Chapter 4.

Chapter 4.

Pilate therefore, leaving Jesus within the prætorium, went out to the Jews, and says to them:  I find not even one fault in him.  The Jews say to him:  He said, I can destroy that temple, and in three days raise it again.  Pilate said to them:  What temple?  The Jews say to him:  The temple which Solomon built in forty and six years; and he says that he can destroy and build it in three days.  Pilate says to them:  I am innocent of the blood of this man; see ye to it.  The Jews say to him:  His blood be upon us, and upon our children.

And Pilate, calling the elders and priests and Levites, says to them privately:  Do not do so; for in nothing, though you accuse him, do I find him deserving of death, not even about the healing and the breaking of the Sabbath.  The priests and Levites and elders say:  Tell us, if any one blaspheme Cæsar, is he deserving of death or not?  Pilate says to them:  He deserves to die.  The Jews answered him:  How much more is he who has blasphemed God deserving to die!

And the governor ordered the Jews to go outside of the prætorium; and calling Jesus, said to Him:  What am I to do to thee?  Jesus says to Pilate:  As it has been given thee.  Pilate says:  How has it been given?  Jesus says:  Moses and the prophets made proclamation of my death and resurrection.  And the Jews, hearing this, say to Pilate:  Why do you desire any more to hear blasphemy?  And Pilate said:  If this speech is blasphemous, do you take him, and lead him to your synagogue, and judge him according to your law.  The Jews say to Pilate:  Our law holds, If a man have sinned against a man, he is worthy to receive forty less one; but he who has blasphemed against God, to be stoned.

Pilate says to them:  Then judge him according to your law.  The Jews say to Pilate:  We wish that he be crucified.  Pilate says to them:  He does not deserve to be crucified.

And the governor, looking upon the people of the Jews standing round, saw very many of the Jews weeping, and said:  All the multitude does not wish him to die.  The elders say to Pilate:  And for this reason have we come—the whole multitude—that he should die.  Pilate said to the Jews:  What has he done that he should die?  They say:  Because he said that he was the Son of God, and a king.