Letters from Adina - #32

Letter XXXII. Jesus comes before Pilate.

"Pilate then regarded Him with mingled pity and interest."

My Dear Father,

It is now the close of the high day of the feast.

Above the Temple has hung since the crucifixion yesterday the cloud of the smoke of the sacrifices, and it lowers immovably over all the city like a pall.

The cloud is a fearful sight, and all men have been watching it, and talking of it, and wondering. It seems to be in the form of black gigantic wings, spreading a league broad over Jerusalem.

The shadow it casts is unearthly and fearful, like the dread obscurity which marks an eclipse of the sun.

And this brings to my remembrance, my dear father, what in the trouble of my spirit amid these fearful things I have omitted to state to you, and what is unaccountable, unless men have, in very truth, crucified, in Jesus, the very Son of God.

At the time of His death, the sun disappeared from the mid heavens, and darkness, like that of night, was spread all over the earth, so that the stars became visible; and the hills on which Jerusalem stands shook as if an earthquake had moved them, and many houses were thrown down: and where the dead are buried, outside of the city, the earth and rocks were rent; tombs broken up and many bodies of the dead were heaved to the surface, and exposed to the eyes of all.

These bodies have lain thus all to-day, for the Jews dare not touch them to re-bury them, lest they should be defiled. All this is fearful and unaccountable. It is known too, that as Jesus gave up the ghost, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, and the Holy of Holies was laid open to the gaze of every one. What will be the end of these things is known only to the God of Abraham.

Never before was so fearful a Passover. Men’s faces are pale, and all look as though some dread calamity had befallen the nation.

Can the death of Jesus be the cause of all these things?

My last letter, my dear father, gave you a narrative of the examination of Jesus before Caiaphas, the High Priest, who resolved to accuse Him before Pilate the Procurator of sedition and treason against Caesar.

Guarded by Aemilius, who was His true friend to the last, He was led to the house of Pilate.

At their call, Pilate came forth to them. ‘“What means this, Aemilius?’’ he demanded, of the young Prefect. “Who is this captive?”

“It is Jesus, called the Christ, my lord, -  the Prophet of Galilee. The Jews desire his death, accusing Him of blaspheming their God; and - ”

“I have no concern with their religion, or the worship of their God. Let them judge him after their own way,” said Pilate speaking like a man who cared little for the matter in hand.

“But, most noble Roman,’’ said Caiaphas, advancing to the portico on which the Procurator stood, ‘‘by our law he should suffer death, and thou knowest though we can condemn, as we have now done this Galilean, we have no power ourselves to put him of death!”’

“This is well said; but would you have me put one of your nation to death for blaspheming your God?

As, that matter, O priest,” added Pilate, smiling contemptuously, ‘‘we Romans blaspheme Him daily; for we worship Him not, and will have nought to do with your faith. Let the man go: I see no cause of death in Him.”

He then spoke to Aemilius, and desired him to lead Jesus before him. Pilate then regarded Him with mingled pity and interest.

After gazing on Him a moment, he turned to one of his officers, and said aside:

“A form divine, and fit for Apollo, or any of the greater gods! His beareth Himself like a hero! The chisel of Praxiteles, or of Phidias, ne’er traced the outlines of head and neck like these. He is the very model of human symmetry and dignity.”

Pilate now turned to him, and said: “Thou art, then, that Jesus of whom so many men talk? I have long desired to see thee; and I give thanks to Caiaphas, who hath brought Thee hither.

Men say, O Jesus, that thou art wiser than ordinary men, - that thou canst do works of sorcerey, and art skilled in the hidden mysteries of astrology. I would question thee upon these things.

Wilt thou read my destiny for me in the stars? If thou answerest well, I will befriend thee, and deliver thee from thy countrymen, who howl yonder for thy blood.’’

“My lord!’’ cried Caiaphas, furiously, “it is not fitting that thou let this man go! He is a deceiver, and traitor to Caesar. I accuse him, before thy tribunal, of declaring himself King of Judea.”

