What The Ancient Justice System Was Like - Living in The Time of Jesus - Crime and Punishment

[Music] my name is earn kiss like oh I teach 20th century history but I've come here to Jerusalem to find out what life was like in the first century there's plenty of security today all over the city but that's nothing new 2,000 years ago temple guards and soldiers converged in Jerusalem's Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus setting in motion the most famous trial of all time but I want to know who all these people are what laws govern their lives and what brought them all together on this fateful night because here we're not only seeing the arrest of Jesus we're seeing what happens when two societies collide at the time the Roman Empire was occupying Judea so in the first century how did the Romans keep the peace among people who had totally different beliefs about law and order I'm in what many believe is the garden of gethsemane the exact place where Jesus was arrested it's hard to know exactly what happened that night but we know that a crowd of soldiers arrived to arrest Jesus and they wanted it done quickly and quietly I'm going to explore with a modern arrest specialist how he would have conducted the operation near Quran is a former commando with the Israeli Special Forces you know imagine that this is the scene of Jesus's and rest and you're running the operation for the Romans how many guys what kind of techniques you would have to have some some regiments outside maybe not very visible standing by for crowd control and then the small force the snatch-and-grab force that's probably built of the informant so someone that he knows someone that he respects and has no front and trusts exactly it's okay like Judas guy like Judas is a perfect informant in a way that he describes the routine here ascribes the area of the operation right this is you do it at night right for maximal tonight of course yeah wait till they're you know tired and the night of the OP which is coming in getting everyone ready getting you know getting into positions they might need a sign and I think that's why maybe he kissed him comes in and kisses him that's a sign this is our man and then they grab him and if something does go wrong I mean if somebody fights back or they're on to them then it's it becomes immediately a noisy op that means the whole contingency has to come in secure the area and ready to fend off maybe crowds maybe the disciples inside that are getting crazy if you see that there's gonna be trouble maybe bring him out here secure him okay and then all the others surround us waiting for the contingency to come in and then we take him out and leave as fast as we can according to the gospel Jesus goes quietly across that Valley he spent a long night awaiting his fate the simmering tension of Roman occupation of the Jewish people had boiled over but the imposition of Roman law affected everyone's life here in the first century the Romans divided their soldiers into legions which were groups of six thousand men they had 30 legions but they were scattered throughout the empire there were only about 500 Roman soldiers regularly stationed in Jerusalem and the local population was estimated at 60,000 Jews so how did they rule I'm on my way to Jordan to find out because they're in a well-preserved ancient city the Roman army has been reconstructed this is the ancient city of jerash and it is magnificent here at the main gates you get a real sense of empire the power and the might of the Romans I'm meeting Stellan Lind who runs a historical reenactment of Roman gladiators and charioteers they would have had their informers to find the guys who made the most trouble and they would arrest them and they would torture them and put them in jail and in the worst case of course have them executed we have this image of the Romans as being so effective so powerful I mean what makes them so affect and what made them this you know ideal fighting force when they attacked they attacked line of the line of the line when nine lines deep and so one line came forward and forth for about eight minutes they went back and their wounds tended to and then the next line came and then the next line came so it was really killing machine you know pretty formidable enemy to fight I think it's time I tried my hand at being a formidable enemy but first I need to learn about my weapons here you have the geladas the sword Gladius having given the name to the word gladiator by the way a short stabbing sword you stab with it you don't fight like that you stab it's very short it is very short because they calculated that for the stabbing technique that they had in fighting that was the best length of the sword they calculated the Romans were very very smart in engineering in into the minutest detail it was very light as well this is the peel on the throwing javelin and let's look at the tip here you know it's little bit like a bullet point here the width of the steel here is just so that it bends when it has penetrated the enemy yeah the idea of wood bending of course is that it makes it impossible for the enemy to use it and throw it back at you that's a one time it's a one time spirit look exactly it really is light yeah exactly and they knew that they were much better equipped and the enemy also knew that which was of course a very very important psychological fact scare the enemy scare the enemy absolutely well I'm ready to get suited up to scare the enemy the