The Jesus Papers

Reply sent to CBC's "The National" re. The Jesus Papers:

Michael Baigent appears to rely too much on our ability to know Pilate's motives from almost 2000 years away, i.e. that he would NEVER crucify a man who told people to pay their taxes (assuming Pilate even knew this of Jesus), even if there were other factors to consider. The Gospels depict Pilate as not eager to execute Jesus, but merely *willing* to in the face of a potential riot. His goal of keeping the peace appears to have outweighed the other concern. Is that so unbelievable?

And how would secretly "getting rid of", but not killing Jesus help keep the taxes rolling in? If the Jews were going to conclude from a real crucifixion that "oh, I guess the Romans don't want their taxes anymore", why wouldn't they conclude the same from a faked execution?

FYI re. the presenters' closing comments: Mary Magdalene is never described as a (former) prostitute in the Bible itself; that is a tradition that arose later. I point this out merely to indicate that sometimes people think they have critiqued the Bible, when it is actually later tradition they have attacked. (I'm not aware that Baigent himself makes this specific error about Mary, however.)