Who Kill Jesus

In the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth is killed by crucifixion around thirty-three AD. According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus’s death was the result of a combination of forces.

In the gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion, Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot and handed over to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. Pilate, Roman governor of Judea, questions Jesus and, having found no basis for a charge of treason, releases him. However, members of the chief priests’ council and the crowd gather outside Pilate’s residence demanding Jesus’ death. Under pressure from the crowd, Pilate orders Jesus’ crucifixion.

The Gospels indicate that the Jewish Sanhedrin, who accused Jesus of crimes such as blasphemy, had sought his execution, although the Roman government ultimately carried it out. Though the Jewish religious leaders had the legal right under Torah law to carry out the death penalty, they needed the Romans to carry it out in practice—according to their interpretation of their own law. The gospel accounts dominate the narrative of Jesus’ death, portraying Pontius Pilate as the primary actor in Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and death.

Though the official cause of death was crucifixion, Roman law forbade a criminal from being executed in the same town where he had committed crimes, so the Jewish religious and political leaders took it upon themselves to lead Jesus to his crucifixion, hoping that Pilate would recognize Jesus as a criminal and carry out the sentence. The gospel account also adds that Jesus carried his own cross to the site of his death, in agreement with a sentence imposed by Roman tradition.

Ultimately, while it may have been the Romans led by Pilate who were responsible for the death of Jesus, it was the Jewish religious and political authorities that instigated it by accusing Jesus of crimes and forcing Pontius Pilate to carry out their very own death sentence.