_THE JEWISH TRIAL――REMORSE AND SUICIDE OF JUDAS._
A.D. 30.
BY this time the entire body of the Sanhedrin had assembled in the
palace of Caiaphas, and the Redeemer was placed before them.
The first object was to secure the agreement of two witnesses on
some specific charge (Mtt. xxvi. 59; Mk. xiv. 55). But this was found
to be a matter of the utmost difficulty. Many indeed were at hand
suborned to utter any falsehood, but their testimony was so confused
and contradictory (Mk. xiv. 56), that the council could not receive
it. At length two were found who could testify to the words the Holy
One had uttered on the occasion of His first visit to the Temple[518].
_This fellow said_, was their charge, _I will destroy this Temple made
with hands, and in three days I will raise up another made without
hands_ (Mk. xiv. 58). But besides the fact that their allegations were
exaggerated, they themselves did not agree in their statements (Mk. xiv.
59), and though eager to pronounce the capital sentence, the council
felt themselves unable with any decency to do so on such evidence.
Meanwhile the Redeemer preserved a solemn and impressive silence,
neither interrupting, nor replying to the questions of the high-priest
or the statements of His accusers (Mtt. xxvi. 62; Mk. xiv. 60). He
condescended not to any defence.
Nothing therefore remained but, if possible, to make Him criminate
Himself. Once more, then, the high-priest _stood up in the midst_
(Mk. xiv. 60), and in the most solemn manner adjured Him in the name
of Jehovah to declare whether _He was the Messiah, the Son of God_
(Comp. Mtt. xxvi. 63; Mk. xiv. 61).
Thus formally addressed, the Holy One at length broke the silence He
had hitherto maintained, saying, in reply to the question, _I am; and
hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven_[519]. He thus in the most
solemn and explicit manner asserted that He was not only the Messiah,
but the Son of God, and that in the sublimest sense of the words.
All was now uproar and confusion. In token of his horror the
high-priest rent his clothes, and pronounced the utterance of the
Redeemer to be direct and treasonable blasphemy. _What further need_,
he exclaimed, _have we of witnesses? Ye have heard His blasphemy:
what think ye?_ (Mtt. xxvi. 65; Mk. xiv. 63, 64). Carried away by
his vehement gestures and words, and his great influence, the court
pronounced their opinion, _He is guilty of death_ (Mtt. xxvi. 66).
Worse than false prophet, worse than false Messiah, He had declared
Himself to be the _Son of God_, and that in the presence of the
high-priest and the great council of the nation. He had incurred the
capital penalty.
And now ensued a scene of fearful violence. The bystanders were
permitted to do their worst to One thus declared guilty of blasphemy.
Some _spat upon His face_; others _smote Him with the palms of their
hands_; others _blindfolded_ Him, and in derision of His Messianic
claims bade Him detect the hand that had been raised against Him (Mtt.
xxvi. 67, 68; Mk. xiv. 65; Lk. xxii. 63, 64).
But though the great council of the nation had thus passed sentence,
there remained a serious obstacle before they could carry it out. Cases
punishable with death, such as false claims to prophetic inspiration,
or blasphemy, they were fully competent to _try_[520] (Comp. Acts iv.
5–21; v. 17–40; vi. 12–15; xxiii. 1–10), but they could not _execute_
the sentence of death, for the right had been taken from them ever
since Judæa became a Roman province[521]. Mistrusting, therefore,
the people who might attempt to rescue the Holy One from the hands of
their own officers, reluctant to incur the odium of profaning so sacred
a day with a public execution, anxious to shift the responsibility from
their own head upon that of the Romans, yet determined to insure the
destruction of their Victim, they again reassembled their court (Mtt.
xxvii. 1; Mk. xv. 1), and resolved to send the Redeemer before the
tribunal of Pilate, who, they might not unreasonably suppose, “would
not hesitate, at once, and on their authority, on the first intimation
of a dangerous and growing party, to act without further examination
or inquiry, and without scruple add one victim more to the robbers
and turbulent insurgents, who, it appears, were kept in prison, in
order to be executed, as a terrible example at that period of national
concourse[522].” Pilate had, as usual, come up to Jerusalem to preserve
order during the Passover, and was now residing either in a palace near
the tower of Antonia[523], or in the splendid and luxurious structure
which had been erected by Herod the Great[524]. Thither, therefore, the
Saviour, after He had been again placed in bonds (Mtt. xxvii. 2), was
led, attended by a deputation of the Sanhedrin to support and explain
the charge[525].
Meanwhile the fact of His condemnation had become known[526] to the
traitor Judas (Mtt. xxvii. 3), and filled him with the deepest remorse.
Hitherto he had been lured on by covetousness, and his eyes had been
blinded by the Evil One. Now they were opened, and he saw what he had
done. _He had betrayed innocent blood_ (Mtt. xxvii. 4). Filled with
terror and anguish, he hurried to the chief priests and elders, and
openly confessed his awful crime. But they received his confession with
gibes and taunts. _What is that to us?_ said they; _see thou to that_
(Mtt. xxvii. 4). In frantic despair the wretched man resolved to get
rid of the reward of his treachery. Rushing into the sanctuary[527]
he flung down the thirty pieces of silver before the priests, and went
and hanged himself[528] (Mtt. xxvii. 5), but, probably in consequence
of the rope breaking, he _fell headlong, and burst asunder in the
midst_ (Acts i. 18), so that, when his body was found, _all his bowels
had gushed out_. With the blood-money he had left in the Temple the
chief priests were at first perplexed what to do. Though they had not
scrupled to pledge it as the reward of the basest treachery, yet they
were unwilling to return it to the Temple funds, and at length resolved
to apply it to the purchase[529] of a field for the burial of strangers,
which was afterwards known as Aceldama[530] (Acts i. 19), or the _Field
of Blood_ (Mtt. xxvii. 6–10; Zech. xi. 13).