Roman army developed many ingenious uses for its shields they weren't only used for protection they'd hit you with and they'd use them in formations such as this for group protection and look at this deadly formation I wouldn't want to find myself facing that so the Romans ruled by intimidation but what are they doing here what do they want I'm on my way to Jerusalem to ask professor of history Joshua Schwartz the Romans are we interested basically in peace and quiet and that people should pay their taxes when they're supposed to if Jews had problems with one another or if they had problems with their neighbor then there was a Jewish court system there was a Jewish legal system and the last thing in the world that they would do would be to turn to a Roman official and to suggest is from that Roman official so it sounds like as long as things weren't let's say political and orientation that the Romans sort of live and let live and let Jewish courts deal with Jewish issues the Romans when they interfered normally they asked you whether you were guilty or innocent and if you said innocent they tortured you until you said guilty and at that point they usually put you to death that the Romans really have a sophisticated understanding of Jewish legal systems the Romans had almost no understanding of what Jewish life was and what Jewish legal life was one of the mistakes that the Romans made was that they considered this neck of the woods to be the same as everybody else but the fact is that the Jews are not in that sense like everybody else religious issues as far as the Jews were concerned made them very very different this difference was the Torah the first five books of the Bible which govern every aspect of Jewish life it's because of a law in the Torah that Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem on that fateful night it was a religious holiday Passover a time when the Torah commands Jews to come to Jerusalem Judaism religion everyday life and politics all overlap because the Torah doesn't differentiate between them I'm meeting with Rabbi Ken Sparrow who's showing me the tour of its contents have not changed in over 3,000 years I want to find out how Jewish law works so the the Torah scroll is the law yes it's it's called the written law so these are the commandments the commandments are in here all the 613 commandments are expressed in the text itself in the 613 are the the mitzvot those are called the mitzvot yes that is the Torah people assume you know Ten Commandments but they're actually 630 so a lot and there's a lot of a lot of details let's say that I steal a goat okay their specific manners there's a whole discussion here about if a person steals property if I steal a goat there's a law which states that not only do I have to return and replace it I have to give an additional goat as a fine in an agricultural society where your animals were extremely important the point of this law would be to discourage stealing the torah's laws cover everything they cover what Jews can eat and cannot eat there's a commandment to rest on the Sabbath and it even tells them how to take eggs from a bird's nest first you must shoe the mother way so she won't have to see her children taken from her there's even a law about writing the law all tourists must be written by hand the Torah is revered by Jews who have lived by its laws even when as in the case of Jesus it brought them into conflict with the occupying power of Rome Jesus often quoted the law he was fulfilling torah obligations on this night before he was arrested he and the disciples ate what is called the Last Supper which was the Passover meal commemorating the exodus out of Egypt the Torah commands every Jew that have a Passover meal and part of that meal had to be some meat from a lamb sacrificed in the temple the Romans must have found all this very strange but as long as the taxes were paid they allowed the life of the temple and its laws to continue behind me you can see the western wall the temple that used to be on the other side of that wall was the most important place in the Jewish world before the Romans destroyed it in the year 70 but the temple wasn't only the spiritual center of Jewish life it was the place where the highest Jewish Court the Sanhedrin would convene I'm with archaeologist and historian Shimon Gibson and we're heading underground to see the place where the Sanhedrin may have met so this is a labyrinth of tunnels and arches and passages ground-level in the first century has been buried by two millennia of building but excavations have revealed buildings that were near the temple and not destroyed I want to find out what effect Roman occupation had on the powers of the Sanhedrin and look at this amazing room okay that science is beautiful it's very well preserved it dates on first century based on the sources it might even be where the Sun her dream sometimes convened so the High Court is for the High Court I wanted to ask you about the the connection between the Sun hundra and the and the high priests the Romans appoint the high priest the high priest was actually appointed by their priesthood but of course on occasion the Romans would intervene they would manipulate things behind the scenes to make sure that they got the candidate that they were quiet how far could they intervene clearly they had a lot of clout in the first century and at times were able to 82 push things the Romans were putting pressure on the high priest and we can see