Many Christians have wondered, in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' trial before both Jewish and Roman leaders, why he doesn't give his judges a direct answer. In Matthew 26, for example, when Caiaphas, the high priest, demands that Jesus respond to the witnesses who said that they heard him say that he could destroy the temple and raise it in three days (see John 2:18), the text says, "But Jesus was silent" (Mt. 26:63). When the high priest asked him, point blank, "Tell us if you are the Messiah," Jesus' response is maddeningly sideways, "You have said so." Later, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, asks him the same question and gets the same response: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so." The text once again emphasizes, "But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer" (Mt. 27:12). When Pilate pressed him, "Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?" the text repeats, with emphasis, "But he gave him no answer, not even...