Troubleshooter

Here is another clue to the dating of Jesus crucifixion that I will throw on the pile for consideration...
...it comes amid a dark tale of intrigue, violence and revenge in Rome within the Imperial court...
...and could be read with popcorn and soda because it would be a good story for a movie.


By the time Tiberius Caesar (42 BC-37 AD) reached his mid-sixties, he had wearied of daily Imperial duties...
...so he entered semi-retirement on the Island of Capri in 26 AD...
...where out of the public eye he embraced a life of depravity and cruelty.

However, he still had the problems of government.

As his personal conduit for management of Rome from Capri, Tiberius left a regent in the capitol...
...Aelius Sejanus who had been captain of the Praetorian Guard.

Sejanus had shown himself to be politically capable and apparently loyal to Tiberius...
...but he was a cunning and ruthless man...
...and during the five years that Sejanus administed the empire...
...he engineered the banishment, imprisonment, suicide and elimination of his opponents...
...and Tiberius' potential successors...
...this was chronicled extensively by the Roman historian Tacitus.

Sejanus apparently intended to plot and murder his way to the throne...
...and he very nearly did...
...unfortunately for Sejanus, Tiberius had a trusted sister-in-law, Antonia...
...who although not politically engaged was politically astute...
...and while nearly all communication from Rome filtered through Sejanus...
...Antonia managed to deliver a letter to Tiberius describing Sejanus' web of plots.

Tiberius responded by plotting his own surprise...
...he sent an emissary with a lengthy letter to be read before the Roman Senate with Sejanus present...
...in which Tiberius loosed a scathing denunciation of Sejanus and demanded his arrest...
...the shocked Sejanus was dragged out and executed the same day: October 18 31 AD.

Why does this date matter?

Roman and biblical history intersect...
...and Sejanus influenced and appointed many Imperial officials including Pontius Pilate.

Pilate was made Prefect of Judea about the time that Tiberius gave up Rome for Capri in 26 AD...
...Sejanus was a notorious anti-Semite...
...and Pilate followed Sejanus anti-Jewish policies while governing Judea.

Here are some examples of Pilate's treatment of the Jews.

The Romans were well aware that the Jews shunned all graven images.

"...the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples."
Tacitus comments in The Histories, Book V:

Pilate proceeded to install images of Tiberius in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem...

"Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem. This excited a very great tumult among the Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immovable in that posture for five days and as many nights. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate also said to them that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Caesar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should be transgressed."
Josephus, Wars, Book II, Chapter 9:

There are other examples of Pilate's intentional mistreatment of the Jews...

Philo reports that Pilate proposed to set up a colossal idol in the holy of holies itself.
Josephus reports that Pilate seized religious offerings made by worshiping Jews...
...to pay for Roman work projects.

The Book of Luke records that Pilate killed Jewish worshipers, "...whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." Luke 13:1.

At the crucifixion of Jesus Pilate posted a notice on Christ's cross which declared him "The King of the Jews"...
...thereby mocking the Jewish leadership even as he gave them their way.

However, this also raises an important question about the execution of Jesus.

Pilate's pattern was to avoid doing "anything which could be acceptable to his subjects" the Jews...
...so why would he now give in to their demands to crucify Jesus?
...and why not release Jesus, if only to irritate the priests who called for his death?

The biblical record reflects Pilate's intention to release Jesus, and that he almost did...
...but something had changed...
...something made Pilate respond to the Jewish leaders, grudgingly...
...rather than treat them with his customary vicious disdain.

What had changed was Sejanus. He was dead.

Even worse for Pilate, after the surprise execution of Sejanus in the Fall of 31 AD...
...Tiberius began to root out Sejanus's appointees and allies...
...many were tried, tortured at length and executed in ways designed to maximize terror.

Suetonius described the torture of Sejanus' allies...
"At Capri they still point out the scene of his executions, from which he used to order that those who had been condemned after long and exquisite tortures be cast headlong into the sea before his eyes, while a band of marines waited below for the bodies and broke their bones with boathooks and oars, to prevent any breath of life from remaining in them."
De Vita Caesarum: Tiberius LXII

Tacitus also records in The Annals, Book V:
"Executions were now a stimulus to [Tiberius'] fury, and he ordered the death of all who were lying in prison under accusation of complicity with Sejanus. There lay, singly or in heaps, the unnumbered dead, of every age and sex, the illustrious with the obscure. Kinsfolk and friends were not allowed to be near them, to weep over them, or even to gaze on them too long. Spies were set round them, who noted the sorrow of each mourner and followed the rotting corpses, till they were dragged to the Tiber, where, floating or driven on the bank, no one dared to burn or to touch them. The force of terror had utterly extinguished the sense of human fellowship, and, with the growth of
cruelty, pity was thrust aside."

Tiberius also issued countermands to Sejanus' orders and policies, including his anti-Semitic policies...
...the new official line was to "let the Jews alone". But this was not a casual change of direction...
...the new mandate arrived amidst the vigorous extermination of many officials Sejanus had put in place...
...officials like Pontius Pilate.

"...things in Italy were thrown into a great deal of confusion when Sejanus was preparing to make his attempt against our nation; for [Tiberius] knew immediately after [Sejanus'] death that the accusations which had been brought against the Jews who were dwelling in Rome were false calumnies, inventions of Sejanus, who was desirous to destroy our nation... And he sent commands to all the governors of provinces in every country to comfort those of our nation in their respective cities, as the punishment intended to be inflicted was not meant to be inflicted upon all, but only on the guilty; and they were but few. And he ordered them to change none of the existing customs, but to look upon them as pledges, since the men were peaceful in their dispositions and natural characters, and their laws trained them and disposed them to quiet and stability."
Philo of Alexandria, De Virtutibus Prima Pars, Quod Est De Legatione Ad Gaium, XXIV:

After October 18, 31 AD Pilate lived in a lethal political context...
...and if Jesus' 'trial' happened after this date...
...Pilate's strange ambivalence toward Jesus and the Jewish leadership is not strange after all...
...at this moment in history his prejudices could cost him his life...

It is within this context that we see why Pontius Pilate gave into the demands of the Jews...
...who demanded Jesus execution...
...Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting...
"If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar." John 19:12

If the circumstances of this history are correct then spring of 31 AD is too early for Jesus crucifixion...
...and the April 3, 33 AD fits with the sequence of political events in Romes Imperial court.