Upon this the whole multitude shouted their approval in one deep voice of rage and fierce anger, that shook the very walls of the Praetorium.

‘‘What sayest thou?’’ asked Pilate; ‘art thou a king? Methinks if thou wert one, these Jews have little need to fear thee.”

And the Roman cast a careless glance over the mean and torn apparel, and half-naked limbs of the prophet.

“Thou sayest truly that I am a king,’’ He answered, with a dignity truly regal; for all the time, bound and marred as He was by the hands of His enemies, pale with pain, and weariness of standing a sleepless and fearful night upon His feet, exposed to cold and to insults, yet He had a kingly air, and there seemed to hover about His head a divine glory, as if a sunbeam had been shining down upon Him.

“Thou, thyself, hearest him!’’ exclaimed Caiaphas, standing upon the threshold of the judgment-hall of the Gentile governor, which he would not enter for fear of defilement.

Pilate at length obtained silence, and then said to Jesus: "Hearest thou these accusations? Answerest thou nothing? What defence hast thou to make, O prophet? Yet answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witness against thee.’’

Pilate spoke as if his thoughts were in favour of Jesus, and would give Him leave to speak for Himself.

“He hath perverted the nation; He is a most pestilent and dangerous fellow!’’ cried Caiaphas. ‘‘He is a blasphemer, above all!’’

‘‘I have nothing to do with your religion. If he has blasphemed your gods, take ye him and judge him according to your laws,’’ answered Pilate.

‘‘Thou knowest, O noble Roman, that we have no power to put any to death—therefore do we accuse him before thee.”

“I am no Jew, priest! What care I for your superstitious quarrels. He hath done nothing, that I can learn, for which according to the laws of Imperial Rome, which now have power here, I can condemn him to death."

"I therefore command his release, as having done nothing worthy of death. Aemilius, unbind thy prisoner, and let him go. I find no fault in him, that he should be longer held in bonds.”

Upon this the Jews sent up a cry of unmingled ferocity and rage. Caiaphas, forgetting his fear of defilement, advanced several steps into the judgment-hall, and shaking his open hands at Pilate, cried -

“If thou lettest this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend. Thou art in league with him. He that sets himself up as a king in any part soveer of Caesar’s dominions, at Jerusalem or in Rome, wars against Caesar."

"If thou release this man, I and my nation will accuse thee to thy master Caesar, of favoring this Galilean’s sedition.

He hath stirred up all Jewry, from Galilee to this place, and yet thou findest no fault with him!”

When Pilate heard the name of Galilee, he asked if the prisoner were a Galilean; and when the angry priest answered that it was so, he said to Aemilius -

‘‘Hold—loose not yet his bonds! Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, last night came up to the Passover feast of the Hebrew God, and is now at the old Maccabean palace with his retinue."

"Lead your prisoner to him, and let Herod judge his own subjects. Present him with this signet in token of amity. Tell him I will not interfere with what belongeth to his office, and that I desire he would take the man and judge him as if he were in his own tetrarchate.”’

The chief priests and scribes now shouted with approval of this decision, for they began to fear that Pilate would release him; and they knew that the unstable and reckless Herod would do whatsoever would gain the favour of the people.

“If he sends us to Herod with him,” said the priest Abner, ‘‘the doom of this imposter is sealed—his blood is ours!”

And the multitude without hailed the reappearance of Aemilius, and his unresisting captive from the judgment-hall, and followed them across the marble pavement of Gabbatha, into the street, crying, ‘‘To Herod!—to the Tetrarch of Galilee with him!’’

Oh, that I could write all I feel; but I am compelled, my dear father, to end here.

Your loving daughter,

Adina.

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The new Lady Donna Immersion in Spirituality, Academics and Citizenship @ the "I AM" School will study abridged excerpts of the Letters from Adina taken from Reverend Ingraham's original edited version of 'The Prince of the House of David', published by Cassell & Co. Ltd (1903), that reveal remarkable insights into the Living Etheric Record left by Beloved Jesus's Ministry in the Holy Land.