Jesus, Crucifixion, Pontius Pilate & the New Testament
The New Testament depiction of Jesus suggests that he was largely a law-abiding and
highly nationalistic Jew, and a man with strong ethical concerns.
Like many of Judaism's great rabbis, he saw love of neighbor as religion's central demand. Though
many Christians are under the impression that he opposed Judaism's
emphasis on law, in actuality he criticized anyone who advocated
dropping it. "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law
[the Torah] or the Prophets," he declared to his early
disciples. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not
one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until
its purpose is achieved." The law's "purpose," of
course, is the universal recognition of God, a goal which neither
Christianity nor Judaism believes was realized in Jesus' time, or
since. Jesus concluded his message with a severe warning:
"Therefore, the man who infringes even the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the
least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew
5:17-19).
On at least one specific legal issue, Jesus
identified with the stricter rather than the more lenient rabbis. The
prevailing School of Hillel taught that divorce was permitted for any reason, while the School of Shammai only permitted it in
cases of sexual misconduct (Mishna Gittin 9:10)—the position later
attributed to Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew
5:31-32). The
subsequent Catholic ban on all divorce seems to represent an even
stricter legal standard than the one Jesus established.
A perennially interesting, though probably
unanswerable, question is how Jesus regarded himself. Did he see
himself as the Messiah?
Probably, although one must remember that in the first centuries of
the Common Era the word "Messiah" had a different meaning
than it has today. Contemporary believers usually think of the
Messiah as a wholly spiritual figure. Then, it meant a military
leader who would free the Jews from foreign (i.e., Roman)
rule, bring them back from the four corners of the earth, and usher
in an age of universal peace. A century after Jesus, many Jews
accepted the military general, Bar-Kokhba as the Messiah, although even his greatest supporter, Rabbi
Akiva, made no claims regarding his spiritual greatness. Indeed,
it was precisely because of the military association with the word
"Messiah" that the occupying Roman authorities must have
seen Jesus as dangerous and decided to crucify him. That the Romans
hung over Jesus' body a sign proclaiming his crime, KING OF THE JEWS,
again underscores the apparently militant and political direction of
his activities.
Jesus' nationalism, which occasionally spilled
over into an unpleasant chauvinism, is illustrated by a story in
Matthew: "Jesus ... withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started
shouting, 'Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is
tormented by a devil.' But he answered her not a word. And his
disciples went and pleaded with him. 'Give her what she wants,' they
said, 'because she is shouting after us.' He said in reply, 'I was
sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.' But the woman
had come up and was kneeling at his feet. 'Lord,' she said, 'help
me.' He replied, 'it is not fair to take the children's food and
throw it to the house-dogs.' She retorted, 'Ah, yes, sir; but even
house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master's table.'
Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, you have great faith. Let your
wish be granted"' (Matthew
15:21-28).
Concerning Jesus' executioner, Pontius Pilate, we
have a considerable body of data that contradicts the largely
sympathetic portrayal of him in the New Testament. Even among the
long line of cruel procurators who ruled Judea, Pilate stood out as a
notoriously vicious man. He eventually was replaced after murdering a
group of Samaritans: The Romans realized that keeping him in power
would only provoke continual rebellions. The gentle, kindhearted
Pilate of the New Testament—who in his "heart of hearts"
really did not want to harm Jesus is fictional. Like most fictions,
the story was created with a purpose. When the New Testament was
written, Christianity was banned by Roman law. The Romans, well aware
that they had executed Christianity's founder—indeed the reference
to Jesus' crucifixion by the Roman historian Tacitus is among the
earliest allusions to him outside the New Testament—had no reason
to rescind their anti-Christian legislation. Christianity's only hope
for gaining legitimacy was to "prove" to Rome that its
crucifixion of Jesus had been a terrible error, and had only come
about because the Jews forced Pilate to do it. Thus, the New
Testament depicts Pilate as wishing to spare Jesus from punishment,
only to be stymied by a large Jewish mob yelling, "Crucify
him." The account ignores one simple fact. Pilate's power in
Judea was absolute. Had he wanted to absolve Jesus, he would have
done so: He certainly would not have allowed a mob of Jews, whom he
detested, to force him into killing someone whom he admired.
