Jesus is led to Pilate (Matthew 27:1; Mark 15:1; Luke 23:1). See especially on St. Matthew. The pathos of this tragic spectacle of the rulers of the chosen people leading their promised Messiah to a Gentile ruler to be put to death, and thereby forfeiting their place in the Kingdom of God and their national existence, is by no evangelist so touchingly portrayed as by St. John. Yet even this great sin did not frustrate the divine purpose, but rather was the means of effecting it (John 11:49). While St. John's account of the civil trial is by far the fullest and the most informing, he omits several important incidents; the dream of Pilate's wife (Mt), the washing of Pilate's hands (Mt), the trial before Herod (Lk), and the prophetic cry of the people, 'His blood be on us and on our children' (Mt).

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