Passover & The Apocalyptic Preacher - Part 2
Pontius Pilate & Jesus's Trial - Historical Sources & Context
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Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man"), Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecce_homo_by_Antonio_Ciseri_(1).jpg
Jesus of Nazareth was tried & crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem under the orders of the Roman province governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate. Scholars estimate that this happened around the year 30CE. Let's look at the extrabiblical historical sources mentioning Pilot, and then we can go through Jesus's trial in Historical Context.
The Pilate of History:
During the days of Jesus, after Herod's death, Galilee, the northern region of the land, was ruled by Herod's son Antipas; and starting when Jesus was a boy, Judea, the southern region, was governed by Roman administrators known as prefects. Pontius Pilate was prefect during the whole of Jesus' ministry and for some years after his death. His headquarters were in Caesarea, but he came to the capital city Jerusalem, with troops, whenever the need arose.
Our earliest surviving literary reference to Pontius Pilate is found within the writings of the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria. His Embassy to Gaius describes how Pilate offended against the Jewish Law by setting up aniconic shields in Jerusalem.
Image Credits: 'What is Truth?', 1890, (1965). Creator: Nikolay Ge. & Pontius Pilate with Jesus and Barabbas in The Passion of the Christ Film
Pilate's role in condemning Jesus to death is also attested by the Roman historian Tacitus, who, when explaining Nero's persecution of the Christians, explains: "Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment..." (Tacitus, Annals 15.44).
Josephus (a first-century Romano-Jewish historian ) also mentioned Jesus's execution by Pilate at the request of prominent Jews (Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3), the text was altered by Christian interpolation, but the reference to the execution is generally considered to be authentic. In Ignatius's epistles to the Trallians (9.1) and to the Smyrnaeans (1.2), the author attributes Jesus's persecution under Pilate's governorship (although these are written almost in the mid of the 2nd century).
All four of the Gospels describe him as weakly succumbing to the Jewish authorities' pressure on him to execute Jesus. According to critical historical sources the real Pilate was nothing like the compassionate doormat the Gospels describe, who would wash his hands to vindicate himself from spilling innocent blood.
The Real Pontius Pilate?
Image Credits: Pontius Pilate, images from the movies: Monty Python's Life of Brian & The Son of God.
Both Philo and Josephus described Pontius Pilate as having been cruel and unfair. In fact Josephus described him as “extremely offensive, cruel and corrupt.” Like his superior, the Roman emperor Tiberius, the real Pontius Pilate was an arrogant, ruthless despot.
Under his command, scores of innocent Jews were massacred, such as recorded in Josephus’ Antiquities, vol. 18.2, when his soldiers, disguised in local dress and armed with daggers, slipped into a crowd of protestors, and on his signal, killed everyone caught in their net (Josephus says they killed “a great number”), protestors as well as innocent bystanders.
According to Josephus in his The Jewish War (2.9.2) and Antiquities of the Jews (18.3.1), Pilate offended the Jews by moving imperial standards with the image of Caesar into Jerusalem. This resulted in a crowd of Jews surrounding Pilate's house in Caesarea for five days. Pilate then summoned them to an arena, where the Roman soldiers drew their swords. But the Jews showed so little fear of death, that Pilate relented and removed the standards.
In another incident recorded in both the Jewish Wars (2.9.4) and the Antiquities of the Jews (18.3.2), Josephus relates that Pilate offended the Jews by using up the temple treasury to pay for a new aqueduct to Jerusalem. When a mob formed while Pilate was visiting Jerusalem, Pilate ordered his troops to beat them with clubs, many perished from the blows or from being trampled by horses, and the mob was dispersed. The dating of the incident is unknown, but based on Josephus's chronology, it must have occurred between 26CE and 30CE or 33CE.
According to Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews (18.4.1–2), Pilate's removal as governor occurred after Pilate slaughtered a group of armed Samaritans at a village called Tirathana near Mount Gerizim, where they hoped to find artifacts that had been buried there by Moses. The leader of this movement may have been Dositheos, a messiah-like figure among the Samaritans who was known to have been active around this time. The Samaritans, claiming not to have been armed, complained to Lucius Vitellius the Elder, the governor of Syria (term 35–39), who had Pilate recalled to Rome to be judged by Tiberius. Tiberius however, had died before his arrival.[96] This dates the end of Pilate's governorship to 36/37.
