Did the Jews Kill Jesus
Before we start on this study, I feel I must provide some background information.
It must be remembered that during the time of Jesus Israel was under Roman rule and occupation! Rome collapsed due to internal corruption, and all the states and land that Rome ruled, corruption followed! Now a little history lesson. Herod the Great also known as Herod the Great and Herod I; He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean. Herod's father was by descent an Edomite whose ancestors had converted to Judaism. King Herod was a Roman client king; client King means he was appointed by Rome, not by G-d as the king of Israel) of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. He has been described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis", "the evil genius of the Judean nation”, "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition". Vital details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus. (Herod’s tyrannical authority has been demonstrated by many of his security measures aimed at suppressing the contempt his people, especially Jews, had towards him. For instance, it has been suggested that Herod used secret police to monitor and report the feelings of the general populace towards him. He sought to prohibit protests, and had opponents taken away by force.
Josephus Flavius both participated in and wrote the history of the Jewish interaction with Rome.
Flavius Josephus was a first-century Jewish historian of priestly and royal ancestry. He recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism.
Josephus Flavius wrote a history called the Jewish War Against the Romans (JW), the massive Antiquities of the Jews (AJ), which retells Jewish history from its origins up until the war, an autobiography (Life), and a theological defense of Judaism called Against Apion (AA). Josephus played a major role in the first Jewish revolt, and thus, both JW and Life.
Josephus the Historian
Titus brought Josephus to Rome, where he lived the remainder of his life. Vespasian granted Josephus Roman citizenship and provided him with a pension and a large estate in Judea. During the reign of Titus, Josephus composed the JW, which begins with the war against Antiochus Epiphanes and concludes with the fall of Jerusalem (book 6) and its aftermath (book 7).
The 20 volume Antiquities of the Jews (AJ) retells all of Jewish history until the year 66 C.E., but also maintains a structural focus on Jerusalem, whose destruction in 586 concludes book 10, and whose destruction in 70 C.E. is predicted in book 20. AJ, which was probably written under Domitian in the 90s, presents a defense of Judaism, attesting to the antiquity, wisdom, and purity of Jewish tradition.
Some historians see AJ, as well as Josephus’ last book, Against Apion, as reflecting a heightened religious sensibility. For example, Josephus’ occasionally describes the Pharisees with a degree of adulation absent from JW, and his standard for piety has become more law-centered and less Temple-centered (as it was in JW).
Josephus’ Life was primarily written as a response to a history of the war written by Justus of Tiberias. Based on the arguments that Josephus makes, Justus apparently accused Josephus of causing rebellion against Rome in Tiberias, and of having behaved like a brutal, greedy tyrant. Hence, Life begins with Josephus’ outstanding pedigree and his scholarly credentials and continues to attempt to refute Justus’ claims.
Herod’s Temple
Zerubbabel’s Temple stood until the beginning of Herod the Great’s new temple in 19 B.C.
When the Romans replaced the Seleucids as the great power in the region, they granted the Hasmonean king, Hyrcanus II, limited authority under the Roman governor of Damascus. The Jews were hostile to the new regime, and the following years witnessed frequent insurrections. A last attempt to restore the former glory of the Hasmonean dynasty was made by Mattathias Antigonus, whose defeat and death brought Hasmonean rule to an end (40 BCE), and the Land became a province of the Roman Empire.
The temple of Herod was built on massive quarried blocks still visible today at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Politically Herod wanted to gain the favor of his Jewish subjects, so he rebuilt the temple by combining the requirements of the Jewish religion with elements of the Graeco-Roman style. He extended the area of the temple to its present size of 985 feet by 1,575 feet.
When it came to building the Temple Herod truly outdid himself, and even the Talmud acknowledges that the end-result was spectacular. "He who has not seen Herod's building, has never in his life seen a truly grand building." (Talmud-Bava Basra 4a)
Herod saw fit however, to place at the main entrance a huge Roman eagle, which the pious Jews saw as a sacrilege. A group of Torah students promptly smashed this emblem of idolatry and oppression, but Herod had them hunted down, dragged in chains to his residence in Jericho, where they were burned alive.
Was the second Temple a valid Temple?
