Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

asks.
    That is precisely how they’ve come for him. John’s gospel claims a “cohort” (
speira
) of soldiers marched to Gethsemane—a unit that would comprise between three hundred
     and six hundred Roman guards—along with the Temple police, all of them carrying “torches
     and weapons” (John 18:3). John is obviously exaggerating. But the gospels all agree
     it was a large and heavily armed arresting party that came for Jesus in the night.
     Such a show of force may explain why, before heading off to Gethsemane, Jesus made
     sure his followers were armed as well.
    “If you do not have a sword,” Jesus instructs his disciples immediately after the
     Passover meal, “go sell your cloak and buy one.”
    “Master,” the disciples respond, “here are two swords.”
    “It is enough,” Jesus says (Luke 22:36–38).
    It would not be. After a brief but bloody tussle with his disciples, the guards arrest
     Jesus and bring him to the authorities in Jerusalem, where he is charged with sedition
     for, among other things, “forbidding the paying of tribute to Rome,” a charge that
     Jesus does not deny (Luke 23:2).
    Declared guilty, Jesus is sent to Golgotha to be crucified alongside two other men
     who are specifically called
lestai
, bandits (Matthew 27:38–44; Mark 15:27). As with every criminal who hangs on a cross,
     Jesus is given a plaque, or
titulus
, detailing the crime forwhich he is being crucified. Jesus’s
titulus
reads KING OF THE JEWS . His crime: striving for kingly rule;
sedition
. And so, like every bandit and revolutionary, every rabble-rousing zealot and apocalyptic
     prophet who came before or after him—like Hezekiah and Judas, Theudas and Athronges,
     the Egyptian and the Samaritan, Simon son of Giora and Simon son of Kochba—Jesus of
     Nazareth is executed for daring to claim the mantle of king and messiah.
    To be clear, Jesus was not a member of the Zealot Party that launched the war with
     Rome, because no such party could be said to exist for another thirty years after
     his death. Nor was Jesus a violent revolutionary bent on armed rebellion, though his
     views on the use of violence were far more complex than it is often assumed.
    But look closely at Jesus’s words and actions at the Temple in Jerusalem—the episode
     that undoubtedly precipitated his arrest and execution—and this one fact becomes difficult
     to deny: Jesus was crucified by Rome because his messianic aspirations threatened
     the occupation of Palestine, and his zealotry endangered the Temple authorities. That
     singular fact should color everything we read in the gospels about the messiah known
     as Jesus of Nazareth—from the details of his death on a cross in Golgotha to the launch
     of his public ministry on the banks of the Jordan River.

Chapter Seven
The Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness
    John the Baptist came out of the desert like an apparition—a wild man clothed in camel
     hair, a leather belt tied around his waist, feeding on locusts and wild honey. He
     traveled the length of the Jordan River—through Judea and Peraea, in Bethany and Aenon—preaching
     a simple and dire message: The end was near. The Kingdom of God was at hand. And woe
     to those Jews who assumed their descent from Abraham would save them from the coming
     judgment.
    “Already, the ax is laid at the root of the tree,” John warned, “and every tree that
     does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire.”
    To the wealthy who came to him seeking counsel, John said, “The one with two tunics
     must share with he who has none; the one with food must do the same.”
    To the tribute collectors who asked him the path to salvation, he said, “Do not exact
     more than that which has been prescribed to you.”
    To the soldiers who begged for guidance, he said, “Do not intimidate, do not blackmail,
     and be content with your wages.”
    Word of the Baptist spread quickly throughout the land. People came from as far as
     Galilee, some traveling for days through the stark Judean wilderness to hear him preach
     at the lip of the Jordan River. Once there, they would strip off their outer garments
     and cross over to the eastern shore, where John waited to take them by the hand. One
     by one, he would immerse them in the living waters. When they emerged, they would
     cross back to the western shore of the Jordan River—as their ancestors had done a
     thousand years earlier—back to the land promised them by God.