There was a whole section in the Bible about how the local Roman leadership didn’t really care enough about crucifying Jesus and that they were just doing what the Jews told him to. Of course, a great many Bible passages are anti-Roman propaganda, so it should be taken with a bit of salt, but if you do believe in the Bible, the Roman Empire didn’t really seem to care that much.
The whole thing that made the Roman Empire relatively stable was the “you worship your gods and do your weird rituals, just do what we say and maybe take part of a ritual once or twice a year to show your Roman-ness and you will be good” ideals. Several gods in conquered areas were even inserted into the local Roman pantheon. I don’t really think Tiberius could give a shit about Jesus, if he even knew who he was. Treating Jesus as an actual threat makes little sense to me, unless Pilate was being manipulated into thinking so, because of the actual threat to his rule by another Roman rival trying to replace him.
There are some that think Jesus was crucified for leading a revolt (being dubbed “King of the Jews” and all), but in revolts Romans usually applied collective punishment (see also: executing the people digging for the arc of the covenant), so that doesn’t seem very likely to me. Whole groups of early Christians would’ve been executed alongside Jesus.
I have a feeling the Jewish/Christian population saw the way Romans kind of didn’t really care about what religion their conquered areas were following as poor and weak leadership, and used that to paint Pilate as a weak ruler.
Roman leadership didn’t really care enough about crucifying Jesus and that they were just doing what the Jews told him to
And it’s complete bull. If the Jewish authorities wanted Jesus dead he would have been stoned to death - not crucified. The Romans only crucified people they wanted to crucify. This is not anti-Roman propaganda - it’s anti-Jewish propaganda by the Catholic Church to camoflage the fact that it was their imperial progenitors who was responsible for Jesus’ death.
Pilate did seem to be pressured by the Jews into crucifying Jesus. Even with the Barrabas incident where they freed a literal murderer to still have Jesus killed.
![[ElderCactus] There were worse outcomes](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5715508f-01e1-4e13-90ad-a098f1bb8f63.jpeg){kind=link}
There was a whole section in the Bible about how the local Roman leadership didn’t really care enough about crucifying Jesus and that they were just doing what the Jews told him to. Of course, a great many Bible passages are anti-Roman propaganda, so it should be taken with a bit of salt, but if you do believe in the Bible, the Roman Empire didn’t really seem to care that much.
The whole thing that made the Roman Empire relatively stable was the “you worship your gods and do your weird rituals, just do what we say and maybe take part of a ritual once or twice a year to show your Roman-ness and you will be good” ideals. Several gods in conquered areas were even inserted into the local Roman pantheon. I don’t really think Tiberius could give a shit about Jesus, if he even knew who he was. Treating Jesus as an actual threat makes little sense to me, unless Pilate was being manipulated into thinking so, because of the actual threat to his rule by another Roman rival trying to replace him.
There are some that think Jesus was crucified for leading a revolt (being dubbed “King of the Jews” and all), but in revolts Romans usually applied collective punishment (see also: executing the people digging for the arc of the covenant), so that doesn’t seem very likely to me. Whole groups of early Christians would’ve been executed alongside Jesus.
I have a feeling the Jewish/Christian population saw the way Romans kind of didn’t really care about what religion their conquered areas were following as poor and weak leadership, and used that to paint Pilate as a weak ruler.
And it’s complete bull. If the Jewish authorities wanted Jesus dead he would have been stoned to death - not crucified. The Romans only crucified people they wanted to crucify. This is not anti-Roman propaganda - it’s anti-Jewish propaganda by the Catholic Church to camoflage the fact that it was their imperial progenitors who was responsible for Jesus’ death.
Pilate did seem to be pressured by the Jews into crucifying Jesus. Even with the Barrabas incident where they freed a literal murderer to still have Jesus killed.