19:1-11, 12-16a

Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 2, SubSection 1, Heading 1

596 The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take towards Jesus. 380 The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers. 381 To those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation", the high priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish." 382 The Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been accused of sedition. 383 The chief priests also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to death. 384

Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 2, SubSection 2, Heading 1

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." 395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness. 396 Return