Who Killed Jesus?

Who Killed Jesus?

Thomas Allen

Did the Romans kill Jesus, or did the Jews kill Jesus? Christian Zionists and Jews claim that the Romans killed Jesus.

In “Who killed Jesus: The Romans or the Jews?,” The Jerusalem Post (December 29, 2021; Updated: November 19, 2022) at https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-690095, Lewis Regenstein presents an argument in favor of the Romans being guilty of Jesus’s death and the Jews being innocent. With his argument, most Christian Zionists would agree.

In Judea, the Romans controlled capital punishment; the Jews had no authority to crucify anyone. Only the Romans could execute someone by crucifixion. If the Jews had executed Jesus, they would have stoned him as they did Stephen. Therefore, the Romans are responsible for Jesus’s death.

Moreover, Pilate sentenced Jesus to death and authorized his execution. Further, Roman soldiers carried out the crucifixion of Jesus. The New Testament shows that the Romans, and not the Jews, killed Jesus.

Jesus and his family, disciples, followers, and supporters were Jews, and like other Jews, they were victims of Roman oppression. Since Jesus was an observant Jew and popular with the Jewish people, why would the Jews kill him?

Jesus’s popularity with the Jewish people was the primary reason that the Romans executed him. To carry out their scheme to kill Jesus, the Romans used Jewish agents and collaborators. 

Nevertheless, because of what Jesus said to and about the Jewish leaders, they wanted the Romans to kill Jesus since they had no power to execute him themselves. Further, they feared that the Romans would deal harshly with the Jews unless Jesus, whom they and the Romans saw as a troublemaker, was eliminated. Consequently, these leaders, who held office at the pleasure of the Romans, collaborated with the Romans to kill Jesus. 

In short, the Gospels describe Jesus as a popular Jewish reformer with a large Jewish following. They clearly describe the Romans as cruelly executing Jesus because the Romans perceived Jesus as a threat to the Romans and their Jewish collaborators in the priesthood.

As for the mob of Jews that cursed Jesus and demanded his execution, if such a mob existed, it consisted of Roman collaborators.

For fear of Roman persecution, early Christians could not blame the Romans for the death of Jesus. Therefore, to avoid persecution, writers of the New Testament shifted the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus from the Romans to the Jews. (When one considers the persecution that Paul, Peter, and other followers of Christ suffered from the Romans and Jews, shifting the blame from the Romans to the Jews for fear of Roman persecution seems absurd. Besides, if Paul, Peter, and the other writers of the New Testament blamed the Jews for killing Jesus when the Romans were responsible for his death, then they are guilty of bearing false witness.)

What does the Bible say? According to the Gospels, Pilate did order Jesus’s execution, and Roman soldiers carried out that order. However, Paul and Peter place the blame and responsibility for Jesus’s crucifixion on the Jews.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15, Paul writes:

(14) For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews (15) who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men.

In this passage, Paul clearly blames the Jews for killing Jesus: “the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus.”

Speaking to a group of Jews, Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you [Jews] crucified.” (Acts 2:36). Clearly, Peter identifies the Jews as killing Jesus. Later, Peter spoke to the religious rulers and elders of the Jews and said, “[M]ay it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you [Jews] crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him.” (Acts 4:10) Again, Peter identifies the Jews as the killers of Jesus. At another time, when speaking to the religious leaders of the Jews, Peter said, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you [Jews] killed, hanging him on a tree.” (Acts 5:30) Once more, Peter declares that the Jews kill Jesus. Afterward, Peter said, “We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they [Jews] also killed, hanging him on a tree.” Several times and to various Jewish audiences, Peter accuses the Jews of killing Jesus. (Biblical citations are from the World English Bible.)

Both Paul and Peter identify the Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus. So, the question is, “Whom do you believe?” Do you believe Jews and Christian Zionists, who claim that the Romans killed Jesus? Or do you believe Paul and Peter, who claim that the Jews killed Jesus?

Copyright © 2024 by Thomas Coley Allen

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