Last Days of Jesus

On Good Friday 2017, Channel 5 broadcast a documentary called the Last Days of Jesus. Based on the political conspiracy theory of historians Simcha Jacobivici and Barrie Wilson, it focused on the period from Jesus's entry into Jerusalem with the waving of palms through to his trial and execution. While three of the gospels accounts suggest a brief period between the two events (though the fourth gospel indicates a longer period), Jacobivici and Wilson are trying to correlate these accounts with other sources from the period. The main points of their theory are that around 6 months separates the Palm  Sunday and Good Friday, and that political issues in Rome and Israel had a significant effect.

Jacobovici and Wilson raised the following questions:

• Why was Jesus not immediately arrested when cleansing the Temple?
• Why did the crowd turn from enthusiastic supporters to calling for his death in just a week?
• Why was Pontius Pilate so eager to release Jesus?

The theory

In AD.31, Tiberius was Roman Emperor, at this time living on the island of Capri. The head of the Praetorian Guard was Sejanus, who effectively reigned in place of Tiberius. S&W suggest that Sejanus had ambitions to become the next Roman Emperor.

Under the will of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas was to succeed him as tetrach (ruler of a quarter) of Galilee and Perea as a client state of Rome, while his elder brother Archelaus became ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria. An earlier will had named Antipas as successor to all the above territories and Antipas petitioned to Rome to this effect, but Emperor Augustus decreed that the later will should stand. S&W suggest that (1) Antipas was still hoping to become King of the whole area, (2) in return for Antipas' support, on becoming Emperor, Sejanus was willing to reallocate territory to Antipas and (3) that there was tension between Antipas and the priests of the Temple over the power of the Temple priesthood and that Jesus (whose followers included people high up in Antipas' court) in his efforts to cleanse the temple was seen as a useful tool. The theory is that these interlocking events stayed the hands of Pilate and the priests.  

The Jewish feast of Tabernacles is held in the autumn, and the cutting and use of palm branches is still used today. S&W propose that the entry into Jerusalem took place then.

During the next months the political scene changed dramatically. Suddenly, at the end of AD 31, Sejanus was arrested and summarily executed. It is suggested that this news caused Pilate and Antipas to avoid being linked to Sejanus' plotting, and that over time, Jesus' followers dropped away as he did not fulfil the kingly Messiah prophecies by delivering them from the rule of Rome.

Good Friday is linked in the gospels with the Jewish feast of Passover, which follows around 6 months later than Tabernacles.

Sejanus is not referenced in the gospels. Under the practice of damnatio memoriae (where the senate or emperor could have an individual's property seized, his name erased and his statues reworked) Sejanus' name was erased from public records and carved inscriptions. While the gospels were written down some decades later (between 40 and 70 years later), it was still illegal to mention him.

Source: Channel 5 documentary 'Last Days of Jesus' broadcast 14th April 2017.