his question, issued a second time from the Prætorium; by himself, and leaving Jesus alone within; to speak to his accusers without: and the conversation recorded xviii. 38. from κaì TOûTO eiπwv, to the end of the chapter, now took place. In this was included the first express declaration of his conviction of the innocence of Jesus, and the first express proposal, in deference to the privilege of the feast, that he should be released, followed by the first express demand for the liberation of Barabbas in his stead. All this time, it must be evident that Jesus himself was still in the Prætorium, apart from Pilate, from his accusers, and from the multitude, who were all without.

IV. His proposal, for the release of Jesus, having been thus received, Pilate, as we shall see by and by, again left the people outside, and returned into the Prætorium a second time; where Jesus was: and apparently with the hope of mitigating the people by the infliction of some chastisement upon him, caused him, for the first time, to be scourged by the soldiers of his guard, and arrayed out of mockery in purple.

V. For after this, we are told expressly, xix. 4, that he came out again, whence it is clear that meanwhile he must have gone in; which will be the third time of his coming forth. But he came out alone; for he informed the people that he was going to bring out Jesus unto them; that so they might be convinced, from the manner in which he had decorated him, that he found no fault in him; that he considered the charge of affected royalty as nothing serious or dangerous. Accordingly, Jesus did come forth, for the first time since his entering in, wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns with which the soldiers had invested him. These particulars are all recorded, xix. 1–5.

VI. Hereupon, while Jesus was still in public, ex

posed, and in such a dress, to the gaze of the people, the conversation ensued which is related xix. 6-8. including a second attempt of Pilate to procure his liberation.

VII. After this, however, it is evident that Pilate entered the Prætorium for the third time again, and either took Jesus back with him, or caused him to be summoned to his presence thither a second time, in order that the conversation between them, xix. 9-11. might take place, as before, within the Prætorium, and apart from the people.

VIII. When this was over, it is also manifest that Pilate must have come out again by himself, for the fourth time, leaving Jesus, as before, alone and within; or that third intercession with the people, which is recorded at verse 12. could not have taken place with

out.

Hitherto then there is no proof of any formal examination of our Lord at all, or of none which had been transacted in public: whatever had passed, which might be construed into an examination, had passed between himself and Pilate, within the Prætorium, apart from and unobserved by the people. Twice only, in the course of proceedings, as far as they had yet extended, had Jesus been visible without; once, when he was first brought to the governor, and again, when he was produced to the people, arrayed in the mockery of a kingly dress. But he had been speedily removed within; and at this very time it must be evident that he was still within.

IX. In consequence, however, of that last declaration of the people, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend-every one who maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar; which implied a resolution, did he refuse any longer to comply with their wish, to

accuse him to Tiberius, or at least was to put the question upon a new footing, directly affecting his duty as the lieutenant of Cæsar; he brought out Jesus, we are told, (which clearly demonstrates that before he was within,) and consequently for the third time of his appearing in public; and sat down himself ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος, εἰς τόπον λεγόμενον Λιθόστρωτον. xix. 13.

Now what Pilate was thus doing, it is manifest he was doing in public: and what he was thus doing in public now, it is also manifest he could not have done in public before. But from the very terms of the account itself, from the mention of the ẞua, as the seat on which he proceeded to sit, and from the name given to the place where that βῆμα was fixed, λιθόστρωτον, it must be evident that he was preparing to try our Saviour in a new capacity; he was sitting down pro tribunali, in his judicial or official character; in the ordinary place, and on the ordinary seat, where, as the deputy of Cæsar, as the civil magistrate, as the administrator of justice and the arbiter of life and death, he was accustomed to hear, and to decide upon, all causes brought before his cognizance.

It is well known to classical readers that the vernacular term tribunal, which expresses in the Latin language the seat of justice, is rendered in Greek by ẞua; and the vernacular phrase sedere or considere pro tribunali, which expresses in the same language the assumption of the seat of justice, as the preliminary step to the discharge of the functions of a judge, is also rendered in Greek by καθίσαι oι καθῆσθαι ἐπὶ βήματος. If examples are wanted in proof of this position, the following passages will supply them. Καθίσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος. Acts xii. 21—Ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα. xviii. 12Ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος. Ib. 16-Έμπροσθεν τοῦ βήματος. Ib. 17-Καθα ίσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος. xxv. 6—Ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος Καίσ

σαρος. Ib. 10 Καθίσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος. Ib. 17. Vide also Rom. xiv. 10. 2 Cor. v. 10.

Γενομένης κατηγορίας πρὸ τοῦ βήματος. Jos. Bell. Jud. i. ix. 2—Τῇ δὲ ἑξῆς ὁ Πίλατος καθίσας ἐπὶ βήματος. ii. ix. 3.Περιστάντες τὸ βῆμα—Απὸ τοῦ βήματος—Ibid. 4—Βῆμα πρὸ αὐτῶν θέμενος. Ibid. xiv. 8—— Μαστιγώσαι πρὸ τοῦ βήματος. Ibid. 9—Καθίζει μὲν ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος. iii. x. 10—Πρὸ τοῦ βήματος . . . ἀπέλυσα. Ant. xiv. x. 13. 19—Ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα ἧκεν. xviii. iii. 1—Ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἀνέγνω. xix. vi. 3—Καθίσας ἐπὶ βήματος. xx. vi. 2 Καὶ βῆμα καὶ τὸ τοιοῦτον ὀνομάζεται, ἐφ ̓ οὗ τις ἑζόμενος δικάζει. Dio Cassius, xliv. 12-Ἐπὶ βήματος αὐτῷ καθη μένῳ. Ιν. 33Ἐπεποίητο μὲν γὰρ βῆμα ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ, ἐφ' οὗ προκαθίζων ἐχρημάτιζε. Ivii. 7—Καθεζόμενος δ ̓ ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος. Appian, B. C. v. 48.

It is known also that the tribunals of the magistrates at Rome were placed in the midst of a rising ground, or elevated area, the floor of which, at this period of their history, commonly consisted of that species of ornamental pavement, called mosaic or tessellated; of which many specimens still continue to be found. Pavimenta, says Pliny ", originem apud Græcos habent, elaborata arte, picturæ ratione; donec lithostrota expulere eam. There is an allusion to these pavements as such, in the following passage of Lucilius":

Quam lepide lexeis compostæ? ut tesserulæ omnes
Arte pavimento, atque emblemate vermiculato.

M. Varro, De Re Rusticaw: Nuncubi hic vides citrum, aut aurum ? num minium, aut Armenium*? num quod emblema, aut lithostrotum?

Lithostrota, continues Pliny, acceptavere jam sub Sylla parvulis certe crustis: extat hodieque quod in

u H. N. xxxvi. 60. Vide also Seneca, Epistolæ, lxxxvi. §. 5. ▾ Apud Ciceronem, De Oratore, iii. 43. and Orator, 44. w Lib. iii. cap. 2. x De Minio, vide Pliny, H. N. xxxiii. 36-40. De Armenio, xxxvi. 10. Vitruvius, De Architectura, vii. 5. ad finem.

Fortunæ delubro Præneste fecit w. The customs which use or fashion had established at Rome, whether in the administration of justice or in any other respect, were generally observed by the magistrates, both the imperial and the proconsular, in the provinces. Julius Cæsar carried such luxuries about with him even in his military expeditions: In expeditionibus tessellata et sectilia pavimenta circumtulisse prodiderunt scilicet*.

w H. N. xxxvi. 64. x Suetonius, Vita, 46. y vi. i. 8. z Vol. i. 4. a vi. i. 7. b Ib. 8. cv. v. 2. Contra Apionem, ii. 7. p. 1244.