Why is jesus sentenced to death

He did this when the Sanhedrin brought Jesus to him. But he was no fool. He saw that the Sanhedrin were using legal processes to get rid of someone who was causing them trouble.

The crowd had to choose between two candidates, one proposed by Pilate, representative of Rome, and the other by the Sanhedrin, their leaders. It was no contest. Choosing Jesus would have been disloyal to their Jewish leaders. Pilate may have seen Barabbas as a terrorist but elements of the crowd, on that particular morning, in that particular place, saw him as a freedom-fighter.

There was the unspoken assumption that if Pilate was a good governor, he would bow to their wishes, rather than provoke a revolt. Although he was unhappy, he nevertheless went along with it. He knew Jesus had not violated any Roman law. Thus even though he might symbolically wash his hands and declare his own innocence, he was as guilty as anyone else, perhaps more so, because he had the responsibility of a leader.

He sent an innocent man to a hideous death. He succumbed to Jewish pressure. His wife — tradition calls her Procla — sent her husband an urgent message that she had had a dream, more like a nightmare, that he was not to condemn this innocent man. The sentence proclaimed was crucifixion, a death that was meant to terrify the general populace and deter them from committing a similar crime.

Rebels against Rome were usually executed in this manner. What happened next? See Way of the Cross. Behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him; 16 I will therefore chastise him and release him. At every Passover festival the Roman governor could set free a prisoner chosen by the crowd.

Pilate asked the crowd whether they wanted Barabbas or Jesus set free. The chief priest persuaded the crowd to ask Pilate to set Barabbas free and have Jesus put to death. They shouted for Pilate to crucify him. Now that the Jewish leaders have found Jesus guilty of a crime deserving the death sentence, they have to take him to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. Once in Rome, Pilate vanished from the historical record.

According to some traditions, he was executed by the Emperor Caligula or committed suicide, with his body thrown into the Tiber River. The early Christian author Tertullian even claimed that Pilate became a follower of Jesus and tried to convert the emperor to Christianity. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

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