death? Certainly not. It was, after all, Pontius Pilate, a Gentile Roman governor, who sentenced Him to death. And he did so in collusion with Herod Antipas, who (although he bore the title “King of the Jews”) was no Jew, but rather an Idumean—a foreign ruler, hated by the Jews, whose throne was granted by Caesar. Furthermore, crucifixion was a Roman method of execution, authorized and carried out by Roman, not Jewish, authorities. Roman soldiers drove the nails through Christ’s hands and feet. Roman