Quote:It might be plausible, given the supposed deference Pilate gave to the Jews in Christ's arrest & conviction that, contrary to the common Roman practice of guarding the crucified to prevent their removal, some deference in the disposition of his body was given.
Of course, those accounts could have been cast in such a way as to make Pilate look innocent and the jews guilty. Certainly that has been a common xtian theme down through the centuries.
If you take the position that this jesus-shit got going in the middle of the 2d century it just so happens to be the time when the Jews had lost the 3d of 3 revolts and been relegated to the Roman permanent shit list.
