Luke 23:1-7 Jesus is tried before
Pilate part I. Parallel passages Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-15, John
18:28-29:16. Since neither blasphemy nor sorcery were crimes against Rome, the
charges are now changed to three: misleading the people; forbidding people to
pay taxes to Caesar; and claiming He is the king of the Jews. In view of the
true state of affairs, the first two charges are ludicrous. The Priests,
Pharisees, scribes were misleading the people, chapter and verse. In fact they
were so heavily into dissimulation that it is doubtful that they even knew what
the truth was. Jesus had in fact paid taxes so as to not give offense (Matt
17:24-27). He also told the people to render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's. (Luke 20:25)
The
third charge is the most serious from Rome's viewpoint. The Romans were well
aware of the history of rebellion in that part of the Mediterranean, and no
doubt well versed in the history of the Maccabees and the Jewish revolt against
Greek domination roughly two hundred years earlier. But Pilate was likely aware
of the rivalries between various Jewish religious groups and being a shrewd
governor, most likely wanted to use these rivalries to keep his enemies and
threats to Roman rule divided, rather than siding with one and giving them
unchallenged influence over the people. That would have been a purely pragmatic
thing to do. The priests tried to play on Pilate's fears about rebellion,
reiterating that Jesus was stirring up the people. One suspects that in games
of political intrigue, the priests were outmatched when it came to Pilate.
However,
also as a result of political pragmatism, Pilate knew that if whatever decision
was made was blamed on someone else, his position could be strengthened; hence,
the attempt to pass Jesus off to Herod for trial.
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