What are the reasons to include a such question by Pilate?
Two options:
A) Original readers had to have no doubt at all: Jesus is the Jewish Christ, not the Son of Father ("Bar-Abbas").
B) Original readers had to have no doubt at all: Jesus is the Judean king, not the Samaritan prophet (Dositheus).
The readers could be confused by the fact that Marcion denied that the victim was a Jew, while Dositheans and Simonians denied that the victim was Judean.
What I don't know to answer, is: what is more probable: A or B?
The question may have arisen as a means whereby to squash a competing early form of Christianity which introduced a new God who was Jesus Father. The source for this would certainly be anti-Johannine and anti-Marcionite.
Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:48 am
What are the reasons to include a such question by Pilate?
Two options:
A) Original readers had to have no doubt at all: Jesus is the Jewish Christ, not the Son of Father ("Bar-Abbas").
B) Original readers had to have no doubt at all: Jesus is the Judean king, not the Samaritan prophet (Dositheus).
The readers could be confused by the fact that Marcion denied that the victim was a Jew, while Dositheans and Simonians denied that the victim was Judean.
What I don't know to answer, is: what is more probable: A or B?
Neither A nor B.
Historically there was only one King of the Jews executed by Rome. Antigonus executed by Marc Antony in Antioch in 37 b.c.
It is this historic execution of a King of the Jews that is being remembered in the time of Tiberius and Pilate. The 70 year remembrance of this Jewish tragedy fell within the 23 years of Tiberius.
That is history. All the rest is speculation. Theological or philosophical interpretations of this historic event do not cancel the relevance of the historic event for gospel writers. History, reality, is primary.
