Posted on 04/06/2015 12:35:58 PM PDT by Teacher317
I'm not exactly a Biblical scholar, so be a little gentle with the flames.
I was watching Passion of the Christ yesterday for Easter (my third time seeing it), and a thought occurred to me. Both the movie and the Gospels note that Pilate tried, repeatedly, to not sentence Jesus to death. His wife lobbied for Jesus, he declared "this man has done nothing", he sent him to Herod declaring him not guilty, and he even tried the once-a-year prisoner release gambit. At every turn, the high priests and the crowd pushed for his death. Even after finding him guilty of something (Jesus DID try to talk two tax collectors out of their jobs, and he DID admit to being the King of Hosts... with the exact phrasing depending on your Bible version), he only sentenced him to punishment, not death (and yet Jesus got viciously tortured... again, against Pilates orders).
So... here's my question for the many religious historians and "experts" on FR that I have some respect for...
Why is it that we have, every week for 2000 years, called out Pilate by name in the Apostle's Creed. Caiaphas is the one, by most accounts, who pushed the most for Jesus to be tortured and killed. The high priests pushed the crowds to act up if they did not get their way. The Romans just wanted to avoid yet another riot and civil unrest, and Pilate (according to the movie) was already on notice about allowing any more uprisings.
In the end, Pilate tells the crowd "you do it, I won't. The blood of the Son of God is not on my hands", and he famously washes his hands. He did his best to find other ways out, he did his best to avoid many people being killed in the riots, and he recognized, repeatedly, that Jesus was innocent. His only crime was to EVENTUALLY wear down and give in to the crowd to avoid many more than one "man" being killed. For a Roman soldier with political responsibilities, with no reason to have any faith in this latest prophet, he did a good job overall of trying to minimize the damage to himself, to the crowd, to Rome, and to the region. I cannot say that I could or would have done any better. (although every Christian will want to jump up and say "Well *I* would have stood up for Him!!!"... which is almost surely malarkey. Pilate didn't KNOW, and neither would you have known.)
So, again... why do we weekly pour out scorn for Pilate's name, for millenia, and not Caiaphas?
Certainly, you are right, and they were certainly guilty of every human failing not forgiven before the death of Christ brought salvation to all men. Ironic that these may have been the first beneficiaries of the sacrifice. We certainly cannot understand all, but there is a wonder we can see in it anyhow.
Thanks for the answer.
John 19:11Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater has the greater sin."
Acts 2: 22"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
The Jews used the Roman system to have Christ killed... Gods plan from before the foundation of the earth .All tools in the hand of God
But this Easter my prayers about the historical Pilate were answered in our readings. In one reading, Pilate is "corrected" because the sign above Jesus reads, "King of the Jews" and someone says that it is wrong and it should say, "He SAID he was 'King of the Jews"." And Pilate replies, "I have written what I have written." To me, this says that Pilate accepts and acknowledges publicly Jesus as King of the Jews and takes unequivocal responsibility for the public moniker. To me, he is not the world's greatest sinner but may, by his own personal and political martyrdom, be an unsung saint.
You’re welcome; that is my understanding of it.
“Did you watch KILLING JESUS over the past few days? Pilate and his wife were portrayed as real SOBs. They were portrayed as horrors. Not the same character as in Passion at all.”
Bill O’Reilly screwed up most everything in his ‘Killing Jesus’. Of course he had help in the movie version from the screen writer/producer/director etc. Mel Gibson got most of it right in The Passion, except a bit too much of the ‘Stations of the Cross’ thrown in to the mix.
“...Caiaphas was evil...Caiaphas skates...”
Caiaphas is no doubt burning in a hell he could not imagine existed. Caiaphas was Satan’s stooge. Burn baby burn!
When Jesus said on the cross, ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’...I believe Caiaphas knew exactly what he was doing. God in the flesh on earth was a direct threat to his power and existence. Apply the ‘forgive them’ to the Romans, to the rabble in the streets...
“At that point, he was probably lock-in by prophesy and didnt have a choice.”
Same can be said of Judas.
You wouldn’t think that when confronted with the miracles you can deny it but I guess power does corrupt absolutely.
Enough witnesses to the miracles believed in Him, and spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Others didn’t want to lose their hold on people, and deny Him to this day.
Think of it, Jesus hit Caiaphas where it hurt, in the pocketbook. Those changing money & selling sacrificial animals no doubt had to to pony up some serious dough for the privilege of doing so within the Temple complex & that surely meant that Caiaphas & his cronies got their cut.
Yes, people could buy elsewhere but once inside the Temple environs they were a captive market & besides the high priests had probably forbidden foreign money transactions anywhere else.
I was making similar comments to a friend at a Bible College just last week. I find it odd that Jesus was not charged with some kind of civil crime (theft?) for disrupting the moneychangers' business, but I do not know what civil laws were like for first-century Jerusalem under the Roman occupation.
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