What if Judas didn't do it?

[Rev. Rye]

Right, they hired an informant in this situation, but notice that there was already a plot to kill Jesus. My claim is that this would have taken place by any means available, and betrayal wasn't necessary for it to occur.

He may have just been stoned in the street at the hand of the priests. I agree the story seems to require a sacrificial element (the lamb analogy), therefore suicide and senescence seem unlikely options.

It is unlikely in the extreme that the Sanhedrin would have stone Jesus in the street. For one thing, Jesus hadn’t committed any of the offenses under Mosaic Law that would merit death. For another, capital punishment was virtually non-existent for any offense in Jewish society of that period. For still another, it beggars belief to think that a majority of the rabbis would have voted to kill someone they considered mentally deranged.

Boru

For the record, here's the sort of rules of evidence that the Sanhedrin would be under for capital cases:

• There needed to be two witnesses. They had to be men who knew the law and had legitimate professions, free of either speech impediments or hearing disabilities. They had to see each other and both needed to warn the defendant that they were about to commit a capital offense within mere seconds of the defendant doing it. 
  
• The defendant had to explain in those same couple of seconds that they were aware of the punishment and were going to do it anyway. They also had to start to do it.
  
• There had to be at least 23 judges, and they were to interrogate each witness separately. If the witnesses differed on even the smallest point, their testimonies were thrown out. 
  
• Of those 23 judges, a minimum of 13 had to vote guilty. But if all 23 judges voted to convict, the defendant was to be let go, because if nobody could find any room for doubt, there was something wrong with the court.
  

For the record, Jehovah's Witnesses seem to have a watered down version of this procedure. How well does it work? Well, if you want the sort of record for child abuse that makes the Catholic Church seem as proactive as Chris Hansen, it's going swimmingly. 




As you can imagine, a properly sanctioned execution would be only slightly more common than hens' teeth. Vigilante stonings, maybe, but not one sanctioned by the Sanhedrin.