Killing Jesus: A History

inside the city walls. Those attempting to escape were promptly crucified, and their crosses left on the surrounding heights for the residents of Jerusalem to witness the fate that awaited them. Thousands were eventually nailed to the cross during the siege, so many that the Romans ran out of wood. Trees had to be logged and carried to Jerusalem from miles away in order to accommodate the tremendous number of crucifixions. Some of those who tried to flee were not crucified but were instead sliced open so that Roman soldiers could scour their digestive tracts because it was thought that many of Jerusalem’s residents had swallowed their gold before trying to make their escape.
    When the Romans finally breached the city walls, the destruction was total. Those Jews who didn’t escape were put to the sword or enslaved. The Temple itself was burned to the ground, and much of the city was leveled. To this day, it has never been rebuilt.
    Recent excavations have dug down through the rubble to locate some of the actual streets and homes of Jesus’s time, allowing visitors to walk in his footsteps and examine what life was like in Jerusalem. Of note is that the Via Dolorosa 4 wasn’t established until centuries later and was not in existence during Jesus’s lifetime.
    The real path that Jesus walked began at Herod’s palace, near what is now the Jaffa Gate. It ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is thought to have been built atop the site of Golgotha and near Jesus’s tomb. Today visitors can not only tour these sites, but also touch the place where the cross of Jesus is said once to have rested.
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    In A.D. 132, with the city of Jerusalem still not completely rebuilt, there was a second uprising against the Romans known as Bar Kochba. The emperor Hadrian had originally been sympathetic to the Jews, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. But he soon changed his mind, preferring to reinvent the Temple as a splendid pagan complex dedicated to himself and the Roman god Jupiter. Hadrian not only banned the Jews from rebuilding but also began deporting them to Egypt and North Africa. The Jewish rebellion grew to such proportions that Judea became a main focus of the Roman army’s war efforts, with complete legions sent to suppress the revolt. Not only were almost six hundred thousand Jews slaughtered and almost a thousand villages leveled by its end, but worship practices such as reading the Torah, performing circumcisions, and observing Sabbath were outlawed.
    For the next several centuries, the Jews of Judea were routinely persecuted, even as the Roman Empire embraced Christianity starting in the fourth century. In A.D. 637, Muslim forces defeated the Byzantine and predominantly Christian army that occupied Jerusalem. The Muslims later built a mosque on the site of the former Jewish Temple. As long as it remains there, Jewish hopes of rebuilding the Temple on the original site will remain unrealized. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the nearby shrine known as the Dome of the Rock have stood since 705 and 691, respectively.
    After its destruction by the Romans, Jerusalem became a rundown city. But over the centuries, the Jews have returned, despite several attempts to drive them out. As recently as 1948, the Jordanian army flushed every Jew from the old city, killing all those who would not leave. Finally, at the conclusion of the Six-Day War, on June 10, 1967, more than two thousand years after its destruction by the Romans, all of Jerusalem was once again in Jewish hands.
    It is interesting to note that in many parables, Jesus of Nazareth predicted harsh things for the city of Jerusalem. There is no question those things came true.

POSTSCRIPT
    Both Martin Dugard and I learned a tremendous amount while researching and writing this book. But one intriguing question and a profound statement of fact stand out. First, the question: Why did thousands of common people seek out Jesus of Nazareth? Most couldn’t even hear him preach, as the vast crowds that surrounded Jesus were too thick for personal interaction. So why did they come? What was Jesus doing that prompted so many people to set aside their daily labor to be near him?
    Christians attribute Jesus’s popularity to his message of love, hope, and truth but also to his miraculous healings. But even nonbelievers must admit that something extraordinary was happening in Galilee.
    Second, there is no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is