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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth

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To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (113173)1/21/2008 3:15:00 PM
From: one_less  Read Replies (3) of 173976
 
"And you still haven't explained your conspiracy theory....

I don't have a theory of my own but historical literature comes down pretty much in agreement on this. You are referring of course to the conspiring of the Roman Government and the Religious authority against Jesus?

According to the NT Jesus was captured by Roman guards and taken to the high priest of Judaism where he was questioned regarding allegations various people had lodged against him. Most of their allegations were contradictory and lacked proof but the high Priest was insulted when Jesus claimed to be God's right hand man and charged him with blasphemy. The people in the crowd beat Jesus, the guards led him away then they beat him some more.

The newly formed Roman rule was unpopular with Jewish people and they often spoke against the Roman rulers. Approximately 2000 Jews who were thought to be threats had been executed on the cross and another 20,000 sold into slavery. John the Babtist was the newest insurgent threat and he had endorsed the mission of Jesus. Following the decapitation of John the Babtist attention turned more to Jesus.

Jesus described for people the world that would exist if the oppressive religious authority, and the Roman authority did not exist. Jesus pushed people to reject the status quo of social authority and to claim their natural principled freedom to act on good conscience.

Jesus was not a radical in an otherwise calm society, as it was not unusual for Jewish protests to result in the death of tens of thousands:

"Nothing provoked greater anger among observant Jews than acts perceived to be defilements of the Temple, as other dramatic incidents in the two decades following the death of Jesus make clear. In 41 C.E. for example, Emperor Caligula ordered Petronius, the new Syrian governor, to install statues in the Temple depicting himself as Zeus incarnate. Thousands of unarmed Jews responded by lying prostrate and offering themselves to Roman soldiers for a mass slaughter. Other Jews threatened an agricultural strike. Petronius backed down and Caligula's timely assassination ended the matter. Less than ten years later, a soldier watching over Jews celebrating the Passover at the Temple (according to historian Josephus, writing in about 90 C.E.) "raised his robe, stooped in an indecent attitude, so as to turn his backside to the Jews, and made a noise in keeping with his posture." This disrespectful gesture led to a riot and stampede that killed vast numbers of people: "Troops pouring into the porticoes, the Jews were seized with irresistible panic and turned to fly from the Temple and make their escape into town. But such violence as was used as they pressed around the exits that they were trodden under foot and crushed to death by one another; upwards of 30,000 perished, and the feast was turned into mourning for the whole nation and for every household into lamentation" (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities).

It seems clear that the primary cause of the trial and execution of Jesus was his role in an incident at the Temple in Jerusalem. The incident occurred in April, 30 C.E. (or possibly in 33 C.E.) during Festival time, the period including the Day of Passover leading into the week of the Unleavened Bread. The Festival brought huge numbers of Jews into the city to celebrate the Exodus, the leaving of Egyptian oppression and the arrival in the Promised Land. Romans had to understand the special risks presented by such a commemoration: large concentrations of Jews celebrating their former freedom in a time of new oppression--this time by Rome, not Egypt. "

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"Whatever their basis, the gospels portray a Pilate initially unpersuaded of Jesus' guilt. For example, in Mark, after Pilate asks Jesus about "the many charges [the chief priests] bring against you," Jesus makes "no further answer" and "Pilate wondered." Later, Mark reinforces his suggestion of a reluctant executioner when he writes, "For [Pilate] perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up." Finally, Mark makes Pilate's doubts explicit by having him almost beg the crowd to release Jesus over the (almost certainly invented) prisoner Barabbas. Pilate asks the crowd there thirst for the blood of Jesus:"Why, what evil has he done?" Pilate allows the crucifixion of Jesus, in the gospel accounts, not out of a conviction that Jesus did anything wrong, but only to "satisfy the crowd." If there were still any doubt about Pilate's doubt, the gospels report that after authorizing his execution, he "washes his hands."

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Pilate was a powerful figure. If he had reservations about killing Jesus, he certainly could have taken him back to Caesaria for trial or referred his case back to the Sanhedrin for possible punishment under Jewish, not Roman, law. The fact that he did not suggests that Pilate was pleased to accede to the urgings of Jewish leaders and crucify Jesus. Anyone calling himself "King of the Jews" would been seen as trouble by Roman officials. Further evidence that Pilate bore primary responsibility for the execution of Jesus comes from Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, written in the early 50s C.E., where he says that Jesus had been crucified by "the princes of the world"(I Cor. 2:8). "



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