that pressure playing out around the arrest of Jesus the men arresting Jesus are the temple guards who report to the high priest and these Roman soldiers are watching to make sure the situation doesn't get out of hand in the first century conflicting laws put the pressure on everyone whether you were emerge or a messiah I'm in Jerusalem in the garden of gethsemane I'm walking in the actual place where many people believe 2000 years ago Jesus was arrested I'm finding out how the Roman occupation of ancient Israel helped create the tensions which led to this arrest it also led to conflicts for everyone else Jesus was arrested at Passover which celebrates freedom from slavery in Egypt but under Roman occupation Jews were slaves to taxation before the Romans came Jews had taxation mandated by the Torah the law of gleaning for example was a safety net for the poor to try to make sure no one went hungry I'm meeting Joseph get ler who founded Luckett Israel an organization of volunteers who keep alive the law of gleaming gleaning is a biblical imperative which farmers were required to a portion a certain part of their fields for the needy so what we're doing today is a I would call it a modern take on a biblical law and we're working with farmers throughout Israel who allow us to come into their fields and glean fruits and vegetables to distribute it to unfortunately needy people throughout the state Joseph how exactly did did the law apply to 2,000 years ago farmers were required to allow poor people to come in and actually pick the field say a portion meeting set aside a chunk of your land yeah do you know how much it was generally it was about 10 percent of your field how to be left for the poor the gleaming law helped keep the poor from going hungry but because of Roman taxation it also put more pressure on farmers who had less product to sell the most famous Gleaner in history was an ancestor of Jesus her name was Ruth not far from here near Bethlehem she be gleaned in the fields of a man named Boaz they fell in love they had a child and about 40 generations later was Jesus gleaming is a positive commandment one of the thou shalt I also want to find out about the thou shalt nots so I've come to Jerusalem's Mahana Yehuda market to meet rabbi um Tov glazier Yom Tov we're gonna we're in a market and I'm thinking are there must be lots of commandments that apply around here right I mean for example are the prices of things is that you know it is is that ruled by Commandments as well yeah for sure and the idea in general is as you know monotheists is that it's not just that there's one God it's that God is one he's indivisible and this is all going on ultimately this entire world is like a figment of God's imagination a giant video game to see if you and I will treat each other with oneness i Eve win-win so if I'm doing business with you in the show combined buying some produce or something so that yeah there's price issues for example if he can't overcharge me but is that is that that's actually in the commitment that's actually a commandment the camera at the commandment is basically don't steal and in this case it's also the command because you're really stealing in a way if you're taking his money about the market but there's a separate commandment besides stealing and that is not to afflict financially that's over don't take advantage of people financially he can't rip me off but if I still one of these grades well you know there is that old thou shalt not steal one is really a list of you know don't do this don't do that it sounds kind of like that there's nothing arbitrary you'll notice the don'ts are always kind of centered around where people are most selfish which is two parts of the body okay survival and reproduction which we share with the animal kingdom wherever its animal instinct stuff so you'll notice a lot of negative Commandments don't do this don't do that don't do that when your animal hasn't taken over the soul okay so it's about that balance you see being that balance so like the Sabbath there's a lot of don't dues the commandment to keep the Sabbath may explain why Jesus was arrested on what scholars believe was a Thursday he couldn't be arrested the next day because Jewish courts could not meet on the Sabbath which begins at sundown on Friday but what is the reason behind this day of rest the Sabbath is a biggie because it's one of the most fundamental principles in Judaism that God created the world and observing the Sabbath as a way that the Jewish people individually and collectively throughout history have basically one day a week bore witness to what is the most fun this most fundamental of concepts 2,000 years ago how was the the Shabbat observed you could stoke your stove up prior to the Sabbath but once it went cold it was out you can light your lamps but once they burned out that was it you know but more or less it was the same thing certainly in agrarian societies as a huge innovation we stopped working and the world works without us because God runs the world ultimately and we should be using one day a week to focus on that and to grow spiritually and to get out of the rat race is Friday today and much as they did in the first century religious Jews are preparing for the Sabbath honoring the fourth commandment remember the Sabbath and keep it holy Jews followed their laws and the Romans imposed theirs keeping a close eye on these people who took time off from work for their Sabbath to the Roman way of