Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/457

 *dantly prepared for the commission of the crowning act of villainy. The words in which Jesus rebuked his specious concern for the economical administration of the money in charity, was also in a tone that he might construe into a new ground of offense, implying, as it did, that his zeal had some motive far removed from a true affection for that Master, whose life was in hourly peril, and might any moment be so sacrificed by his foes, that the honorable forms of preparation for the burial might be denied; and being thus already devoted to death, he might well accept this costly offering of pure devotion, as the mournful unction for the grave. In these sadly prophetic words, Judas may have found the immediate suggestion of his act of sordid treachery; and incited, moreover, by the repulse which his remonstrance had received, he seems to have gone directly about the perpetration of the crime.

The nature and immediate object of this plot may not be perfectly comprehended, without considering minutely the relations in which Jesus stood to the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the means he had of resisting or evading their efforts for the consummation of their schemes and hopes against him. Jesus of Nazareth was, to the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, a dangerous foe. He had, during his visits to Jerusalem, in his repeated encounters with them in the courts of the temple, and all public places of assembly, struck at the very foundation of all their authority and power over the people. The Jewish hierarchy was supported by the sway of the Romans, indeed, but only because it was in accordance with their universal policy of tolerance, to preserve the previously established order of things, in all countries which they conquered, so long as such a preservation was desired by the people; but no longer than it was perfectly accordant with the feelings of the majority. The Sanhedrim and their dependents therefore knew perfectly well that their establishment could receive no support from the Roman government, after they had lost their dominion over the affections of the people; and were therefore very ready to perceive, that if they were to be thus confounded and set at nought, in spite of learning and dignity, by a poor Galilean, and even their gravest and most puzzling attacks upon his wisdom and prudence, turned into an absolute jest against them,—it was quite clear that the amused and delighted multitude would soon cease to regard the authority and opinions of their venerable religious and legal rulers, whose subtleties were so easily foil