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About Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner
Expertise
Write to me with questions about Jewish customs and law, history,
philosophy and tradition for answers from a Conservative perspective or conversion. I am a graduate of The Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. Having served in congregational pulpits since 1970, I now am President of the Foundation For Family Education, Inc. a non-profit educational endeavor. I established it to create new formats of hands-on programs and provide free educational downloads at www.jewishfreeware.org. In addition to general informational questions I welcome your questions about programs for social action, outreach to dual-faith families, inter-faith clergy projects, healing services, education for conversion, adult education for the congregation and the community. If you have questions about Informal and Formal Education I am ready to share my extensive experience with Youth Activities, Camping and Religious School/Hebrew High School on a congregational, community and national/international level.
Experience
I have served on the National Youth Commission for more than 25 years and serve on the Boards of the Conservative Zionist movement MERCAZ and the World Council of Synagogues. I have always dual-families and taught candidates for conversion with a great sense of fulfillment. I am very proud of 25 years on the Jewish camping staff of Camps Ramah. My greatest source of pride is my family! Ask me about them, please!:-)
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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Judaism > Conservative Judaism > jews
Expert: Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner - 8/31/2008
Question
why did the Jews kill Jesus?
Answer
Dear Jonathan,
Thank you for writing and enabling me to answer in a public fashion.
The Jewish People couldn't execute Jesus as they lacked the self-government authority for capital punishment.
Secondly, crucifixion is a Roman punishment, forbidden to Judaism and Jewish law even IF they had been permitted to execute for a capital offense.
Crucifixion was the Roman punishment for the crime of treason or rejection of Roman sovereignty as is demonstrated throughout recorded history.
The new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica includes the following:
CRUCIFIXION, mode of execution by fastening the condemned to two crossed beams. Being the form of death to which *Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate between 27 and 36 C.E., crucifixion subsequently acquired momentous historical, theological, and legal significance, providing subject matter for research and discussion until the present day. Its origins cannot be traced with precision; it is thought to have preceded hanging, of which there is early evidence (see *Capital Punishment ). Hanging may have been introduced as a more humane and lenient mode of execution than crucifixion; at any rate hanging superseded crucifixion in most countries of Europe, after crucifixion had been abolished by the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century because of its Christian symbolism.
In non-Christian, especially Far Eastern countries, it was practiced until early in the 19th century. Beheading was also practiced by the Romans (e.g., the beheading of John the Baptist), and it was apparently a more dignified procedure of execution because of the swiftness of the death experience as opposed to the prolonged suffering that crucified individuals endured.
Stoning was the preferred method of execution practiced by Jews in the first century and earlier (Lev. 20:2, 27; 24:16; Num. 15:35; Deut. 21:21).
There are reports of crucifixions from Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Punic, and Roman sources. It has been said to have first been imported into ancient Israel by the Persians (cf. Ezra 6:11), but there is no report of a single instance of a crucifixion under the powers conferred on Ezra.
If the hangings reported in the book of Esther (7:10, etc.) were crucifixions, they were carried out in Persia, where crucifixions seem to have been customary. Crucifixion was the standard Roman mode of execution for non-Roman criminals and enemies of the state, and hence was practiced on a large scale in Judea under the Roman occupation."
Please read further in reliable authoritative scholarship regarding the death of Jesus in history, apart from the "faith" component in Christianity and the record in the NT: (1) "Anchor Bible Dictionary;" (2) Crossan, John Dominic. Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus; and works by Father Raymond Browne; "Judaism and Christianity:the Difference" by Trude Weis-Rosmarin.
The death of Jesus is a necessary element in Christian theology, but the Jews were not involved and in later editions of the NT the Jews as a people were written into the text because of their refusal to accept Jesus and salvation via faith in Jesus.
Otherwise, blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus - whether then or since - is the greatest reason Christianity and others have used to support anti-semitism in thought, writing and destructive acts against individual Jews or communities. It is a canard and a falsehood in my opinion.
Best wishes
Rabbi Dov
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