For had it been the Pentecost, as is usually supposed, _Vitellius_ would
have continued three months ignorant of the Emperor's death: which is not
to be supposed. However, the things done between this feast and the
Passover which _Vitellius_ was at before, namely, the stirring up a
sedition in _Parthia_, the quieting that sedition, the making a league
after that with the _Parthians_, the sending news of that league to _Rome_,
the receiving new orders from thence to go against the _Arabians_, and the
putting those orders in execution; required much more time than the fifty
days between the Passover and Pentecost of the same year: and therefore the
Passover which _Vitellius_ first went up to, was in the year before.
Therefore _Pilate_ was deposed before the Passover A.C. 36, and by
consequence the passion of _Christ_ was before that Passover: for he
suffered not under _Vitellius_, nor under _Vitellius_ and _Pilate_
together, but under _Pilate_ alone.
Now it is observable that the high Priesthood was at this time become an
annual office, and the Passover was the time of making a new high Priest.
For _Gratus_ the predecessor of _Pilate_, saith _Josephus_, made _Ismael_
high Priest after _Ananus_; and a while after, suppose a year, deposed him,
and substituted _Eleazar_, and a year after _Simon_, and after another year
_Caiaphas_; and then gave way to _Pilate_. So _Vitellius_ at one Passover
made _Jonathas_ successor to _Caiaphas_, and at the next _Theophilus_ to
_Jonathas_.
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