The Trial of Jesus

Session 3 - The Tetrarch


Much accusation from the priests, whose content we are not told, whether presented in a different light from the case as so far shaped for the Roman or not, whether something more appealing to Herod's own sense of security or propriety. It is difficult indeed to guess what that might have been. The imputation of claims of kingship as such was clearly a matter outside Herod's jurisdiction or interest, larger aspects that could only concern Rome. Promotion of civil disorder? Well, that again is a fairly inchoate threat, that the family has long learned to live with.

The question of blasphemy, it seems, still not canvassed before the Procurator, could hardly be usefully raised in relation to the concerns of the Tetrarchy, so far from Jerusalem and orthodoxy, infected with Hellenic values from its capital at Sepphoris.

Whatever, Herod's attitude to this heaven-sent opportunity is predictable: a chance to see the notorious miracle-worker perform at last. This man's own half-brother, let us remember, kept John the Baptist incarcerated for the thrill of hearing him utter (no doubt much the same thrill as that of standing outside a cage to hear a lion roar and beat the bars) and then decapitated him in superstitious obedience to a drunken promise. This family doesn't go in for searching judicial exploration of its misfits; little wonder that Jesus no longer has the time or important energy left to expend dealing with enquiries about turning walking-sticks into snakes or water into fire or wine or whatever.

Although not embodying, then, any sort of forensic examination of the Prisoner, and appearing to be little more than an interlude in the larger proceedings, nevertheless its technical place in those proceedings must be recognized: it constitutes formal transfer and re-assumption of jurisdiction on Pilate's part; its significance is not in anything it tells us about Herod, to whom it affords merely passing and unsatisfactory entertainment, but about Pilate.

Next:  Session 2 Resumed