Glory of the Lord
Glory of the Lord had not returned to Zion. Nowhere is there any passage corresponding to 1 Kings 8. According to which, when Solomon’s temple had been finished, ‘a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.’”
Melachim I - I Kings - Chapter 8
9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made (a covenant) with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy (place), and the cloud filled the house of the Lord.
11 And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
12 Then Solomon said, "The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.
13 I have surely built You a house to dwell in; a settled place for You to dwell in forever."
14 And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood.
“Yet when the temple is dedicated under Zerubbabel and Joshua (Ezra 6:13–18), there is no indication that God’s glory fills it. … There is no sign that God’s glorious presence returns to the rebuilt temple.”
The Second Temple did not have the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, this was one of a number of items which the Talmud (Yoma 21b) states the Second Temple lacked.
The Second Temple lacked the following holy articles:
§ The Ark of the Covenant containing the Tablets of Stone, before which were placed the pot of manna and Aaron's rod.
§ The Urim and Thummim (divination objects contained in the Hoshen)
§ The holy oil.
§ The sacred fire.
Having built the Temple, Herod took pains to make sure it would be run without future problems of the Jewish people that objected to the corruption of the Temple.
Very important!
He appointed his own High Priest, having by then put to death forty-six leading members of the Sanhedrin, half of the rabbinical court. The other half were intimidated by king Herod and towed the line.
Ten years after Herod's death (4 BCE), Judea came under direct Roman administration. Growing anger against increased Roman suppression of Jewish life resulted in sporadic violence which escalated into a full-scale revolt in 66 CE. Superior Roman forces led by Titus were finally victorious, razing Jerusalem to the ground (70 CE) and defeating the last Jewish outpost at Masada (73 CE).
The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was catastrophic for the Jewish people. According to the contemporary historian Josephus Flavius, hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, and many thousands more were sold into slavery.
How are the people of Israel to atone for their sins without a sacrificial system during their long exile until the messianic age, what are we to use instead? How are the Jewish people to atone for unintentional sin without a blood sacrifice during their bitter exile? What about all the animal sacrifices prescribed in the Book of Leviticus? Can the Jewish people get along without animal offerings?
Finally, the prophets loudly declared to the Jewish people that the contrite prayer of the penitent sinner replaces the sacrificial system. Therefore, atonement for unintentional sins today is expiated through devotional supplication to God, the Merciful One.
In fact, in the third chapter of Hosea, the prophet foretold with divine exactness that the nation of Israel would not have a sacrificial system during the last segment of Jewish history until the messianic age.
Many people blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus. It is said in John 18 King James Version (KJV)
31 Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:
As for the arrest and trial of Jesus, there could be no question of anything corresponding to a trial taking place on this occasion before the Sanhedrin. Whatever inquest was made must have occurred during the Thursday night and outside Jerusalem (for on entering the city a prisoner would have had to be given up to the Roman garrison), and cannot have been held before a quorum of the seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin. Remember half of the Sanhedrin were killed and replaced by Herod. It is more probable that the twenty-three members of the priestly section of the latter, who had most reason to be offended with Jesus' action in cleansing the Temple, This so called cleansing is also in question for those who 'bought and sold in the Temple' were there because of G-d's command. In Deuteronomy 14:24-26, G-d told the Jews to sell the animal they wanted to sacrifice for money, take the money to Jerusalem, and then after changing the money to the local currency, to buy the same type of animal and sacrifice it. Therefore, the money changers and sellers of sacrificial animals were supposed to be there, as commanded by G-d:
Nothing corresponding to a Jewish trial took place, though it was by the action of the priests that Jesus was sent before Pontius Pilate. The Gospels speak in the plural of the high priests who condemned him — a seeming contradiction to Jewish law which might throw doubt upon their historic character. Two, however, are mentioned, Joseph Caiaphas and Annas (Hanan), his father-in-law. Hanan had been deposed from the high-priesthood by Valerius Gratus, but he clearly retained authority and some prerogatives of the high priest, as most of those who succeeded him were relatives of his; and he may well have intervened in a matter touching so nearly the power of the priests. According to the Talmud, Hanan's bazaars were on the Mount of Olives, and probably therefore also his house; this would thus have become the appropriate place for the trial by the Sanhedrin, which indeed just about this time had moved its place of session thither.