Hi Steve,
I was just doing bible study with my group on John 8. In the last verse, it said the Jews wanted to stone Jesus. So why was it when Jesus was finally arrested, the Jews didn't just stone him to death but instead sent him to the Romans to be crucified? Afterall the Jews did stone Stephen to death (with no obvious reaction from the Romans) and they also stoned Paul almost to death (stopping only because they thought he was dead).
Why did Jesus have to be crucified by Romans?
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_Benjamin Ho
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Why did Jesus have to be crucified by Romans?
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Grace and peace,
Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho
Great question!
There are two kinds of authority, civic (The Romans in that case) which was created when Isreal rejected God from ruling over them and asked for a king, and religious authority. Religious authority at that time was represented by the Levitical priesthood and the law. Jesus had to be condemned by both.
Hugh McBryde
Hugh McBryde
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
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_Benjamin Ho
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Sat Mar 13, 2004 8:16 am
- Location: Singapore
Sometimes my mind gets unexpected fresh insights when I ask my class my own questions.
In the incidences where the Jews were rashly trying to kill him, Jesus always managed to hide or slip away. I suppose even though it was against Roman law to kill someone, mob mentality probably took over. However, when the Jewish leaders made the final attempt to kill Jesus, they had already thought through this problem and this murder attempt no longer remained a rash act by the crowd. Therefore, the Jews brought Jesus to the Romans to be crucified.
Additionally, looking at the typology presented to us by the story of Joseph and his eleven brothers, it should be remembered that the brothers did not want to lay their own hand against their own kin (Gen 37:27). Perhaps the Jews in so bringing Jesus before the Romans were trying to pass the culpability of guilt over to the Romans. However Peter (Acts 5:30) and Stephen (Acts 7:52) concluded otherwise.
In the incidences where the Jews were rashly trying to kill him, Jesus always managed to hide or slip away. I suppose even though it was against Roman law to kill someone, mob mentality probably took over. However, when the Jewish leaders made the final attempt to kill Jesus, they had already thought through this problem and this murder attempt no longer remained a rash act by the crowd. Therefore, the Jews brought Jesus to the Romans to be crucified.
Additionally, looking at the typology presented to us by the story of Joseph and his eleven brothers, it should be remembered that the brothers did not want to lay their own hand against their own kin (Gen 37:27). Perhaps the Jews in so bringing Jesus before the Romans were trying to pass the culpability of guilt over to the Romans. However Peter (Acts 5:30) and Stephen (Acts 7:52) concluded otherwise.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Grace and peace,
Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho
I see this as an awesome display of God's sovereignty! Jesus escaped several attempts on His life...
Matthew 2:13 - Herod ordered all male children under the age of 2 to be killed...an angel of the Lord tells Joseph to flee to Egypt
Luke 4:28, 29 - In Nazareth, Jeus spoke in the synagouge on the Sabbath day. He spoke of how He was the fulfillment of Scripture - the "people of the Synogouge" tried to push Him off a cliff
John 5:18 - Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and called God His own Father- the Jews tried to kill Him.
John 7:25 referrs to Jesus as "He whom they seek to kill"
Yet...it wasn't His time. God's soverignty prevails...none of these man-made plans would succeed!
Prophecy would be fulfilled!
John 3:14-15 - Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
I find it almost comical...that those who tried to take His life before His time...failed and those that tried to postpone His death...also failed. The Sanhedrin's plan was to "take Jesus by trickery and kill Him, But they said "NOT DURING THE FEAST, lest there be an uproar among the people: (Matthew 26:4, 5) Again...God's sovereignty over the schemes of men shines! They wanted to avoid a public scandal on the feast day...God's desing was for Christ to die on Passover, in as public a manner as possible!
How awesome is our God?!
On a practical note...The Sanhedrin constitueded a religious court...not a civil one. Their jurisdiction covered matters directly pertaining to the Jewish religion. They needed a strategy for pusuing their case against Jesus. Rome had rescinded the Jewish leader's rights to carry out the death penalty on their own
John 18:30 - 32 - "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
Proverbs 19:21 says it best - "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
Waiting for Him,
paulak
Matthew 2:13 - Herod ordered all male children under the age of 2 to be killed...an angel of the Lord tells Joseph to flee to Egypt
Luke 4:28, 29 - In Nazareth, Jeus spoke in the synagouge on the Sabbath day. He spoke of how He was the fulfillment of Scripture - the "people of the Synogouge" tried to push Him off a cliff
John 5:18 - Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and called God His own Father- the Jews tried to kill Him.
John 7:25 referrs to Jesus as "He whom they seek to kill"
Yet...it wasn't His time. God's soverignty prevails...none of these man-made plans would succeed!
Prophecy would be fulfilled!
John 3:14-15 - Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
I find it almost comical...that those who tried to take His life before His time...failed and those that tried to postpone His death...also failed. The Sanhedrin's plan was to "take Jesus by trickery and kill Him, But they said "NOT DURING THE FEAST, lest there be an uproar among the people: (Matthew 26:4, 5) Again...God's sovereignty over the schemes of men shines! They wanted to avoid a public scandal on the feast day...God's desing was for Christ to die on Passover, in as public a manner as possible!
How awesome is our God?!
On a practical note...The Sanhedrin constitueded a religious court...not a civil one. Their jurisdiction covered matters directly pertaining to the Jewish religion. They needed a strategy for pusuing their case against Jesus. Rome had rescinded the Jewish leader's rights to carry out the death penalty on their own
John 18:30 - 32 - "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
Proverbs 19:21 says it best - "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
Waiting for Him,
paulak
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
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_Benjamin Ho
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Sat Mar 13, 2004 8:16 am
- Location: Singapore
In addition to the Jews trying to absolve their responsibility for his death by involving the Romans in the actual execution, here's another reason that I found recently:
An execution by stoning might have turned Jesus into a martyred prophet, whereas the Jewish leaders wanted to put an end to his cause. The Mosaic law stated that ‘anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse’ (Deuteronomy 21:23). Since the Jews equated crucifixion with hanging, they thought that by having Jesus crucified would demonstrate that God had rejected him as Messiah. Little did they understand God's purpose, since Paul states in Galatians 3:13, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."’
Therefore, ‘the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:18).
An execution by stoning might have turned Jesus into a martyred prophet, whereas the Jewish leaders wanted to put an end to his cause. The Mosaic law stated that ‘anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse’ (Deuteronomy 21:23). Since the Jews equated crucifixion with hanging, they thought that by having Jesus crucified would demonstrate that God had rejected him as Messiah. Little did they understand God's purpose, since Paul states in Galatians 3:13, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."’
Therefore, ‘the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Grace and peace,
Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho