Note 4 — Chapter XVI · THE TRIAL CRUX

Once again we have a sans doute with which we can agree. “The nocturnal procedure, no doubt, did not take place.”4 Recognizing further that a Jewish blasphemer was by the Levitical law to be stoned, not crucified, he simply gives up the whole narrative as a product of “the Christian tradition,” bent on saddling the Jews rather than the Romans with the responsibility of the crucifixion.5 In his smaller work he simply cuts the knot and alleges:—