thinking this could be trouble giving the Jews too much time to think about who is now running their land I want to learn more about how the laws of the Sabbath were followed then and now so I'm headed to the home of Shoshanna and rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein the Sabbath is always welcomed with a meal and I'm here to help out we're gonna make this is one of the laws governing Shabbat is that all meals even on this holy day from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday must be made before the Sun Goes Down on Friday night and there are 39 specified activities that one cannot do once the Sun Goes Down every Friday I always thought this was only because one didn't work on the Sabbath but there's more to it than that there's the work of creation the whole day is you want to simple like God God says I rest on a Saturday I didn't create on Saturday but be like me don't do work of creation so to do work that pick up a chair I'm allowed okay so I can't draw a picture exactly okay we know we're going to run the problems will prevent like we go into our kitchen you open that refrigerator you go you unscrew the lights like bolt that when you open the refrigerator you don't create that and you've done mr. Sabbath dinner no God forbid let's say for some reason the normal schedule can't on the fault it must you must have a show those look fantastic all the Romans cared about was that the Jews stayed orderly and paid their taxes but they knew the Jews would not compromise on their sacred laws which had to be followed but if they weren't followed what were the punishments I'm in Israel learning all about law and order and crime and punishment in the time of the Bible in this famous scene from the Gospels Jesus gets caught between two systems of law and order the Jewish authorities and the Roman occupiers who eventually pass sentence under Jewish law there was also capital punishment but the Romans took away the right of the Jewish Court to carry it out many of the Jewish laws called for the penalty of flogging if they were broken why this form of punishment we know that after his arrest and before his crucifixion Jesus was flogged on the orders of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate so flogging was both a Roman and a Jewish punishment but what were the differences I know I'm gonna regret this but I'm on my way to experience a first-century Jewish vlogging today prisons serve as both deterrent and punishment but they weren't so common around here 2,000 years ago punishments such as flogging were meant to keep people in line I'm meeting rabbi battery because he knows flogging he's even had this flogging device made based on the texts okay rabbi this looks mean what exactly is this is Elemis a Sumi oh sure sure the total is emotional never say you D no less - am I so manly looking does it take on one shoulder mo that's that's like a cleric all this betting but Kim is missing comma damage to Gary's ball she wrote a katakana off a this doc come on Masuka Rotterdam nicob every season and if she comes in oh yeah was a [ __ ] this doesn't go on today love Jim Carrey I made a new bed Dean I don't send it in they were to make it dance is on the train in a little team Jeremy told the Dean I want to see it in action can you give me a good demonstration shake of the ha thank you lot of sick in the poor thing [Music] why don't you do it sucks shared a young-hee Aikido my name is have been at all do should yeah okay [ __ ] you because shot you know some little hostile [ __ ] is kid but you guys it'll work a chemical well I wanted to know what life was like in the first century so here goes it it's hard not to be serious when you're getting whipped and never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be in Jerusalem being flogged in a synagogue by rabbis never never could so first century Jewish flogging had remorse and repentance as it's cool it had certain humane elements but try telling that to my back the doctor made sure you could take it and only 39 lashes with this donkey rocks with were allowed Roman flogging was a little different it's believed that the whip used on Jesus had metal ends to tear the flesh and Rome had no law limiting the amount of lashes not to mention the distinct absence of a doctor Rome utilized flogging to prolonged suffering before crucifixion but why was this form of capital punishment utilized I'm meeting New Testament expert Helen bond to find out how usual or common place was the idea of crucifixion crucifixion was fairly common and the Romans were pretty good at crucifying people I mean certainly after a major Wars and insurrection z' there were crosses lining the road for a long way well would have a very sobering effect on the populace right to see that kind of a kind of obvious act of Roman power that's right it is designed to be visual it's designed to be as humiliating and shameful as possible with crucifixions you know they always keep their loin cloth on but of course that the person was actually naked it was deeply humiliating it took a long time for the person to die and they would have put a copy of the charge up above the cross so that everybody could see you know this is what this guy's done and if you do the same you'll get the same kind of penalty the threat of crucifixion seems like the ultimate law-and-order deterrent but it was carried out quite a bit Rome's squeeze the populace with heavy taxes backing up the threat with the ultimate punishment