Two writers discussing who really killed Jesus.
“Well, yeah…it was the Romans who whipped Jesus and then nailed what was left him to a cross—while the Jews applauded. All in all, rather like the rabble in a great many places attending public torture and executions as a form of entertainment.”
My reply:
You are both wrong. The Roman Bible is ROMAN. It was written by Roman citizens who wanted to worship a savior deity and were certainly not interested in blaming his death on Rome.
That said, if the stories in the Roman Bible are true, then Jesus might well have been stoned to death, under Jewish Law, for blasphemy. Josephus is tells us that James, perhaps Jesus’ brother, was killed for blasphemy.
Now I am hardly one to endorse capital punishment, but why would anyone but a Christian see this as an unusual story?
History and Torah are full of stories of folks getting killed for unbelief. Was Jesus’ life MORE precious than the lives of the Egyptian first born? How many injuns did the missionaries kill to spread the word of Jesus? Anyone here ever read the words of Isaak Stephens (territorial governor of Washington) or Jefferson Davis justifying slavery because of the good word it brought to black folks?