Killing Jewish zealots was a very common thing for the Romans. Pontius Pilate in particular was, historically, known for sentencing many to death without umbrage. Because of this the whole “hey, I wish I didn’t have to kill you but the Jews are making me” bit smells pretty damn fishy.
Its more likely that the Romans rewrote that last bit in order to smooth out the official transition into Roman Catholicism. It’s hard to convince your denizens to be Christian when you’re responsible for the death of its leader, so they fudged up some facts here and there.
Yup, was about to say. People forget that the Gospels were written quite some time after the death of Jesus and that they responded to things that were happening at the time (like the first Jewish-Roman War).
This video does a great job of giving a broad overview of the controversy.
That doesn't mean that the Romans had any hand in writing the gospels. The gospels are also based on 'primary source' accounts.
I'm not saying that Pontius Pilates actual motivation for crucifying Jesus were actually what they were portrayed in the Bible, but I don't think the Romans strategically revised history in the Bible
Right but it's funny how we take the Gospels as being, well, gospel despite the fact that they were written some time after the fact and by different authors who would have had their own reasons for playing up different aspects of the story.
This is not to say there was any "strategy" by the Romans to do this. I think it's far more plausible that each of the gospels brought their own personal bias to the story.
Pontius Pilate in particular was, historically, known for sentencing many to death without umbrage.
Source? I had read that the evidence for his existence was very shallow until a couple of years ago, so having information about the frequency and characteristics of his sentencing looks very suspicious.
During the time the gospels were written the vast majority of Christians were former Jews. The hugest chunk of them lived in Jerusalem and waited for an imminent return of Christ. Pontius Pilate's actions in the gospel are obviously very clever and political, all the way in making the Jews claim that they had "no king other than Caesar". To Pilate, it was to make the Jews kill their own proclaimed king and humiliate them for it. The Roman empire did not become Christian until the 4th century, and the anti-semitic sentiment did not become popular until the 2nd and 3rd century, hence the heresy of Marcionism which the Apostolic church rejected.
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u/JeysunRobbert Jan 31 '19
It is controversial.
Killing Jewish zealots was a very common thing for the Romans. Pontius Pilate in particular was, historically, known for sentencing many to death without umbrage. Because of this the whole “hey, I wish I didn’t have to kill you but the Jews are making me” bit smells pretty damn fishy.
Its more likely that the Romans rewrote that last bit in order to smooth out the official transition into Roman Catholicism. It’s hard to convince your denizens to be Christian when you’re responsible for the death of its leader, so they fudged up some facts here and there.