just like today people in biblical times had mixed feelings about paying lots of taxes it depended where the money was going and if you could tell where the money was going when King Herod ruled here and did his massive building projects like expanding the Temple in Jerusalem Jews could see where their tax money was going King Herod was Jewish but he was appointed by Rome over 2,000 years ago he built that wall Herod tax the population heavily but he balanced the interests of both cultures he died around the time Jesus was born and a period of direct Roman rule by governor's such as Pontius Pilate began the delicate balance was over I'm heading south from Jerusalem to Herodium one of the fortresses built by King Herod and where he is buried Herod built these fortresses because he knew the delicate balance between Jewish and Roman law wouldn't last and that revolution would an incredible fortress Herodium is built into a hill it's invisible from the road and has its own water system in case it came under siege from here the Roman appointed King of the Jews punish people in the name of Rome Rome was not only imposing its long order on the local Jewish population it also had problems with its own governors who operated far away from the center of power to learn more I'm meeting with Alex Jacobsen he's written about the political system of the Roman Empire one of the main problems was that beyond what you had to pay Caesar you had to pay the local officials being a governor in a faraway province was a way to get rich for many people they would just extort and take money sell judicial decisions and simply you know use riots as protects for widespread the confiscation robbery and such themselves its corruption its corruption out of sight out of mind if you're in a remote province that's their retirement it was certainly yeah that was very often the case so the central government was interested in preventing excessive oppression and excessive extortion and understanding that these were the things that would drive people to rebellion so even if they cooperated with Rome the Jewish people were still being fleeced by local Roman corruption and I've heard that when it came to punishment the Romans were very creative what other kind of punishments to know that the Romans impose but crucifixion was the worst of course it would being decapitated was much easier sometimes so people were thrown to the Lions and all kinds of grow some things so this is what law-and-order is like in the Holy Land in the first century but how did Jews react to the imposition of Roman law there was a range of reactions from acceptance to deadly rebellion under Roman occupation of first century Israel the way it was supposed to work was that internal Jewish law will deal with Jewish issues and Rome would only intervene when there is a threat to peace quiet the collection of taxes but it wasn't so simple because of the Holy Temple that used to be behind that wall the western wall the high priest was responsible for maintaining order in the temple but Rome exerted plenty of influence on him the high priests cooperation with Rome led to grey areas of jurisdiction which affected both the daily life of the temple and the fate of Jesus but whose Lord Jesus break some say he committed heresy which as religious law was a Jewish matter some say it was insurrection or sedition which Rome considered its turf but if Jesus called himself the Messiah that was a gray area was it religious or did it affect the peace and quiet by gathering followers and saying the kingdom of God was at hand Jesus was someone who got everyone's attention the Romans didn't want anyone talking about any other kingdom than theirs and anything that threatened the fragile peace worried the priests who needed the Romans to leave the temple alone so they could keep fulfilling their holy functions so the high priest had a good reason to cooperate with his Roman occupiers the priestly class he belonged to was called the Sadducees they were only one among many Jewish sects and I'm going to find out about the others and their reactions to Roman law and order there's all kinds of different groups within first century Judaism and all with very different ideas of what it means to be Jewish so you have um that the Sadducees who are mainly linked to the temple they're the aristocratic priests then you have the Pharisees and these are ones who are very keen to keep the law very strictly though debated some scholars believe Jesus himself was a Pharisee then there were the Essenes this Jewish sect believed in the coming of the kingdom of God and they wrote about it here in Qumran by the Dead Sea and what are some of the oldest documents ever found the Dead Sea Scrolls I'm with author and biblical experts James Tabor to find out more about this Jewish sect and to see the actual place where they hid their scrolls from the Romans you've heard of Pharisees and Sadducees in the Bible the Essenes aren't mentioned but they're a radical apocalyptic group they're waiting for God to destroy the Romans and this is where the squirrels were actually found take a look wow that's a pretty tight fit change do people go into well believe it or not very few people go in here it's not a tourist spot but you're allowed to go and you should I go in take a look get an idea okay questions can I exit are you it's been as a nesting they must have been pretty nimble and pretty pretty tough I'm thinking of the Gazelle goat come this is really