Originally Posted by JABcomix

You know, I noticed that no one dared address this point I made. I wonder why?

Why did Pilate even give the choice to the people? He certainly didn't have to. He had all authority to make any choice he seemed fit himself. Why put it up to the crowd? Answer me that!

Originally Posted by JABcomix

Well according to Atheist, all scriptures are not accepted sources. So what does it matter where I got it from if you're just going to dismiss it just like you dismiss all religious claims?

Originally Posted by Toto

This forum is for Biblical criticism - the secular study of the Bible and other Abrahamic texts as literature and as a possible source of history. It is not for the analysis of modern fantasies like Urantia or Scientology.

Originally Posted by JABcomix

I am basing my question in the context of the Bible. It is you who is dismissing the story altogether. It says plainly in the Bible that Pilate gave this choice to the public of who should be freed. You still have not answered my question. How are you critical of the Bible when you dismiss the story of Pilate altogether?

Why did Pilate give the crowd the choice to pick who lives or dies? He didn't have to. Answer me that!

Originally Posted by Tristan Scott

I mentioned this earlier, but you probably didn't see it. In the Matthew account, in the earlier manuscripts, it is found that Barabbas' name is also Jesus. This was later omitted, I assume to avoid confusion, but that is a significant omission if you consider the confusion that may have been felt by the crowd in the story. Jesus BarAbbas (keep in mind that Abba was commonly used as an effectionate name for God), could be roughly tanslated to Jesus the son of God. So the crowd is being offered what? A choice between Jesus the King of the Jews and Jesus the son of God?

Originally Posted by JABcomix

You know, I noticed that no one dared address this point I made. I wonder why?

Why did Pilate even give the choice to the people? He certainly didn't have to. He had all authority to make any choice he seemed fit himself. Why put it up to the crowd? Answer me that!

Originally Posted by Philo, On The Embassy of Gaius 38

(299) "Moreover, I have it in my power to relate one act of ambition on his part, though I suffered an infinite number of evils when he was alive; but nevertheless the truth is considered dear, and much to be honored by you. Pilate was one of the emperor's
lieutenants, having been appointed governor of Judaea. He, not more with the object of doing honor to Tiberius than with that of vexing the multitude, dedicated some gilt shields in the palace of Herod, in the holy city; which had no form nor any other forbidden thing represented on them except some necessary inscription, which mentioned these two facts, the name of the person who had placed them there, and the person in whose honor they were so placed there.

(300) But when the multitude heard what had been done, and when the circumstance became notorious, then the people, putting forward the four sons of the king, who were in no respect inferior to the kings themselves, in fortune or in rank, and his other descendants, and those magistrates who were among them at the time, entreated him to alter and to rectify the innovation which he had committed in respect of the shields; and not to make any alteration in their national customs, which had hitherto been preserved without any interruption, without being in the least degree changed by any king of emperor.

(301) "But when he steadfastly refused this petition (for he was a man of a very inflexible disposition, and very merciless as well as very obstinate), they cried out: 'Do not cause a sedition; do not make war upon us; do not destroy the peace which exists. The honor of the emperor is not identical with dishonor to the ancient laws; let it not be to you a pretence for heaping insult on our nation. Tiberius is not desirous that any of our laws or customs shall be destroyed. And if you yourself say that he is, show us either some
command from him, or some letter, or something of the kind, that we, who have been sent to you as ambassadors, may cease to trouble you, and may address our supplications to your master.'

(302) "But this last sentence exasperated him in the greatest possible degree, as he feared least they might in reality go on an embassy to the emperor, and might impeach him with respect to other particulars of his government, in respect of his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his rapine, and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity.

(303) Therefore, being exceedingly angry, and being at all times a man of most ferocious passions, he was in great perplexity, neither venturing to take down what he had once set up, nor wishing to do any thing which could be acceptable to his subjects, and at the same time being sufficiently acquainted with the firmness of Tiberius on these points. And those who were in power in our nation, seeing this, and perceiving that he was inclined to change his mind as to what he had done, but that he was not willing to be thought to do so, wrote a most supplicatory letter to Tiberius.

(304) And he, when he had read it, what did he say of Pilate, and what threats did he utter against him! But it is beside our purpose at present to relate to you how very angry he was, although he was not very liable to sudden anger; since the facts speak for themselves;

(305) for immediately, without putting any thing off till the next day, [Tiberius] wrote a letter, reproaching and reviling him in the most bitter manner for his act of unprecedented audacity and wickedness, and commanding him immediately to take down the shields and to convey them away from the metropolis of Judaea to Caesarea, on the sea which had been named Caesarea Augusta, after his grandfather, in order that they might be set up in the temple of Augustus. And accordingly, they were set up in that edifice. And in this way he provided for two matters: both for the honor due to the emperor, and for the preservation of the ancient customs of the city.

Originally Posted by Josephus, Jewish War 2.9

4. After this [Pilate] raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred treasure which is hundred furlongs. At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a clamor at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armor with the multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but with their staves to beat those that made the clamor.

He then gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held their peace."