Trial of Jesus Rel 112: New Testament A. Porter

From Roman Wire Reports: Pontius Pilate, the controversial Prefect of Judaea, has announced that he has arrested the populist “prophet” Jesus from Galilee, in order to ensure a quiet and orderly Passover pilgrimage. What Jesus is to be charged with will be announced at the time of his punishment.

The setting: The Romans have controlled Palestine for almost a century (since 63 BCE) and after initially governing the region indirectly by “friendly kings” (such as King Herod) and natives (such as Herod Antipas), they assumed direct control of Judaea about 25 years ago. Their major objective (throughout the empire) is to maintain the Pax Romana. Although their armies are the best in the world, suppressing a general, widespread uprising is expensive and dangerous. For this reason, the Romans always to identify “rabble rousers” and publicly execute them in a brutal and painful fashion before they grow too popular.

Please read War 2.9.2-4, 2.12.1, 2.13.5 and Antiquities 17.9.2-3, 20.5.1 for more information on the importance of crowd control, especially at Passover.

The scenario: The Romans have identified Jesus as a rabble rouser. What should they charge him with and what should they do with him? To answer this question, the Romans have collected representatives of different Jewish sects and asked their input.

Ahistorical assumptions: There is no evidence (at all) to suggest that the Romans would have gathered people from different factions (especially the Zealots) or that some of these factions (such as the Essenes or Zealots) would have responded to summons from the Romans. We will ignore these issues for the purposes of our game.

Assignment: You need to think about the goals of your team. What draws you together? What is your primary concern or motivation? It is quite possible that you have no opinion about Jesus, but you can use the “Jesus issue” to strike at your enemies. For example, some groups may dislike the present Temple leaders. While they don’t really care about Jesus, they may try to score points by criticizing the Temple leaders for their treatment of Jesus. Or you may have opinions about Jesus (for example, he violates Shabbat) but is this enough for you to call for his execution?

You need to draft a paper that uses specific examples from the Gospels and Josephus that explains a) your group’s motivation b) your group’s attitude towards Jesus and what you think should be done to him.