rocky in history among the contents of the Dead Sea scrolls were passages from the Bible the Essenes who lived here in seclusion believed their interpretation of Jewish law was the correct one to live simply and spiritually away from others who they believed did not live according to the law they also wrote about war describing a battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness among Jesus's disciples there may have been Essenes as well as radicals belonging to other Jewish sects who would end up fighting this war in Greek the disciples simon zealotes last name means zealot the zealots believed that God alone is the ruler of Israel and that the Romans must be expelled some say Simon was a member of this nationalist group and among the zealots were a sect which utilized extreme tactics they were called the Sicari named after the short Roman dagger the Sica that they hid in the folds of their robes they attacked their enemies without warning then blended back into the crowd the Gospels tell us that when Jesus is arrested his disciple Peter pulls out a knife and cuts off the ear of one of the temple guards we don't know that Peter was a Sakaki but he was handy with a knife some scholars say Judas Iscariot was also a member of this group and his name means Judas the Sicari maybe Judas thought Jesus wasn't revolutionary enough the war of the zealots against the Romans culminated right here at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem with the Jews barricaded inside and as these people are locked and encased in in Jerusalem with with the Romans outside the Romans come into Jerusalem they burn down the outer parts of Jerusalem and the temple itself is burnt to the ground destroyed and that was a terrible terrible moment for for Jews in the first century and and still for Jews it's a terrible thing that happened because there are all kinds of different ways of being Jewish in the first century but the thing that holds everybody together is a Jewish law and the temple and when the temple goes nobody can understand it you know how do you explain that how did let the temple be destroyed these stones were part of the temple wall destroyed by the Romans so today you can still see the evidence of that biblical clash between two systems of law and order according to the Gospels Jesus foresaw the destruction of the temple ironically the sequence of events that followed his arrest may have been partially responsible for the actions that culminated right here so how did the trial and sentencing of Jesus take place on that fateful Passover and if you were an average citizen in those times what message are we being given by the whole process well this is where it all happened on Passover Jewish pilgrims from all over the Middle East and Beyond would have come right here they would have walked up these actual steps to the temple so what was it really like in the first century here I'm gonna meet with Helen bond and she'll set the scene Jews from all over the place are converging into what's really quite a small city it's a huge pilgrimage people have journeyed long ways they've they've come here with their families they've given up work for a week two weeks possibly even more and there would have been a huge festival atmosphere celebrating celebrating coming out of Egypt liberation during festivals such as Passover pilgrims to Jerusalem swelled the local population to hundreds of thousands from a law-and-order perspective in life if I were a Roman I think it was probably Romans worst nightmare Pontius Pilate and the three thousand Roman soldiers stationed with him at Caesarea also made the trip just in case there was trouble its national liberation from bondage but the difficulty is that here they are in Jerusalem and they just need to look up on top of the temple and they'd see road soldiers stationed there must have struck them as being a huge irony one of the reasons why the governor comes to Jerusalem specifically at the Passover is because it's such a security nightmare the Jewish author Josephus says that nearly all that the riots that we know about happened at Passover so this is sort of unknown time for riots rebellions but the soldiers are vastly outnumbered by the pilgrims so what's the Roman strategy they're fine for a fairly small scale uprising but there's always gonna be a need to sort of nip things in the bud you know to make sure that that any kind of riot doesn't escalate because once it escalates then it's it's too big for the Roman governor to cope with and he's got to contact his superiors and that all looks bad on him because his his main duty in the province is to maintain law and order where do you cross the line if you're a Jew to bring the Romans in I think as soon as somebody starts attracting large numbers of people it's just that uncertainty as to what's gonna happen Romans never liked congregations of people they were always slightly disturbed by that if people are stopping doing their work in their gathering and there's any potential for a riot then that's when the the Romans start to take notice of what's happening so kicking over the the moneychangers table is that a violation of Roman law it was a sign that this was a troublemaker and particularly when he did that with a following this is a man who you need to watch and he's doing something for evocative and he might go somewhere else and do something brought a scale and that's in the boat approach to it and that's where pilot comes in well