Killing Jesus: A History (31 page)

²
Mark 3:16–17.

³
Although none of the Gospel writers was present during Jesus’s prayer, it is believed that he shared his words and emotions with those present in the garden that night.

⁴
That scene was witnessed by John, who made it a focal point of his Gospel.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

¹
Ananus was killed by poor Jewish rebels who were engaging in an act of class warfare against the wealthy high priests. The historian Josephus wrote that Ananus was “butchered in the heart of Jerusalem.” He goes on to claim that this was one of the key events that eventually led to the Temple’s destruction by the Romans.

²
The guards on duty this night were the Levites who served as the Temple’s police force. Under normal circumstances they served as gatekeepers to the Temple entrances, patrolled the Temple grounds day and night, and stood watch at one of the twenty-one posts in the Court of the Gentiles. They also served at the disposal of the Sanhedrin, making arrests and meting out punishments, and were quite used to providing muscle for the chief priests. These actions were carried out so commonly that many Jewish groups complained about the constant abuse of power by aristocratic priests and their Temple guards. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, and later rabbinic texts chronicle these abuses.

³
Peter is mentioned by name in John 18:15. The passage references “another disciple,” though not by name. Based on his vivid depiction of that night’s events, it is widely believed that John was this individual.

⁴
A combination of Daniel 7:13 and Psalms 110:1.

⁵
Matthew 27:15, Mark 15:6, Luke 23:17, and John 18:39.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

¹
Not much is known about Simon of Cyrene, other than that he hailed from the city of Cyrene in Libya and had traveled almost a thousand miles from there to be in Jerusalem for Passover. Mark refers to him as “the father of Alexander and Rufus,” and the legendary missionary Paul is later seen greeting a man named Rufus (Romans 16:13), suggesting that perhaps Simon’s sons were so well known in the early Christian community that readers would easily recognize their names.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

¹
Deuteronomy 21:23.

²
Jesus’s
exactor mortis
goes unnamed in the Gospels, but legend says that his name was Longinus. He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches because many believe he converted to Christianity as a result of his brush with Jesus, which is said to have caused the soldier great remorse. His spear is often referred to as the “Holy Lance” and through the centuries it has been coveted by powerful men because of its alleged supernatural powers. The most recent of these was Adolf Hitler, who is thought to have gained hold of the spear prior to World War II, during the Anschluss. These same theories hold that General George S. Patton obtained the spear at the end of the war and returned it to the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where it resides to this day in the Austrian Imperial Treasury. Other artifacts claiming to be the Holy Lance can currently be found in Armenia, Antioch, and Poland.

³
Numbers 19:11.

⁴
Jewish tradition has offered the option of burial of the dead or interment in a tomb since ancient times. The wealthy were more able to afford a family crypt. Whether in a tomb or in the ground, the grave was considered a place of worship. Desecration of such a site was thought to be a grievous sin.

AFTERWORD

¹
Second-century Roman rhetorician Marcus Cornelius Fronto, as quoted in
The Octavius
, by Minucius Felix.

²
The only other disciple to get a nickname was Simon, whom Jesus referred to as Peter (“Rock”), perhaps as a playful stab at Peter’s impulsivity and less-than-stable personality. In both Latin and Greek, the feminine noun
petra
means “rock.” Masculinized, it is Petrus. In time, however, Peter grew into this nickname, becoming the eminently stable “rock on which I will build this church” that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 16:18.

³
On July 18, 1870, the Vatican issued a new doctrine that stated that the pope was infallible. In 1854, Pope Pius IX had issued a previous encyclical stating that Mary was pure and free from sin from the moment she was conceived in the womb. Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus in 1950 decreed that the final moments of her life were not marred by the grave. It was issued as an infallible statement, an ex cathedra pronouncement, the first since the doctrine was enacted eighty years earlier.

⁴
It is still cited by tour companies and souvenir sellers as the road to the crucifixion site.

POSTSCRIPT

¹
Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on November 17, 1957.

²
Remarks to the Annual Convention of National Religious Broadcasters, January 30, 1984. The speech took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Washington. His speechwriter at the time, Ben Elliott, noted that Reagan often went off message and inserted comments such as this on his own, to make it clear that he believed in the divinity of Christ.

SOURCES

Researching and writing a book about the life and death of Jesus was much more daunting than either of our past two efforts. There was no aid from YouTube, which, in the case of
Killing Kennedy
, made it possible to watch President Kennedy’s speeches and many public appearances and then describe them in great detail. And there wasn’t even media coverage, as in the time of Abraham Lincoln, making it possible to glean facts from newspaper depictions of events for
Killing Lincoln
. And while the Internet is a treasure trove of information about the life and times of Jesus, the information on most sites is contradictory, depending upon one’s theology; hearsay is often quoted as truth; or information proved to be completely wrong, once double- and triple-checked against other sources.

So researching
Killing Jesus
required a plunge into classical works such as the four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus. These sources provided a jumping-off point, giving us the basics, and then demanded new levels of deeper research to tell the story in as much detail as possible.

