Chapter 4.

And leaving Jesus within the prætorium, Pilate went out to the Jews, and said to them:  I find no fault in him.  The Jews say to him:  He said, I can destroy this temple, and in three days build it.  Pilate says:  What temple?  The Jews say:  The one that Solomon^18201820    Comp. John ii. 20. built in forty-six years, and this man speaks of pulling it down and building it in three days.  Pilate says to them:  I am innocent of the blood of this just man.  See you to it.  The Jews say:  His blood be upon us, and upon our children.

And Pilate having summoned the elders and priests and Levites, said to them privately:  Do not act thus, because no charge that you bring against him is worthy of death; for your charge is about curing and Sabbath profanation.  The elders and the priests and the Levites say:  If 419any one speak evil against Cæsar, is he worthy of death or not?  Pilate says:  He is worthy of death.  The Jews say to Pilate:  If any one speak evil against Cæsar, he is worthy of death; but this man has spoken evil against God.

And the procurator ordered the Jews to go outside of the prætorium; and summoning Jesus, he says to Him:  What shall I do to thee?  Jesus says to Pilate:  As it has been given to thee.  Pilate says:  How given?  Jesus says:  Moses and the prophets have proclaimed beforehand of my death and resurrection.  And the Jews noticing this, and hearing it, say to Pilate:  What more wilt thou hear of this blasphemy?  Pilate says to the Jews:  If these words be blasphemous, do you take him for the blasphemy, and lead him away to your synagogue, and judge him according to your law.  The Jews say to Pilate:  Our law bears that a man who wrongs his fellow-men is worthy to receive forty save one; but he that blasphemeth God is to be stoned with stones.^18211821    Deut. xxv. 3; Lev. xxiv. 16.

Pilate says to them:  Do you take him, and punish him in whatever way you please.  The Jews say to Pilate:  We wish that he be crucified.  Pilate says:  He is not deserving of crucifixion.

And the procurator, looking round upon the crowds of the Jews standing by, sees many of the Jews weeping, and says:  All the multitude do not wish him to die.  The elders of the Jews say:  For this reason all the multitude of us have come, that he should die.  Pilate says to the Jews:  Why should he die?  The Jews say:  Because he called himself Son of God, and King.