Only the Roman governor could approve a capital sentence (see, for example, Sherwin-White 1978:32-43). Pilate's initial interrogation of Jesus clarifies the charge the Sanhedrin has brought to Pilate: Jesus claims to be a king, which Rome, like the priestly aristocracy, would understand in revolutionary terms (v. 11). The hearing is swift not only because Pilate is more concerned with the stability of his political position than with justice but also because Jesus refuses to defend himself. By Roman law, a defendant who refused to make a defense had to be assumed guilty (Lane 1974:551); yet Roman officials typically offered "a defendant three opportunities to respond before convicting by default" (France 1985:389), and Pilate offers Jesus at least two here (v. 13). It is no wonder, then, that Pilate is amazed by Jesus' silence (v. 14). Such astonishment on the part of judges appears also in Jewish accounts of defiant martyrs who—in contrast to their judges—valued God's kingdom more than their lives (Stanton 1974:36).