The crucifixion, to take one example of this type of inquiry, is widely recorded. But telling the story of what it was like to die on the cross required looking into the type of wood that comprised the crucifix, the nature of men who did the killing, the physiological effects of crucifixion on the body, and the origins of this most grisly execution—and many other small details that eventually either were filed away as unnecessary background information or found their way onto the page.

The historical record may not have been as immediately accessible as that of more recent times, but the men who wrote the history of that period were very much concerned with getting their facts straight and telling the story as completely as possible. The Romans were very keen to chronicle their times, going so far as to publish a daily gazette known as the
acta diurna
, which was handwritten in Rome and posted throughout the city and distributed to Rome’s many provinces. Its contents included information on such newsworthy events as crimes, marriages and divorces, and the upcoming schedule of gladiator battles. Sadly, not a single copy has survived to this day, but our knowledge that such a thing as the
acta diurna
once existed shows a commitment to the historical record.

This is a book that gives context to the life of Jesus, so it was also necessary to dig into a variety of other peripheral data in order to describe everything from the shape of a Galilean fishing boat to the type of roof on a Nazarene home. For these facts, like so many other details about that period, we are indebted to the men and women who spend their lives engaged in researching the historicity of biblical times.

And travel, as always, was a vital aspect of our research. Seeing the sights that Jesus saw, walking on the same streets (now buried beneath Jerusalem but accessible, thanks to recent excavations), and even climbing to the top of the Mount of Olives to view the Temple walls from that epic vantage point added immensely to the descriptions that you have read in this book. It is compelling beyond words to read a version of events, such as those found in the Gospels, and to then stand at one of those very sites to gain a new perspective on this most pivotal time in world history.

There are a number of different versions and translations of the Bible in existence, ranging from the time-honored King James Version to the New Jerusalem Bible. For the sake of consistency, we have used just one, Zondervan’s New International Version Study Bible, which offers not just the words and depictions of Jesus’s life but also detailed sidebars about everything from the height of the Temple to a time line depicting Jesus’s ministry.

In addition to the Jewish, Greek, and Roman authors that have already been referenced in the text of
Killing Jesus
, what follows is a detailed list of the many sources upon which we leaned. While lengthy, this list is by no means exhaustive and is grouped by subject matter.

Rome
:
Rome and Jerusalem
, by Martin Goodman, is eminently readable and highly recommended, as is
Rubicon
, by Tom Holland. Various other books were consulted for detailed information about life in the Roman Republic and among the legions. Chief among them were
The Complete Roman Legions
, by Nigel Pollard and Joanne Berry, and
The Roman Army
, edited by Chris McNab, which offer amazing insight into not just the lives of soldiers and leaders but also the evolution of Rome from a fledgling city to a vast empire.
Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament
, taken from a series of lectures by A. N. Sherwin-White, provides a more academic view of those times, while
Jerusalem,
by Simon Sebag Montefiore, allows a great overview of the contentious relationship between Rome and Judea.
The Joy of Sexus
, by Vicki Leon, explores lust and longing in the Roman world.
Religions of Rome
, by Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price, offers insight into the deity of Julius Caesar.
Caesar
, by Theodore Dodge, describes the slaughter of the Germans that made the Rubicon incident necessary. And Ralph Ellis’s
Cleopatra to Christ
and Joann Fletcher’s
Cleopatra the Great
provide many insights into Cleopatra.

And there’s no better way to pass the time on a transatlantic plane flight than to immerse oneself in Martin Hengel’s
Crucifixion
and its countless details about the many ways the Romans used the cross to torment their enemies.

Powerful Figures in Judean Politics
: It’s not going too far out on a limb to say that Helen K. Bond is the eminent authority here, delving into the life of both Pilate and Caiaphas with
Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation
and
Caiaphas: Friend of Rome and Judge of Jesus?
Her scholarship is riveting and filled with valuable nuggets of insight and information.
Herod
, by Peter Richardson, is nothing short of monumental, fleshing out the life of one of history’s most ruthless individuals.
The Army of Herod the Great
, by Samuel Rocca, offers not just minute details but also illustrations depicting everything from the robes worn by the Temple priests to the hairstyles and weapons of Herod’s soldiers. Anthony Saldarini’s
Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Society
provides a detailed academic take on not just these complex individuals but also life in Judea and Galilee.

Historical Jesus
: An entire field of study has been devoted to this viewpoint of the Nazarene, adding context to the Gospels in order to better understand Jesus’s life. This focus has allowed a great number of modern advancements into the historicity of Jesus and a more complete understanding of the Gospels and their narrative structure. Recommended reading includes
Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus
, edited by Michael J. Wilkins and J. P. Moreland;
Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods
, by Darrell L. Bock;
Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? A Debate between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan
, edited by Paul Copan; and
The Historical Jesus of the Gospels
, by Craig S. Keener, who is also author of the two-volume
Miracles
. Another two-volume treatise worth a read is Raymond E. Brown’s
The Death of the Messiah
. Also worth reading are
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews
, by Paula Fredriksen, and
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach
, by Michael R. Licona.
The Sage of Galilee
, by David Flusser and R. Steven Notley, is highly recommended. A more theological take on Jesus can be found in C. S. Lewis’s insightful and dense
Mere Christianity
.