Explore "The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Fulton Oursler on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Pirate had been talking with his wife. He knew what the returning clamor in the outer courtyard meant. Messengers swifter than the tired feet of the priests raced back to the palace with word that Herod had not risen to the bait; he returned the prisoner with his compliments. Whatever the crimes of Jesus, they were committed in Jerusalem and therefore under Pilate's jurisdiction. The problem was back in the procurator's hands and it was even greater than before; now he had talked with Claudia Procula.
Never before had Pilate seen that sophisticated Roman lady of the court so much in earnest about anything. To kill Jesus of Nazareth, she told him, was unthinkable. Exaggerated as such a thought must seem, still Pilate had got from her the feeling that if he failed her in this, life between him and his wife would never again be the same. That was a dismaying thought to Pilate. From Toledo to the Tigris he had never touched her like; he was a rough, uncomplicated man, and she was the sum of his pleasure.