{"id":1264,"date":"2020-04-08T12:52:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T10:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2026-10-07T21:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:06:14","slug":"1264","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/predication.net\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"Jesus in front of Pilate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus in front of Pilate
\nJesus’ interrogation before the trial ended as Caiaphas expected: Jesus was found guilty of blasphemy, for which he was punished by death. However, because Pilate held the authority to impose capital punishment, the case had to be referred to him, and the political side of the accusation had to come to the forefront. Jesus declared himself the Messiah, thus claiming, albeit in an exceptional way, the rank of king. Claiming a messianic royal title was a political crime that Roman justice had to address. The rooster’s singing began the day. And in the morning, the Roman governor used to sit on the bench. Therefore, they led Jesus to Pretoria and introduced him to Pilate as a worthy criminal. It is a “preparatory day” before Passover. In the afternoon they will kill the lambs for an evening feast. To achieve this, the priests must remain ritually clean. Therefore, the accusers of the priests are not allowed to enter the pagan Pretoria, and the report (cf. Jn 28-29) thus points to the contradiction between the correct observance of the rules of ritual purity and the question of the inner purity of man: entering the house of the pagan defiles but not thinking of the inner state of the heart. The dinner had not yet taken place, and there was still waiting for Jesus in front of Pilate to be killed. In all the essential details of the process, the four Gospels coincide. Only John, however, reports on the conversation between Jesus and Pilate, in which the question of the royal rank of Jesus and the reason for his death is fully revealed (cf. John 18,33-38). Of course, exegetes still debate the historical value of this tradition. While Charles H. Dodd and Raymond E. Brown view it positively, Charles K. Barrett is extremely critical of her. 511 Nobodies assumes that John intended to make a protocol of the whole process, but we can admit that he could interpret with great precision the fundamental question that was going on, and thus to tell us the real truth about the process. After all, Barrett himself says, “From John it was very bright that he recognized in Jesus’ royal rank the key to the interpretation of whole passions. (p. 512)
\nBut let us first ask: Who exactly were the plaintiffs? Who insisted that Jesus be condemned to death? In the answers of the various Gospels, there are differences that we need to think about. According to John the Evangelist, it is simply “Jews.” The modern reader tends to interpret this term as “the nation of Israel.” This is not the case with John, and by the end, the word has no “racist” undertone for him. After all, John himself was a Jew, just like Jesus and all his disciples, who were also Jews. The word “Jews” has a strictly limited meaning in John: He calls it temple aristocracy. Thus, in the Fourth Gospel, the circle of plaintiffs claiming Jesus’ death is rigorously described and clearly defined: it was the temple aristocracy\u2014and not universally. As the note on Nicodemus (cf. Jonn 7> 5\u00b0-52) shows, in the context of the Easter amnesty (Barnabas or Jesus), the circle of plaintiffs is widening: there is a slackness that speaks for the release of Barabbas. Many people, the “crowd.” However, this word often has a negative connotation in the sense of “gathering.” Similarly to the practice of other amnesties, the Easter amnesty (which, by the way, we do not know anything from other sources, but we have no reason to doubt it), had the right to make its proposal, and acclamation came: cases of legal character (cf. Pesch, Markusevangelium II – Mark’s Gospel II, p. 466). In fact, this “crowd” was nothing but the many supporters of Barabbas who had seized the opportunity to obtain an amnesty for him. Out of fear of hiding. The voice of the people on which Roman law was based was therefore represented in this case by only one party. For this reason, besides “Jews,” there are high priestly circles; there is also the circle of supporters of Barabbas, but not the Jewish people as such.
\nThe expansion of Mark’s will, which had fatal consequences, is found in Matthew’s Gospel (27:25). Instead of the “crowd,” it is referred to as “the whole people” and is credited with invoking Jesus’ crucifixion. Matthew certainly does not express historical fact. How could the whole nation be present at that moment and demand the death of Jesus? The evangelists John and Mark apparently describe the historical reality correctly. The real group of plaintiffs is the church circles at the time, and the Easter crowd was joined by the “crowd” of Barabbas’s followers. In the Judeo-Roman War, the nation, the city, and the temple were taken from the nation (cf. Matth\u00e4usevangelium II\u2014Matthew’s Gospel II, p. 459). You are killing prophets and stoning those who were sent to you. How many times did I want to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you did not?<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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