We get a clear picture of Pilot's character through our earliest historical sources. It is most reasonable to conclude that pilot was not the goofy & hilarious buffoon portrayed in Monty Python's Life of Brian, although I suspect that this was indented to satire the portrayal of the easily persuadable character described in the Gospels. Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman argues that the Gospel of Mark, the earliest one, shows the Jews and Pilate to be in agreement about executing Jesus (Mark 15:15), while the later gospels progressively reduce Pilate's culpability, culminating in Pilate allowing the Jews to crucify Jesus in John (John 19:16). He connects this change to increased anti-Judaism.
If you are interested to read more about the historical sources & contradictions, I would recommend Ehrman's books Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) & Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium.
Jesus's Trial & Conviction in Historical Context:
In response to the social, political, and religious crises of the Maccabean period that the Jewish "sects" of Jesus' day (e.g., the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes) were formed; and it was the Roman occupation that led to numerous nonviolent and violent uprisings during Jesus' time, uprisings of Jews for whom any foreign domination of the Promised Land was both politically and religiously unacceptable. It was the overall sense of inequity and the experience of suffering during these times that inspired the ideology of resistance known as "apocalypticism," a worldview that was shared by a number of Jews in first-century Palestine.
Jesus roused the anger of the Sadducees (The priests of the temple sect) by predicting that God would soon destroy the locus of their social and religious authority, their beloved Temple. In response, some of their prominent members urged Pontius Pilate to have him executed.
Jesus roused the anger of the Sadducees (The priests of the temple sect) by predicting that God would soon destroy the locus of their social and religious authority, their beloved Temple. In response, some of their prominent members urged Pontius Pilate to have him executed.
Image Credits: Ecce Homo. Marble statue beside the Scala Sancta in the Lateran Palace in Rome, Italy & Pilate washing his hands.
The charge leveled against Jesus by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was that he considered himself to be the King of the Jews (Mark 15:2; John 18:33, 19:19). Jesus never calls himself this in any of our Gospels. Why would he be executed for a claim that he never made? Moreover, during his hearing before the Jewish authorities, who held a kind of preliminary investigation before turning him over for prosecution, he was evidently charged with calling himself the Messiah (Mark 14:62).
The term "messiah" could mean a range of things to first-century Jews. Some expected a future cosmic judge of the earth to come in judgment, others hoped for a future priest who would give the authoritative interpretation of the Law of Moses, and others anticipated a future military leader who would overthrow the enemies opposed to God and establish a new Israel as a sovereign state in the land.
There are several indications in our earliest traditions that Jesus thought that he himself would be enthroned. Jesus maintained that people who heard his message and followed it would enter into the future Kingdom of God. Thus Jesus portrayed himself as the herald of this Kingdom, who knew when it was coming and how it would arrive. More than that, he evidently saw himself as having a special standing before God. After all, whoever accepted his message would enter God's Kingdom.
What, then, did Judas betray to the authorities? This private teaching of Jesus. That's why they could level the charges against Jesus that he called himself the Messiah, the King of Israel. He meant it, of course, in the apocalyptic sense. They meant it in a this-worldly sense. But he couldn't deny it when accused. For that was how he understood himself, and the twelve disciples all knew it. Why then, did Judas betray this information? Some people have thought that he did it for the money (see Matt. 26:14-15; John 12:4-6). This is possible, of course, but the "thirty pieces of silver" is a reference to a fulfilment of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible (Zech. 11:12), and so may not be historically accurate; that is, it doesn't pass the criterion of dissimilarity. Some have argued that Judas had grown disillusioned when he realized that Jesus had no intention of assuming the role of a political-military messiah.
The term "messiah" could mean a range of things to first-century Jews. Some expected a future cosmic judge of the earth to come in judgment, others hoped for a future priest who would give the authoritative interpretation of the Law of Moses, and others anticipated a future military leader who would overthrow the enemies opposed to God and establish a new Israel as a sovereign state in the land.
There are several indications in our earliest traditions that Jesus thought that he himself would be enthroned. Jesus maintained that people who heard his message and followed it would enter into the future Kingdom of God. Thus Jesus portrayed himself as the herald of this Kingdom, who knew when it was coming and how it would arrive. More than that, he evidently saw himself as having a special standing before God. After all, whoever accepted his message would enter God's Kingdom.