according to the Gospels it's the chief priests who who make the decision that they want to have him arrested and they're going to pass him over to the Roman governor because the chief priests also had to make sure that law and order was maintained so the temple guards arrest Jesus and take him to the home of the high priest Caiaphas Shimon Gibson and I are now overlooking the valley Jesus crossed when he was taken from the Garden of Gethsemane this church of st. Peter was built next to a house dated to the 1st century and we're heading there now so here we're going to step back 2,000 years to the 1st century and we're going to enter into a house that exists at the time of Jesus and is in the general vicinity of the traditional house of Caiaphas step inside I'll take off my hat so this is the real deal I mean this is this is a house from the time of Jesus Christ exactly I mean here you're inside the internal courtyard you have this depression in which they would place their their charcoal and be able to have a little fire going it fits in very well with the story of Peter who is following Jesus and so who's being taken away by the soldiers and his brought to the house of Caiaphas and he comes in to the courtyards and he sees that the soldiers were warming their hands at the fire so this really sort of serves a good purpose of illustrating that the point of that story so when they bring Jesus here where do they put him he's here overnight so he was probably placed into one of the work cut chambers which exists at beneath the structure this was a common practice at that time this is a subterranean chamber beneath this house from the first century so it's likely that it would have been in a place such as this but more likely in a sort of dark cavity such as this one over here you see it's really quite dark in here and so they would have just tossed him back exactly they would have got rid of him kept him in there until he was led away for his trial Jesus is brought before the high priests for questioning but they soon hand him over to Pontius Pilate who serves as judge and jury so what was the church a couple of the Gospels suggest that blasphemy was the charge and certainly acting or doing anything against the temple could have been seen as blasphemous because it's such a holy place another couple of the Gospels suggest that it was simply the charge of leading people astray or being a false prophet and those are very broad charges that could be interpreted in a number of different ways but probably they didn't really need a specific charge anyway because they're intending passing him over to Pilate clearly they would have to give Pilate a list of the things that Jesus had done so were there any other sort of considerations that Pilate would it have Pilate would probably have have spent very little time on the case I think he would have simply heard from the chief priests what Jesus had been doing maybe interviewed him himself very briefly just got some sort of measure of the man and also get an idea of whether he had to get rid of the followers as well or whether just getting rid of Jesus was going to be enough and I think he would have sent him for crucifixion with barely a second source it was nothing like trials today and the sentence was carried out the next morning unlike the stealthy arrests once the suspect was in custody and the sentence carried out the punishment was meant to be seen by everyone whatever crime Jesus was charged with when he was arrested the eventual charged nailed to his cross was King of the Jews suggesting he referred to himself this way which Rome would see as treason since it appointed Kings around here before Jesus was born Rome have given the title king of the Jews to Herod shamone Knight have now arrived at where Herod's Palace was located it was right behind these walls the palace was later used by Pontius Pilate when he was in Jerusalem so are we in the place where Pilate tried and sentenced Jesus well he's a lead way in the early hours of the Friday morning and brought to the seat of Pontius Pilate it sewer situated archaeologically speaking behind these walls and in front of this wall these remains were uncovered and there was a gate here and it must have been a grand spectacle these walls are massive and you can imagine the Assembly of people here based on the archaeological finds here shamone has made this drawing of what it would have looked like in the time of Jesus so here you can see the well keeper True Parents in that area and that situated over there which is actually referred to in the Gospel of John as gabato which is a Hebrew word meaning rocky outcrop and then on the right you had an area of pavement and this is referred to also in the Gospel of John as the Lysistrata which means in Greek stone pavement these two topographical features are referred to in the Gospel of John so it's it's probable that this is where Jesus was brought out right here before the public yes I think this is the place of the trial so Jesus is imprisoned in the barracks he is let out into this area here into this area of a courtyard the crowds are able to observe our proceedings and for Pilate the messages I'm in charge and here's what happens if you defy Roman law he wants to make a point he wants to say to those crowds look I'm going to be crucifying this guy I don't want any more problems during the Passover period and you'll see the cross next to the world leading out of Jerusalem and you'll know you'll remember