Nathanael J. Andrade's "Killing the Messiah"

Nathanael J. Andrade is Professor of History at Binghamton University (SUNY). His books include Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, The Journey of Christianity to India in Late Antiquity: Networks and the Movement of Culture, and Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra.

Andrade applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Killing the Messiah: The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, and reported the following:

Page 99 of Killing the Messiah: the Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth contains a photograph. It features the reconstruction of the first-century Temple precinct of Jerusalem that is now on display at the National Museum of Israel. The Temple was the most sacred site for Jews during Jesus’ lifetime. It was also sometimes a locus for outbreaks of crowd violence or insurrection, and it was where Jesus preached during his final Passover Week.

The image is an apt one. Why? Killing the Messiah delves into a longstanding debate about why Pontius Pilate had Jesus crucified. The Temple precinct at Jerusalem is central to what it frames as the most plausible scenario. In his final Passover Week, Jesus preached about a coming reign of God and his own Messianic stature for two days in the Temple precinct’s outer courtyard. On the first day, the preaching of Jesus and his core followers involved some sort of confrontational behavior with money-changers, merchants, and people carrying commercial vessels. Such incendiary activity had serious potential to incite crowd violence at the Temple precinct. Since the Temple’s chief priests had a social obligation to keep innocent worshippers there safe, they initiated countermeasures once they learned of the incident.

On the second day of his preaching, the chief priests confronted Jesus at the Temple and considered arresting him. But because they feared crowd volatility, they let him go. Shifting strategies, they aimed to arrest Jesus at his lodging, away from the Temple’s crowds. As for Jesus, he did not return to the Temple again. Staying in secret locations outside Jerusalem, he only reentered the city for what would become his final Passover meal. Ultimately, the chief priest collected information on Jesus’ location on the Mount of Olives and had him arrested and brought before Pontius Pilate.

When Pilate ascertained that Jesus had engaged in incendiary preaching and conduct at the Temple while posturing as a Messiah, or “King of the Jews,” he had Jesus crucified for sedition. The Gospels’ claims that Pilate believed in Jesus’ innocence and reluctantly had him crucified to appease the chief priests and attending crowd are inaccurate. They reflect how the Gospels distance Jesus from blame for any wrongdoing.

For such reasons, the reconstruction of the Temple precinct on page 99 suits Killing the Messiah very well. As it maintains, Jesus’ conduct at the Temple was pivotal in Pilate’s having him crucified as a seditionist.

Learn more about Killing the Messiah at the Oxford University Press website.

My Book, The Movie: Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra.

--Marshal Zeringue