The time was early in the first century. By the best accounts and calculations, Jesus Christ was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem sometime around 29 - 30 AD. His immediate group of followers experienced His unheard of resurrection from the dead three days after His execution by the Roman authorities outside the walls of Jerusalem.

As important as the life and ministry of Jesus Christ was and still is to the Christian faith, if any one of us had been living in Palestine during the first half of the first century, the life of Jesus Christ would have probably not been that notable in the public eye. The amount of His notoriety would have rarely if ever, drawn the attention of the press of our day on a very regular basis. Jesus of Nazareth was one of many typical itinerate preachers and indigenous healers found throughout the Galilean and Judean regions during that era.     

Jesus was one of many “Christs” who had appeared in the Jewish Palestinian community in a time frame from 50 BC – 70 AD. For someone to proclaim them self to be a “Christ” meant that they were the exclusively anointed one of God, sent to redeem Israel politically from its Roman captors and dominators. Most Jews living in the days of Jesus thought that redemption was only going to be political in nature, and only looked for a deliverer from the oppressive and tyrannical rule of the Roman Empire.

However, there was a small contingency of Jews who really understood the messianic expectations of the Old Testament prophets. They realized that the real intent of the coming messiah would be for all mankind to be delivered from the bondage of sin and spiritual wickedness in the world, and not necessarily to be a political redeemer..

The concept of a spiritual Messiah was not common to most Jewish belief systems. The Essenes were an outcast apocalyptic male Jewish cult that lived on the edge of the Dead Sea. Seeing themselves as soldiers of God, the Essenes spent their days strengthening their bodies and souls in anticipation of the battle that was to come. [1]

 The Essenes had written prophetically of a pair of Messiahs that would come together as a priest (spiritual) and as a king (militarily). Such prophetic utterances were generally confined to their own fellowship and their private libraries. So the general Jewish population of Galilee and Judea were not highly exposed to that form of theological thought.         

There were many messianic figures, even such as John the Baptist, who wandered the Palestinian hillsides with a band of disciples and followers, often seeking to arouse a political and/or a pseudo spiritual revival amongst the population of the highly suppressed nation of Israel. Many taught counter cultural ideals and instigated riots and uprisings against the Roman rule and the religious precedents already in force within the Jewish state. The potential of Jesus Christ’s true messiahship probably made Him blend in with several others who made or insinuated very similar claims.   

Many first century Jews died needlessly supporting their false messiahs in out-numbered militant excursions and attempts against the Roman Empire that ruled them politically by the sword. When a city or province was considered to be “ruled by the sword” it was generally indicative of the mentality of its inhabitants. When the citizens of such an area rose up in rebellion or some other disturbance of the Roman rule over them, they were generally executed by the sword or by crucifixion immediately without a hearing or a trial.

The Romans generally used crucifixion as a primary method of killing notorious criminals, but they were not above simply slaying a resistor or known antagonist to established Roman authority. The Jewish community general used the act of stoning someone who had grotesquely or continuously broken the commands of the Torah as a form of capital punishment. However, they were not always diligent to see the process through to fatality. The Apostle Paul mentions this regarding his own testimony and how he was left for dead after being stoned.               

It was not uncommon for the Jews in larger communities to see regular crucifixions along the well traveled streets and roads of their province. The Romans used crucifixion as a form of a billboard in Jewish communities. People quickly understood that if they behaved in a manner similar to the person being crucified they were subject to the same demise.

This is why those gathered in the upper room in Acts 1 after the ascension of Jesus Christ were somewhat terrified for their future. It was not unusual for the Roman soldiers to round up the followers of a executed rebel and slay them also - sometimes just for the sport of it. Roman tyranny was mercy less. It demanded a certain level of adherence and behavior from every sub culture and society. This is precisely how they continued to maintain the mantra of the Pax Romana – “Peace to Rome and quiet to the provinces.”[2]