you'll remember that I do not want any more disturbances within a city and this is Roman law and order plain and simple and that's how the Romans conducted their business if you lived here at the time and heard what happened Jesus you would have received a pretty strong message about law order and the consequences of opposing Rome Jesus is the one we've heard about but in the Land of Israel under Roman occupation thousands of Jews were crucified by the empire which wanted to subdue the citizens into paying a punishing amount of tax so what was daily life like for the Jews after the crucifixion of Jesus and the destruction of the temple hundreds of thousands had been either killed or enslaved but there were still some members of the zealots and Sakaki alive they were living here at Masada Parrott had fortified this place to fight potential rebels but the Jewish rebels defeated the small Roman garrison stationed here the Jews took over Masada but in the Year 73 the Romans returned with six thousand soldiers and set up camp to fight the 960 Jewish rebels the last ones left to defend the Jewish law I'm with guy Stiebel who is excavated here at Masada and we're walking through what used to be the Roman camp this is the best preserved Roman siege system in the entire Roman Empire and if you want an example for the long hand of the law of the Roman law they went all the way to the middle of the desert and just imagines it's on both sides you'll have tents you have eight games all around Masada and this was a statement see us we're here and it's a sort of a propaganda we're coming to get you exactly but Masada is not only the place where a battle occurred it's a place where people lived because all communities rich people poor people fled to Masada so we have clusters of rooms it's like you can seize different communities I can identify areas where women for example set and weave we found a bakery we can see least of various provisions where the food was stored who brought the water so we can speak about life at Masada yes death will come at the end of the days but I think the stronger things that you can see here is people fought to live so how did the 960 Jewish rebels fight back they had the high ground and could drop huge stones on the Romans what you see is actually genuine Rolling Stones I mean though my favorite type of weapon if you wish this was a Jewish answer for the Romans superiority using the artillery they just roughly shaped huge stone you can try me with one you need here's the trick here look how heavy the but the Romans were building a ramp in a siege tower and constructing a battering ram to break down the wall that separated them from the Jewish zealots it was four decades after the death of Jesus and the exact same time of year the festival of Passover the idea was to drink a siege tower top of which they have a battering ram and these are the most important 15 metres that's what the entire duration was for for this place so god this must have been a frightening thing to see this giant Tower coming up this ramp 2,000 years ago on the eve of Passover it was nightmare the noise the smoke the shouts a crowd they Muse at once they managed to bring these things up they're doomed once the tower was up and the many to bridge the war then they discovered the Jews built another world secondary war made of soil and beams against which the battering ram is not effective but you can use torches with fire when the night came it went up in flames what are their options are surrounded are we going to die as free people or by the sword of the Romans they summon all the men and what happened is that they decide to commit suicide there are women and children here huh according to Josephus adultery was made means they draw lots 10 men were chosen to go through the people and to do the act and then commit suicide just imagine the Romans are breaking into this side dead silence literally dead silence and what we hear is that they shout and suddenly two women and five kids come out of one of the boot assistance that scattered around the side and they told the story about the occurrences of that night before the rebels died here at Masada they lived according to Jewish laws as long as they could the last vestiges of uprising were over it wasn't peace but it was quiet when it came to law and order in first century Judea on one side there was Roman power and on the other there were the Jews with their traditions their laws one side never had a chance that side turned out to be Romans their empire their power did not last but the Jewish group whose leader was arrested in Gethsemane ended up becoming the biggest religion in the world with one of its spiritual centers in Rome as for the rest of the Jewish people their culture is still here the temple had been destroyed but it wasn't the only center of Jewish life the Torah the law was and still is you

Channel: TOP BOX TV

Views: 56,811

Keywords: time of jesus, history, hidden history of, living in the time of jesus, living in the time of jesus of nazareth, time of the bible, bible timeline, what it was like to live 2000 years ago, syndicado tv, syndicado, birth of chris, birth of christ bible story, birth of christianity documentary, history doc, history documentary hd, Arne Kislenko, historian, 2000 years ago, crime and punishment, history of crime, history of the world, justice was served

Id: VhjY5uKPPqw

Length: 50min 4sec (3004 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020