40 I cannot find this Nazarene to be a criminal as charged; there is no evidence that he should suffer death; so I will scourge him well and let him go. 41 The Jews cried angrily, It is not mete that such a dangerous man should live; he must be crucified. 42 Then Pilate said, I bid you wait a little time. And then he went into an inner room and sat in silent thought. 43 And as he mused his wife, a godly woman, chosen from among the Gauls, came in and said, 44 I pray you, Pilate, hearken unto me: Beware of what you do this hour. Touch not this man from Galilee; he is a holy man. 45 If you should scourge this man you scourge the son of God. Last night I saw it all in vision far too vivid to be set aside as idle dream. 46 I saw this man walk on the waters of the sea; I heard him speak and calm an angry storm; I saw him flying with the wings of light; 47 I saw Jerusalem in blood; I saw the statues of the Cæsars fall; I saw a veil before the sun, and day was dark as night. 48 The earth on which I stood was shaken like a reed before the wind. I tell you, Pilate, if you bathe your hands in this man’s blood then you may dread the frowns of great Tiberius, and the curses of the senators of Rome. 49 And then she left, and Pilate wept. CHAPTER 168. _Pilate’s final effort to release Jesus fails. He washes his hands in feigned innocence. Delivers Jesus to the Jews for execution. The Jewish soldiers drive him to Calvary._ A superstitious people are the Jews. They have a faith that they have borrowed from the idol worshippers of other lands, that at the end of every year, 2 They may heap all their sins upon the head of some man set apart to bear their sins. 3 The man becomes a scapegoat for the multitudes; and they believe that when they drive him forth into the wilds, or into foreign lands, they are released from sin. 4 So every spring before the feast they chose a prisoner from the prisons of the land, and by a form their own, they fain would make him bear their sins away. 5 Among the Jewish prisoners in Jerusalem were three who were the leaders of a vile, seditious band, who had engaged in thefts and murders and rapine, and had been sentenced to be crucified. 6 Barabbas bar Jezia was among the men who were to die; but he was rich and he had bought of priests the boon to be the scapegoat for the people at the coming feast, and he was anxiously in waiting for his hour to come. 7 Now, Pilate thought to turn this superstition to account to save the Lord, and so he went again before the Jews and said, 8 You men of Israel, according to my custom I will release to you today a prisoner who shall bear your sins away. 9 This man you drive into the wilds or into foreign lands, and you have asked me to release Barabbas, who has been proven guilty of the murder of a score of men.