vol. ii. p. 157, 158, and the note on the Prophecies of Zechariah, in the second volume of the Arrangement of the Old Testament. SECTION X. Christ is accused before Pilate, and is by him also declared to be innocent. MATT. xxvii. 2. and 11-15. MARK XV. 1-6. LUKE Xxiii. 1-5. JOHN Xviii. 28-39. Luke xxiii. 1. And the whole multitude of them arose, Mark xv. 1. and bound Jesus, Matt. xxvii.2. * Jerusalem. *Or, Pilate's house, Matt. xxvii. 27. And when they had bound him, they led him away John xviii. 28. from Caiaphas, unto the hall of judgment: Matt. xxvii.2. and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the John xviii. 29. and it was early; m and they themselves went not m Acts x. 28. into the judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover. John xviii. 29. John xviii. 30. John xviii. 31. John xviii. 32. 13 governor; Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him unto thee. up Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: "That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, n Matt.xx.19, which he spake, signifying what death he should, die 13. ON THE QUESTION, "6 WHETHER THE JEWS, AT THE TIME OF CHRIST, HAD THE POWER OF INFLICTING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.” Much discussion has taken place on the question, whether the Jews, in the time of our Lord, retained the power of life and death. Lightfoot, Dr. Lardner, Doddridge, &c. have strenuously defended the negative; Biscoe is the principal author, of late date, who has adopted the affirmative. Two kinds of arguments have been used, to prove that the Jews were deprived of the power of inflicting capital punishments: one taken from the Roman laws, or the nature of the Roman government; the other from certain passages in the New Testament. The judge, according to the Roman laws, exerted in criminal affairs the Imperium merum; in civil causes, Imperium mixtum. Proconsuls and presidents of provinces, as Pilate was, possessed both these powers. They were the representatives of, and next to, the emperor, in their respective provinces. The arguments by which the position is defended, that the Jews had not the power of life and death at this time, are thus proposed, and answered by Biscoe (a). 1. There was a Roman law, which states, that the municipal magistrate can (a) Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. p. 116. A Jerusalem, And they began to accuse him, saying, We Luke xxiii. 2. found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying, that he himself is Christ, a King. not do those things which have more of imperium than of jurisdiction; the municipal magistrates not having it in their power to enforce their orders. Ans. It cannot be proved that this law existed at the time in question: and even if it had, there is sufficient grounds for concluding it was confined to the municipes, who were Roman citizens, and therefore to be tried and punished by magistrates of the first rank; and that it did not extend to the provincials, who were less regarded, and left more under the power of their own magistrates. 2. The power of inflicting capital punishments could not be exercised by any magistrate, unless it were given him by some special law or constitution; therefore this power could not be transferable to magistrates who held a delegated jurisdiction. Ans. Nothing is more certain than that many cities, and some whole countries, had obtained from the people and emperors of Rome, the privilege of being governed by their own laws, and by their own magistrates, in a greater or less degree. The Carthaginians, after the second Punic war, had the power of executing their own laws, even in capital punishments; and many other instances might be enumerated. Why may we not, then, suppose that the people of Judæa were equally favoured? It may indeed be shewn, from many things recorded in history, that the Romans were more peculiarly disposed to be favourable to the Jews. 3. According to the civil law of Rome, the presidents alone possessed the Merum Imperium, or the power of sitting in judgment on, and executing criminals, in those provinces over which they were placed. It is acknow Ans. This is taking for granted the thing that is questioned. ledged that the Jewish magistrates had the power of inflicting lesser punishments; but how could this be, if the cognizance of all criminal causes was solely in the president, and not the least part of this power could be delegated? The Jewish magistrates must have received their power to execute these minor punishments either by some special law, or, which more probable, (as there is no record of such law in their favour,) they, like other nations, were allowed the privilege of their own laws. We now proceed to the arguments from the New Testament. 1. The most plausible of all is, that saying of the Jews to Pilate," It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:" (John xviii. 31.) which is represented as an ample acknowledgment from the Jews themselves, that they had not at that time the power of inflicting capital punishments. Ans. The context proves that these words do not imply that the Romans had deprived them of the liberty of judging men by their own law, but shew, on the contrary, that they had the option of trying Jesus themselves, or of giving him up to the Roman Governor. For Pilate had only a moment before said, “Take ye him, and judge him according to your law." Their answer is evidently a refusal of the Governor's offer; and if we interpret the words in any other way, we are naturally brought to the conclusion, that Pilate, when he said " Judge him according to your law," spoke in mere mockery, and intended to remind |