accomplishing for Israel (and hence the world) what neither the world nor Israel could accomplish for themselves. To the question ‘Why did Jesus die?’ there are traditionally two sorts of answers: the theological (‘He died for our sins’), and the historical (‘He died because he fell foul of the authorities’). These two answers turn out to be two ways of saying the same thing. In Israel’s final national crisis the evil of the world, ranged against God’s people, and the evil within God’s people themselves,