Crucifixion itself, a Roman form of execution, was
forbidden by Jewish law because it was torture. Some 50,000 to
100,000 Jews were themselves crucified by the Romans in the first
century. How ironic, therefore, that Jews have historically been
associated with the cross as the ones who brought about Jesus'
crucifixion.
Is there a Jewish consensus on how Jews are to
regard Jesus? Perhaps not, but in recent decades many Jewish scholars
have tended to view him as one of several first- and second-century
Jews who claimed to be the Messiah, and who attempted to rid Judea of
its Roman oppressors. However, almost no Jewish scholars believe that
Jesus intended to start a new religion. Were Jesus to return today,
most Jews believe, he undoubtedly would feel more at home in a
synagogue than a church. An increasing number of Jewish scholars
believe that Christianity's real founder was another first-century
Jew, Paul.
Most statements attributed to Jesus in the New
Testament conform to Jewish teachings. This is, of course, not
surprising, since Jesus generally practiced Pharisaic (rabbinic)
Judaism. However, at least three innovative teachings ascribed to
Jesus diametrically oppose Jewish teachings.
1. Jesus forgives all sins: "The Son of man
has the authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matthew
9:6). Judaism believes that God Himself only forgives those sins
committed against Him. As the Mishna teaches: "Yom
Kippur [the Day of Atonement] atones for sins against God, not
for sins against man, unless the injured party has been
appeased" (Yoma 8:9). The belief that Jesus can forgive all sins
is fraught with moral peril. Some fifteen hundred years after he
lived, Protestant reformer Martin
Luther, writing in the spirit of Jesus' statement, taught:
"Be a sinner and sin vigorously; but even more vigorously
believe and delight in Christ who is victor over sin, death and the
world.... It is sufficient that we recognize through the wealth of
God's glory the lamb who bears the sins of the world; from this sin
does not sever us, even if thousands, thousands of times in one day
we should fornicate or murder" (letter to Philip Melanchthon,
August 1, 1521). Humorist Jules Feiffer has bitingly satirized
Luther's position: "Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his
martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?"
2. Jesus' attitude toward evil people: "Offer
the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on
the right cheek, offer him the other as well" (Matthew
5:38-39), and "Love your enemies and pray for your
persecutors" (Matthew 5:44).
The Torah commands that one offer the wicked man powerful resistance:
"You shall burn the evil out from your midst" (Deuteronomy
17:7). Elsewhere, the Torah approvingly records Moses' killing of a brutal Egyptian overseer who
was beating a Jewish slave.
America's survival in the Second
World War came
about only because almost all American Christians rejected Jesus'
advice to "resist not evil." One of the few religious
groups to incorporate this principle into their everyday life, the
Jehovah's Witnesses, were used in Nazi concentration
camps as barbers. The SS was confident that they would do nothing
to harm them or other Nazi mass murderers. Judaism, likewise, does
not demand that one love one's enemies. Jews are not commanded, for
example, to love Nazis, as the statement in Matthew demands.
3. Jesus' claim that people can come to God only
through him: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone
to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him" (Matthew
11:27). The implication of this statement — and the continuing
belief of many fundamentalist Protestants is that only one who
believes in Jesus can come to God. Judaism holds that anyone can come
to God; as the Psalmist teaches: "God is near to all who call
unto Him" (Psalms 145:18).
SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGS: Dennis Prager and Joseph
Telushkin, The
Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, pp. 78-91. The Martin
Luther quote is cited in Walter Kaufmann, Religions in Four Dimensions,
p. 156. The use of Jehovah's Witnesses as barbers in Nazi concentration
camps is cited in Evelyn Le Chene, Mauthausen,
p. 130. My understanding of Jesus has been largely shaped by Hyam Maccoby,
Revolution in Judaea.
See also Palestine
at the Time of Jesus Map
Sources: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish
Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
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