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6 Denning L.J. 1 (1991)

handle is hein.journals/denlj6 and id is 1 raw text is: We have a law...: The Trials of Jesus of Nazareth R. P. Booth* To the Roman judge, Pilate - so records the Evangelist, John - the Jews protested that they had a law, and by that law Jesus should die because he had made himself the Son of God.' This claim illustrates the conflict of laws permeating the proceedings which culminated in Jesus' crucifixion. Even amongst the Jews, the Pharisees and the Saducees followed different versions of theocratic law, but had, perforce, to unite to frame charges that would induce a Roman court to pronounce a death penalty. In addition to the interplay of different legal systems, the uncertain boundary between judicial decision and executive action is explicit in the proceedings before Pilate, and implicit in the attendance before Herod. Another aspect of this conflict lies in the contrast between Jewish culture in which law is the will of God and thus theology, and Roman culture where law is the will of a human sovereign. Thus, the historical importance of the trials of Jesus can hardly be over-estimated; their impact on subsequent relations between Jews and Gentiles was cataclysmic, and their religious significance for the Christian is self-evident. They also constitute a fascinating study for the comparative lawyer. Pursuing what has been termed the 'forensic' method,2 an attempt will be made in this essay to assess the often conflicting literary evidence about the trials, and to determine how far the evidence thus found to be more probably authentic, is supported by the relevant law of that period. * Solicitor. Formerly Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Buckingham. 1. 19,7. The translation of the New Testament used in this essay is the Revised Standard Version. 2. This involves treating the Gospel statements mutatis mutandis as if they were the depositions of a witness in civil litigation. They are thus liable to be over-ridden by stronger evidence to the contrary, but if unopposed will be accepted unless their content is intrinsically improbable. Admittedly, the weight to be attributed to Gospel assertions as evidence is reduced by the greater credulity of the ancients and by the possible distortion of the tradition in its oral transmission and translation into Greek. This approach is, however, to be contrasted with that of many radical New Testament critics who consider there is so much dubious material in the Gospels that their study of a statement commences with a presumption of its inauthenticity. We explain our method more fully in Jesus and the Laws of Purity, Sheffield Academic Press (1986), pp. 15-18 and in Contrasts - Gospel Evidence and Christian Beliefs, Paget Press (1990), pp. 1-11.

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