What, then, did Judas betray to the authorities? This private teaching of Jesus. That's why they could level the charges against Jesus that he called himself the Messiah, the King of Israel. He meant it, of course, in the apocalyptic sense. They meant it in a this-worldly sense. But he couldn't deny it when accused. For that was how he understood himself, and the twelve disciples all knew it. Why then, did Judas betray this information? Some people have thought that he did it for the money (see Matt. 26:14-15; John 12:4-6). This is possible, of course, but the "thirty pieces of silver" is a reference to a fulfilment of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible (Zech. 11:12), and so may not be historically accurate; that is, it doesn't pass the criterion of dissimilarity. Some have argued that Judas had grown disillusioned when he realized that Jesus had no intention of assuming the role of a political-military messiah.
Others have reasoned that he wanted to force Jesus' hand, thinking that if he were arrested he would call out for support and start an uprising that would overthrow the Romans. Each of these explanations has some merit, but in the end, I'm afraid we'll never know. Jesus was evidently arrested by Jewish authorities (multiply attested in Mark 14:43 and John 18:3), in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32; John 18:1, 12). The disciples may have tried to defend him with swords (multiply attested: Mark 14:47—48; Luke 22:35—38 and John 18:10-11; this doesn't seem like a tradition the later pacifist Christians would invent). But they then abandoned him, as all of our traditions suggest. In independent sources Peter is said to have denied knowing Jesus three times, another tradition that may pass the criterion of dissimilarity (Mark 14:66-72; John 18:15-18, 25-27). What is abundantly clear is that at the end, no one stood up for or put his or her neck out for Jesus. He was tried and executed alone.
Conclusion:
Read here:
https://gnostika-channel.blogspot.com/2022/02/brutal-punishments-executions-in.html
To conclude, It is important to consider this whole scenario through critical historical contextual reasoning. We should consider the ancient pre-Christian Jewish views & interpretations of a Messiah, like the Great Warrior Savior that would destroy their enemies, or the cosmic judge (the Son of Man, first mentioned in the Book of Daniel) that would intervene in history in the apocalyptic sense.
Jesus was an Apocalyptic Preacher with a very different message and this message has nonetheless changed history as we know it, and has had an massive cultural impact for the last 2000 years.
To conclude, It is important to consider this whole scenario through critical historical contextual reasoning. We should consider the ancient pre-Christian Jewish views & interpretations of a Messiah, like the Great Warrior Savior that would destroy their enemies, or the cosmic judge (the Son of Man, first mentioned in the Book of Daniel) that would intervene in history in the apocalyptic sense.
Jesus was an Apocalyptic Preacher with a very different message and this message has nonetheless changed history as we know it, and has had an massive cultural impact for the last 2000 years.
These articles will be done with critical historical methodology & sourcing, and are not indented to be understood or analyzed from a devotional perspective.
References, bibliography & further reading:
Ehrman, Bart D. (1999). Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press
Ehrman, Bart (2009). Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). New York: HarperCollins.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/old-testament.html
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Old-Testament-Audiobook/B00DII1TBA
On the Historicity of Jesus, Richard Carrier, 2014, Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong, Grove Press; Reprint edition (November 1, 2008)
"Yom Kippur: the meaning of its name". Texas Jewish Post. 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2021-01-16. Numbers 29:7 "The High Holidays". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020. "The 120-Day Version Of The Human Story". chabad.org. Retrieved 2021-06-08. "Yom Kippur Theology and Themes". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
Ehrman, Bart (2009). Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). New York: HarperCollins.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/old-testament.html
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Old-Testament-Audiobook/B00DII1TBA
On the Historicity of Jesus, Richard Carrier, 2014, Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong, Grove Press; Reprint edition (November 1, 2008)
"Yom Kippur: the meaning of its name". Texas Jewish Post. 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2021-01-16. Numbers 29:7 "The High Holidays". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020. "The 120-Day Version Of The Human Story". chabad.org. Retrieved 2021-06-08. "Yom Kippur Theology and Themes". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus. Josephus, The Jewish War. Antiquities of the Jew.
Philo-Legatio ad Gajum (On the Embassy to Gaius)
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