What if the Romans hadn't killed Jesus?

[Cyberman]

Disclaimer: This topic is purely hypothetical, at least as far as I'm concerned. I do not acknowledge that any of the JC story represents genuine historical events, and nothing I write on the subject should be interpreted otherwise. Right, now that's out of the way...

Since we're on the run-up to Easter, I thought - perhaps erroneously - that this might be a subject worth chewing over. It's often been said that xtianity stands or falls on the resurrection; an event (supernatural or otherwise) that could only have happened because the character was tried and condemned by the Roman authorities. Did the Romans have any free will in the matter, given that this 'sacrifice' was supposed to be Yahweh's plan for humanity? If they did, what would have happened to a) the plan and b) xtianity as a religion if they'd either locked him up, let him off with a caution or simply ignored him altogether? Would the magic and the miracles have been enough on their own?

[max-greece]

Mithras would have been the largest religion in the world.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

He probably would have died of syphilis.

I mean, hanging out with prostitutes before antibiotics? Fool was crazy.

[Cyberman]

He could probably cure himself with a touch though. Probably explains what he was doing in that tomb for nearly three days: "No, don't roll the rock away! I'm uh... I'm healing myself! Yeah, that's it; that's what I'm doing!"

[Anomalocaris]

If the romans didn't kill Jesus, those who would be Christians would have found some other malcontent to resurrect into another similar bullshit cult turned religion.

[Godlesspanther]

Then they would be worshipping some other bloody dead guy.

[Minimalist]

If they did, what would have happened to a) the plan and b) xtianity as a religion if they'd either locked him up, let him off with a caution or simply ignored him altogether?

Oh, you mean like this?

But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus (for he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was? and whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and dismissed him.

Josephus, The Jewish War Book VI

[Cyberman]

Exactly like that. The babbling homeless, just as today, tended to be pitied and avoided; not nailed up.

[Confused Ape]

Jesus wasn't unique in that time period as far as miracle stories go.

Hanina ben Dosa

Hanina ben Dosa (1st century, CE) (Hebrew: חנינא בן דוסא‎) was a scholar and miracle-worker, and the pupil of Johanan ben Zakkai (Berakhot, 34b). He is buried in the City of Arraba.

Arraba is in Galilee

Honi ha-M'agel

Honi Ha-Ma'agel (חוני המעגל Khoni, Choni, or Ḥoni, HaMa'agel), (lit. Honi the Circle-Drawer) (1st century BC) was a Jewish scholar prior to the age of the tannaim, the scholars from whose teachings the Mishnah was derived.

During the 1st century BC, a variety of religious movements and splinter groups developed amongst the Jews in Judea. A number of individuals claimed to be miracle workers in the tradition of Elijah and Elisha, the ancient Jewish prophets. The Talmud provides some examples of such Jewish miracle workers, one of whom is Honi ha-Ma'agel, who was famous for his ability to successfully pray for rain.

Jewish Encyclopedia - Exorcism

Josephus ("Ant." viii. 2, § 5) relates:

"I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian and his sons and his captains and the whole multitude of his soldiers.

Ancient Miracle Stories

Apollonius of Tyana is supposed to performed an exorcism and brought a girl back from the dead.

Jesus would have been just one of many if he hadn't been crucified and his followers claimed he'd been resurrected.

[Anomalocaris]

Jesus would have been just one of many if he hadn't been crucified and his followers claimed he'd been resurrected.

I suspect Jesus was one of the many. The fact that it was his cult and not the cult of one of the others in the many that survived is mostly a contingent outcome unrelated to Jesus himself or anything attributed to Jesus. Paul probably had more to do with the success of Jesus cult than anytthing else.