On Tuesday 15 January 2002 10:16, you wrote: > >It is known from historical documents that Pilate never had the custom of > >releasing a prisoner on pesach. > > > >>Is it possible that this information is only ``well-known'' with certain > >>Judaic circles? > > > >No, it has even been reported on the discovery channel. > > Oh, well if it was on TV it MUST be right.
I think you know what i meant. > > Josephus records a possibly similar incident. A group of Assasins > kidnapped a scribe belonging to the retinue of the High Priest, and held > him hostage. This happened JUST BEFORE THE FESTIVAL. They then informed > the High Priest that they wanted him to persuade the governor to release > ten of their number who were being held prisoner. The governor, Albinus, > agrees, and the prisoners are released. (Josephus, 'Antiquities', XX 9.3). This happened according to Josephus around the time of 62-65ce. The sicarii had kidnapped Eleazar and the whole ordeal is described as a kind of "hostage trade". > Of course, this doesn't necessarily indicate the existence of a > regular custom during a festival, but it is possibly suggestive. Nothing of the sort actually. I certainly wasn't the governors idea to release the ten prisoners. > Similarly, there is a mention in the Mishnah (Pes. 8.6) that a > seder may be prepared for one 'whom they have promised to bring out of > prison' , and who presumably can't prepare one for himself. Some > scholars think this presupposes some kind of regular amnesty for > Pesach. So, while there isn't proof of a custom, neither is it > possible to assume that such a custom 'couldn't' have existed, or > 'didn't' exist, or that the release of a prisoner by the Roman governor > at a festival period was never practiced. I will check this reference an let you know what it is refering to asap. > And one may ask why, if there was no such custom, the writer of a > gospel should mention it, since it would be easily disproven by any of > those alive at the time who could have very simply refuted it. How many years later was this written? By whom? For what audience? I think we'd better move this discussion to the news server. -- 12:10pm up 34 days, 20:00, 10 users, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.03
