94 EARLY WISDOM GOSPELS
"If I spoke wrong, testify to the wrong.
But if I spoke right, why do you beat me?"
Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.Shimon Kefa was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, "Aren't
you also one of his students?"
He denied it and said, "I am not."
One of the high priest's slaves, a relative of the one whose ear Kefa cut off,
said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"
Again Kefa denied it and at once the cock crowed.
YESHUAGOES BEFORE PILATUS
They led Yeshua from Caiaphas to the Praetorium.^55 It was early morning.
They didn't enter the Praetorium, so as to avoid defilement that might prevent
them from eating the Pesach meals. So Pilatus^56 emerged and said to them,
"What charge do you bring against this man?"
They answered him and said, "Unless he were doing wrong, we would not
have turned him over to you."
Pilatus said to them, "Take him and judge him according to your law."
Then the Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."
This happened to fulfill Yeshua's word when he foretold what kind of death
he was to die.^57
Then Pilatus again went into the Praetorium and called Yeshua and said to
him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
Yeshua answered,
"Are you speaking for yourself
or did others tell you about me?"
"Am I a Jew?" Pilatus answered. "Your people and the high priest handed
you over to me. What did you do?"^58
- Governor's house.
- Pilate.
- This sentence, a commentary and interpretation interrupting the narration, may be a
scribal interpolation and is usually placed in parentheses or brackets. - Pilate's essential question, "What did you do?," would suggest that Pilate was unaware of
wrongdoing. Among historians there is a large consensus that Rome executed Jesus as a sedi-
tionist, as one opposed to Roman occupation. Without historical evidence, Pilate's question is
not plausible. Its consequence is to accuse Jews of initiating Jesus' execution and to emphasize
Rome's unwilling and marginal involvement in it.