Pilate’s face was blank. “Your information regarding such a grandiose entry into the city must have been supplied by his own followers, who never hesitate to magnify every event in his life far out of its proper proportions. Had there been any disturbance, beyond the normal expected from pilgrims coming from the north, I would certainly have known about it and taken the proper steps to subdue it. I do remember being told that Jesus had entered the Temple, and hoping that I might get a glimpse of this man of wonders I climbed our southeast tower, which overlooks the Temple courtyard, in order to see him. He did not disappoint me, I must say. With a few dozen followers at his back, he entered the yard and immediately began tipping over the tables of the moneychangers. Then he drove them off with a whip of some kind and returned to smash countless cages until the sky was filled with doves. There was great havoc among the people, but to my surprise none of the guards moved to arrest him. As I watched, one of my officers came to me and said he was dispatching his men immediately, to seize the offender before a riot broke out. I stopped him.”

“Why?”

“Jesus had committed a serious crime against the Temple. It was the responsibility of the Jewish authorities to arrest and punish him. During my time here I have found it necessary to put down trouble by spilling Jewish blood on more than one occasion. Whenever I have, the chief priests have always complained to Vitellius or Rome, claiming that I abused my power. Tiberius, for reasons I have never understood, insists on our coddling these miserable people, even to the point where they are exempt from military duty. I suspected that if I moved against Jesus in that crowd, composed of many Galileans as uncouth as himself, a riot might follow, blood would be spilled, and the priests would complain to Tiberius once again. Arresting Jesus under those circumstances was not worth the price to me, and because he had desecrated their precious Temple I was certain that the Jews would be forced to punish him on their own. Thus I would be rid of a dangerous man who threatened the peace of my province without so much as lifting a finger.”

“Very clever,” I said. “But I understand that these people do not have the right to execute any criminal they find guilty of a capital offense, such as defiling their Temple, without your permission.”

The procurator placed his hands together, spread his fingers, and tapped one set against the other. “So long as their own courts found the man guilty and condemned him to death, the responsibility would be entirely theirs. I would then grant sanction to their verdict, as I customarily do, and they could take him out and stone him to death or whatever else they wanted to do with him.”