Judea affront

IN UPDATING the story of Jesus’ passion, the organisers of the Edinburgh Passion (“Yes or No: where would Jesus put his cross?”, 11 February) seem to believe that it was “Herod” who ruled Judea at the time and had Jesus killed.

Although several of Herod the Great’s sons carried the name “Herod”, none ruled Judea at the time.

Since the year 6AD it had been under direct Roman rule and it was the procurator Pontius Pilate who signed Jesus’ death warrant on behalf of Rome.

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Transplanting the story to modern Scotland makes no sense, in particular because democracy was known to neither Jews nor Romans.

The struggle in Judea was between conflicting religious groups, some of them militant, and a brutal occupying power.

It is true that the Jewish authorities, with Roman oversight, were always on the alert for troublemakers, but they would hardly have noticed Jesus if he hadn’t forced them to take notice.

In the end, what he did made no difference to his country.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh

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