Pilate would have been anxious about any possibility of trouble breaking out, particularly trouble near the Temple, the heart of the Jewish community. To release Jesus would have been likely to cause a riot; Pilate could have lost control of the city, and possibly the province.

In one passage of Jewish Antiquities that recounts an unlawful execution, Josephus identifies the victim, James, as the “brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah.” While few scholars doubt the short account’s authenticity, says Mykytiuk, more debate surrounds Josephus’s lengthier passage about Jesus, known as the “Testimonium Flavianum,” which describes a man “who did surprising deeds” and was condemned to be crucified by Pilate. Mykytiuk agrees with most scholars that Christian scribes modified portions of the passage but did not insert it wholesale into the text. Tacitus connects Jesus to his execution by Pontius Pilate. Crowds began to gather, some of them probably a mob organised by the Temple authorities; just what a Roman governor hoping for a peaceful Passover did not want. Caiaphas knew everybody who mattered. He was the de-facto ruler of the worldwide Jewish community at that time, and he planned to keep it that way. The Renaissance brought forth a number of artistic masters who focused on the depictions of Jesus and after Giotto, Fra Angelico and others systematically developed uncluttered images that focused on the depiction of Jesus with an ideal human beauty. [82] Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper which is considered the first work of High Renaissance art due to its high level of harmony became well known for depicting Jesus surrounded by the varying emotions of the individual apostles at the announcement of the betrayal. [92] [93] Since the early period of Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ". [37] The word Christ was a title or office ("the Christ"), not a given name. [38] [39] It derives from the Greek Χριστός ( Christos), [40] [41] a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh ( משיח) meaning " anointed", and is usually transliterated into English as " messiah". [42] In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture. [43]He had 6,000 soldiers on hand to keep the peace in a city bulging with 2.5 million Jews. The religious authorities, whose cooperation he needed for a quiet life, wanted him to execute Jesus and there was an angry mob baying for Jesus' blood.

Some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of Jesus' life and teachings that are not in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and Gospel of Judas, the Apocryphon of James, and many other apocryphal writings. Most scholars conclude that these were written much later and are less reliable accounts than the canonical gospels. [58] [59] [60] Authorship, date, and reliability In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the King of the Jews, both at the beginning of his life and at the end. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament, e.g., in John 19:3, this is written as Basileus ton Ioudaion ( βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων). [1] Astell, Anne W. (2006). Eating Beauty: The Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. p.81.De Bles, A. (1925). How to Distinguish the Saints in Art by Their Costumes, Symbols, and Attributes. New York: Art Culture Publications. ISBN 978-0-8103-4125-8. And a superscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. The question troubles Herod who considers the title his own, and in Matthew 2:7–8 he questions the Magi about the exact time of the Star of Bethlehem's appearance. Herod sends the Magi to Bethlehem, telling them to notify him when they find the child. After the Magi find Jesus and present their gifts, having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to their country by a different way.

Pilate read the reports that he had from his officials and saw that it was quite clear that Jesus wasn't leading a military revolution. There was simply no evidence against Jesus.The 13th century witnessed a turning point in the portrayal of the powerful Kyrios image of Jesus as a wonder worker in the West, as the Franciscans began to emphasize the humility of Jesus both at his birth and at his death via the Nativity scene as well as the crucifixion. [87] [88] [89] The Franciscans approached both ends of this spectrum of emotions and as the joys of the Nativity were added to the agony of the crucifixion, a whole new range of emotions was ushered in, with wide-ranging cultural impact on the image of Jesus for centuries thereafter. [87] [89] [90] [91] Cresswell 2013, chpt. 5: "The same goes for the note in Luke 23, 38 that the inscription on the cross was given in three languages: included by scribe A, deleted by Ca [from the Codex Sinaiticus] and absent in Codex Vaticanus and P75". Although some images of Jews exist in the synagogue in Dura-Europos, and such images may have been common, in theory, Judaism forbade images, and its influence on the depictions of Jesus remains unknown. [82] Christian depictions of Jesus which were produced during the 3rd and 4th centuries typically focused on New Testament scenes of healings and other miracles. [84] Following the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century, Christian art found many wealthy donors and flourished. [84] During this period, Jesus began to have more mature features, and he was also shown with a beard. [18] A new development which occurred at this time was the depiction of Jesus without a narrative context; he was just depicted as a figure all by himself. [18]

Flavius Josephus Historian Flavius Josephus wrote one of the earliest non-biblical accounts of Jesus. Barnstone, Willis. "The Acts of John–Christ's Earthly Appearance", in The Other Bible. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984, p. 417. According to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was a descendant of King David. [46] [47] One argument against this claim [ clarification needed] is the contradiction which is contained in Jesus's genealogies: Matthew says that he was descended from King Solomon, while Luke says that he was descended from Solomon's brother, Nathan. John of Damascus taught the belief that there is no contradiction, for Nathan wed Solomon's wife after Solomon died in accordance with yibbum (the mitzvah that a man must marry his brother's childless widow). [48] When Herod died shortly after Jesus’ birth, his kingdom was divided into five parts. Most of the Gentile areas were separated from the Jewish areas, which were split between two of Herod’s sons, Herod Archelaus, who received Judaea and Idumaea (as well as Samaria, which was non-Jewish), and Herod Antipas, who received Galilee and Peraea. (In the New Testament, Antipas is somewhat confusingly called Herod, as in Luke 23:6–12; apparently the sons of Herod took his name, just as the successors of Julius Caesar were commonly called Caesar.) Both sons were given lesser titles than king: Archelaus was ethnarch, and Antipas was tetrarch. The non-Jewish areas (except Samaria) were assigned to a third son, Philip, to Herod’s sister Salome, or to the province of Syria. The emperor Augustus deposed the unsatisfactory Archelaus in 6 ce, however, and transformed Judaea, Idumaea, and Samaria from a client kingdom into an “imperial province.” Accordingly, he sent a prefect to govern this province. That minor Roman aristocrat (later called a procurator) was supported by a small Roman army of approximately 3,000 men. The soldiers, however, came not from Italy but from nearby Gentile cities, especially Caesarea and Sebaste; presumably, the officers were from Italy. During Jesus’ public career, the Roman prefect was Pontius Pilate (ruled 26–36 ce).In the events of Holy Week, Jesus seems to be deliberately acting out the prophecy in Hebrew scripture about Israel's true king, the anointed one, the Messiah, coming at last to be God's agent to redeem Israel. REJECTED BOOKS OF THE BIBLE AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM Archaeological evidence of Jesus does not exist. When the Church persecuted Jews in an effort to convert them, Jewish indifference to Jesus turned to hostility. It is a sad fact of history that the followers of this great Jew have brought much suffering upon the Jewish people, so that for centuries it was very hard for any Jew even to think of Jesus without difficulty. Up until recently, most Jews have chosen not to think of him at all. Jesus, Caiaphas said, thought himself, or his followers thought, or people said that he was the King of the Jews. This was a capital crime against Rome and Pilate had to deal with it whether he wanted to or not. He asked Jesus, point blank, "Are you the Son of God, the Son of the Blessed? Are you The Messiah?"