Questions From Readers

◼ Did the Jews have legal authority to execute Jesus, as suggested by Pilate’s words at John 19:6?

We cannot be sure whether at that time the Romans granted the Jews authority to carry out executions.

After the Jewish leaders instigated Jesus’ arrest, they held a form of trial. During the trial they “were looking for false witness against Jesus in order to put him to death.” Finally, they pronounced Jesus guilty of blasphemy and said that he thus was “liable to death.” (Matthew 26:59, 60, 65, 66) But after “consultation against Jesus so as to put him to death,” they took him to the Roman governor, Pilate.​—Matthew 27:1, 2.

These circumstances have led many to conclude that the Jews did not then have Roman permission to execute Jesus Christ on that religious charge. Apparently confirming this view is the Jews’ reply when Pilate told them to judge the accused under Jewish law. They responded: “It is not lawful for us to kill anyone.” (John 18:31) In fact, a tradition related in the Jerusalem Talmud says that about 40 years before Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E., the Jews lost their authority to execute wrongdoers.

How strange it is, then, to read Pilate’s words at John 19:6. Responding to shouts from the religious leaders for Jesus’ impalement, Pilate told them: “Take him yourselves and impale him, for I do not find any fault in him.” This statement seems to conflict with what the Jews had said at John 18:31.

Jewish historian Flavius Josephus provides an eyewitness account that may shed light on this conflict. He reports that during the Roman assault on Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the rebels retreated into the temple precinct. Some of these bloodied fighters were in areas that had been off limits because of their sacredness. Repelled by this desecration of what even Romans tended to view as sacred ground, General Titus called out:

“You disgusting people! Didn’t you put up that balustrade [or low barrier dividing off part of the courtyard] to guard your Holy House? Didn’t you at intervals along it place slabs inscribed in Greek characters and our own, forbidding anyone to go beyond the parapet? And didn’t we give you leave to execute anyone who did go beyond it, even if he was a Roman? Why then, you guilty men, are you now trampling dead bodies inside it?”​—The Jewish War, translated by G. A. Williamson, page 312. Italics ours.

Hence, even if the Romans did not let the Jews employ capital punishment for civil offenses, it seems that they did grant authority to execute for certain grave religious offenses. The Jews who handed Jesus over to Pilate may have thought it desirable to let the Romans do the executing, perhaps to make his death more repugnant, and so any public outcry would be directed against the foreigners. (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23) Pilate, though, possibly wanting to avoid that problem, told them: “Take him yourselves and impale him.” He might have been indicating, too, that he felt that if the issue was a religious one of sufficient gravity, the Jewish leaders must bear responsibility for executing Jesus.

[Pictures on page 31]

This inscription from the temple courtyard (see inset) warned Gentiles against passing beyond the low wall of the temple

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Reproduction of the city of Jerusalem at the time of the second temple​—located on the grounds of the Holyland Hotel, Jerusalem

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Pictorial Archive (Near Eastern History) Est.