“But some of you will say, Why should we deliver this man up to the Romans, perhaps, or even probably, to his death? I say, that even apart from the danger which he offers to the State, he is worthy of death for his manifest blasphemies. He speaketh of himself as very God, and claims to be the Anointed One, and puts aside the Law as it pleaseth him. I say naught of his insolence in the Temple cloisters, for this matter concerns us that be priests, and in the matter of judgment we must not take account of aught that deals with our private concerns; yet it is manifest that he hath no reverence for the Lord’s house: witnesses shall prove to you that he hath said he would sweep it away and build another. I wonder not that horror is expressed in your faces at this blasphemy. “Yet, as ye know, our Law hath in mercy provided that none shall be condemned unless on the testimony of witnesses. The Law shall be fulfilled. Even now, as I speak, one of his followers, Judas, a man of Kerioth, is drawing forth from him his blasphemies before two witnesses, concealed, as is the custom. And even if he fail, I know this man Jesus; in his arrogance he will not scruple to repeat his blasphemies, even before us. “Time presses, and I have but this to add before the prisoner is summoned: it is a wise provision of our Law, that in capital charges no final condemnation shall occur until the second day of the trial. The day before the Passover began this eve. If we keep to the Law, no condemnation can take place till after the first day of the Passover, by which time all the mischance may have come to pass. If the power of life and death were solely in our hands, I would not depart in aught from the wise provision of our forefathers; but, in truth, if this man be put to death, it will not be our doing, for his fate rests with Pilate. I would remind the younger members of the Sanhedrim that the final decision is not with us, and if they vote for this man’s death, as I cannot doubt they will, considering the pressing danger to our nation, they need not fear to be called members of a bloodthirsty Sanhedrim, since his death, if death he suffers, will be at the hands of the Roman Procurator. In this strait I propose, therefore, to examine this man at once, and if, as I doubt not, he avows his guilt, to wait till the morning for his final condemnation, and in this way fulfil the Law. Summon the prisoner to our presence.” Then, turning to Caiaphas, he said, “This is a matter between us and the Romans, for whom thou, Joseph, art the High Priest. Take thou, then, the interrogatory.” XV. THE EXAMINATION BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM.