"His blood be on us and on our children"?

Question

The above is from Matthew 27:25. The Jews chant this when Pilate comes back and says he cleans his hands of Jesus' death - that this man is innocent.

1. Why would the Jews actually chant this?

2. Why would Pilate care what the Jews thought? The Pilate from historical documents that we have was a cruel man who slaughtered the Jews right and left whenever they refused to follow Roman law. Pilate claimed he was innocent. The Jews were a minority - and not a well liked one at that.

3. Why wouldn't the Jews just stone Jesus to death if they truly thought that he was so guilty that they would take the blame not only on themselves but on their children? There are numerous mentions of stonings throughout the NT. Including the one Jesus stopped. Obviously the Jews were still able to do this - they still had their own courts. They had already found Jesus guilty - why drag him to the Romans?

Actual historical documents show that Pilate was no coward. And that he really didn't care what the Jews wanted. He slaughtered them without mercy any time they rose up. The Pilate of the bible does not match the Pilate of reality.

Answer 1

Noncrazed...this is a sermon in itself, lol...not what you wrote, but the explanation.

First of all know that the prophecy was that Jesus would be betrayed and killed by his own.

Pilate did care what the Jews thought because he feared riot and chaos which would put him in a bad lot with the roman emporer (since Pilots job was to keep "these people" in line). He had even a bigger problem in that his wife was, at the very least compassionate towards Jesus, feared for the life of her husband and felt it was wrong for him to order Jesus killed (some believe she was a secret follower).

Stoning Jesus would not have fulfilled the prophecy. Stoning is not something that was a NT thing. Stoning was a common punishment of the time for anyone of Roman or Jewish or whatever belief. The pagans practiced stoning as well.

What we must always remember is that...we all crucified Jesus...every person. We were a member of that crowd if even figuratively. We must also remember that as horrible as the crucifixtion was, it was pre-ordained. Each party had a part to play...but the crucifixtion was to happen.

Crucifixtion was also a common punishment, especially for theives, etc. In stoning and crucifixtion, religion really did not play a part, it was a societal norm.

If you can, find a stone and put it by your computer. Ever once in a while, pick it up and imagine it covered with holy blood. You can do the same with a nail (I see them often now in religious bookstores).

In the end, no matter how it came about or who was involved, Jesus was born to die for us...nothing could have changed it or stopped it.

Peg

Answer 2

The reason is a political one. Jesus was seen as a political agitator, and the Jews handed Him over to the Romans to make sure the Romans knew the Jews weren't going to revolt.

As far as Matthew 27:25, the Apostles did a lot of paraphrasing when it came to the shouts of a large crowd. I doubt people were chanting those words in unison, but that may have been the feeling of many in the crowd, hence the phrase Matthew used.

That might just have meant that if there was a price to pay for His death, they'd pay it, but I don't hold with all that anti-semitic interperetation of the Crucifixion. I'm no Mel Gibson.

Besides, those were SOME Jews at ONE time. Not all Jews, all the time.

Answer 3

1- The Jews believed that Jesus was insulting their religion by saying that he can destroy their temple and have it put back up in 3 days. They believed he was extremely mistaken, off course with his teachings, and very insulting to their beliefs, so for them when they say "his blood shall be on us and on our children's hands" they were saying something like "if you believe killing him is wrong -which we don't- then whatever floats your boat, just give him to us and believe what you want and don't worry if there's any blame we'll take it" because they didn't believe they were doing something wrong. and before he died on the cross Jesus said "forgive them father for they know not what they do" and chanting "his blood will be..." was just one more proof that they didn't know what they were doing.

2- The Roman empire was extremely huge at that time, occupying a lot of land other than Palestine and Judea, Pilate Pontious was just a man appointed by the Empire to rule this area, somehow like a governor these days.
the area had a lot of problems and the heads of the Roman Empire were very annoyed with all the problems coming out of there and all the mess that Pilate was clearly not able to handle. Pilate recognized that if he doesn't give the masses what they wanted "to crucify Jesus" he will have an up roar and chaos and if the Roman heads hear of this he will be replaced. Pilate was a man who cared for his position more than caring for an innocent man's life. he wanted to keep his position and he wanted to avoid the mass' anger so to shut them up he handed Jesus over to them.

3- Crucifixion was the most humiliating execution at that time, they hang a person on a stick and write his crime above his head so that everyone can see what he did. it was usually performed on murderers and theives and Jesus was counted with petty theives so that it would be the most effective way to "humiliate him" after claiming that he is the king of the Jews

Answer 4

1. The Jewish people who were in Jerusalem at this time, were there from all over the world. They did not know Jesus but had heard rumors about them. Their Religious leaders were warned by Pilate to have Jesus cool it or the leaders would suffer. The leaders tried to reason with Jesus Who would not listen. They then realized that their only solution was the death of Jesus so that the Romans would not punish the whole group.
2. Pilate was there with his soldiers but he was out numbered and was afraid of a riot. He knew that if he threatened the Religious leaders, that they would solve the problem of Jesus.
The leaders instead forced the problem of Jesus back unto Pilate whose wife warned him not to get involved.
Pilate could care less about Jewish problems. Killing Jesus was nothing to him and since the religious leaders wanted Jesus killed, Pilate went along with them, hoping to stop a riot which would endanger his garrison.
3. They did, earlier, try to stone Jesus but he disappeared from their sight.

Answer 5

They say this as a way to get Pilate to agree and also is part of prophecy.

Pilate's decision was a political one, the Jews were a thorn in the side of the Romans for years, finally in 70A.D. they had enough and destroyed the Temple and scattered and enslaved the Jews. Just as the Lord prophesied.

The reason they didn't stone Him is because prophecy speaks of Him being given over to the gentiles for execution, Jesus said this Himself many times. It was also against Roman law for the Jews to carry out capital punishment on their own.

Answer 6

Because the Jews knew what God's law stated at Deut 19:10

Pilate didn't care what the Jews thought, but felt the pressure of looking like a leader or Governor that couldn't control his territory.
Josephus reports that Pilate’s later removal from office resulted from complaints lodged by the Samaritans with Pilate’s immediate superior, the governor of Syria, Vitellius.

The Jews although having some authority didn't dare do anything with out Roman approval, they were just a puppet government. As you can read they were under fear of man.
see (John 19:14-16) . . .” 15 However, they shouted: “Take [him] away! Take [him] away! Impale him!” Pilate said to them: “Shall I impale YOUR king?” The chief priests answered: “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 At that time, therefore, he handed him over to them to be impaled.. . .

Answer 7

1) The Jews hated Jesus and did not believe that He was the Messiah.

2) Pilate had been warned by his wife not to have anything to do with this just man.

3) John 18:31 - Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:

Answer 8

1. They were obviously very emotional people (dare I say drama-queens) and they didn't agree he was innocent. So what did they have to lose? Assuming he was guilty, his blood wouldn't be on anyone since he deserved to die.

2. Apparently, provincial leaders got called on the carpet by rome when the natives got restless. In Acts when a whole city got upset with Paul (where the residents yelled: "Great is the goddess Diana" for 2 or 3 hours non-stop), the governor told the crowd he was going to have to explain the unrest to Rome.

3. They rank and file probably would have been happy to, they were about to stone him once as outlined in John 10. The leaders apparently wanted him to suffer more before he died, crucifixions could drag on for days and was a more painful (and humiliating) death than a stoning.

Answer 9

1. And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children (no chanting, just trying to get him to agree)

2. "Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished" first it was a custom second it was now growing to great "multitudes" he gave them the choice between the worst prisoner and a innocent one. Most would assume that the crowds would choose the innocent one! But a crowd gives you the wrong answer and he is not going to be like never mind! He didnt care what they thought!
But he knew something was different about Jesus read about what his wife said in Matthew 27:15-19

3.Its only practical to in list the assistance of the majority (Romans) and if they were going to stone him that is like a bunch of your neighbors killing you because you broke the law. They went by the law of that day.


Last and most important-“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
DO NOT KNOW It was GODS plan to save the world of our sins through the death of the perfect lamb Jesus Christ!!!

Answer 10

you have to remember that Christian gospels were written at the lowest point in Jewish history.

It was right after the Jewish-Roman war and as such being Jewish in the Roman Empire was not seen as a good thing.

the authors of the Gospels (especially John) wanted to distance the new Christian movement from Jews as much as they could in order to get respect from others.

by casting Jews in a bad light as they did when writing about the crucifixion they were playing on the public dislike of Jews at the time.