If the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus then why was he crucified and not stoned which was the Jews punishment for Capital offenses?

Answer 1

I must be clear: the Jews are not responsible for the death of Jesus. The idea comes from the over-generalization of the Gospel of John simply naming all of his accusers as "the Jews", and literally centuries of prejudice and Propaganda, and/or a misunderstanding of the Biblical narrative. It is, indeed, pretty easy to misunderstand if one is not familiar with the legal proceedings of the time and the context in which these events took place. Much of this prejudice stems from Augustine, and then later (and especially) Martin Luther, who himself held what we would call "anti-semitic" views in our day and age. In his time, they were commonplace, as people had been persecuting the Jewish minority in their countries for centuries already, and actually knew very little about them.

Now, I'm not an apologist, so let me answer your question. The Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus; the Roman authorities were. The Romans ruled over the province of Judaea; the Jews had not had the right to try criminal cases or inflict punishments on anyone for quite a long time. So yes, you are right: the traditional form of capital punishment among the Jewish people had been stoning to death. Crucifixion was exclusively a method of punishment used by the Roman Empire, and a gruesome and painful one at that. While it can be argued whether the "Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees" actually helped to sway the judgment against Jesus, this notion itself is even a little foggy. It would seem to indicate that they saw Jesus as one of many religious opponents taking the form of ascetic wandering teachers, and would have a reason to want to have him removed. This much is obvious. However, there was no crime they could charge him with, even if they wanted to, and while the episode of the crowd in Jerusalem choosing Barabbas (which, strangely, means "son of the father") over Jesus to be released is striking, scholars debate whether this actually took place, putting various views over the infallibility of the various gospels aside.

Though Pilate "washed his hands of it", he in fact, could not. The Romans executed him for a perceived crime against the Roman Empire, and since Jesus was not a Roman citizen, was not entitled to a trial- the judgment was solely in the hands of Pilate and other state officials. While the assorted group of people referred to as being made up of scribes and priests certainly did not help, Judas Iscariot betrayed him to the Romans, not the Jews, and crucifixion, as I said, is a strictly Roman form of Punishment. The fact that "King of the Jews" was written on the crucifix is telling, as the Jews themselves, even mockingly, would likely never write this. It also seems to indicate what crime he was charged with, though this is not mentioned in the gospel: sedition and rebellion against the Roman Empire.

Likely, they saw his popularity and his movement as a political movement as well; some of the things he said went against the policy of Rome in Judaea, part of which was to worship the Emperor as the personification of the Empire, quite literally. There was little difference in the eyes of the Romans regarding a religious movement in political movement. In Rome, religion was controlled by the Senate, a state body. In Judaea, the primary opponent of the Romans were Zealots, who were considered ultra-conservative and would not bow to Roman rule, believing it would corrupt their devotion to God. Jesus accepted some Zealots into his inner circle, and while he did not agree with their tactics, this might have been seen in a bad light by the Romans and other Jews alike, who saw the Zealots as risking the livelihood and even existence of all Jews alike. While Jesus meant it in a religious context, he often referred to a "Kingdom of God", and was called the Messiah by others. The Messiah, in the traditional Jewish view, was supposed to declare himself king of all Israel, and defeat the enemies of the Jewish people once and for all. Modern Jews still hold to this view, and some followers of Jesus probably saw him in this way: this is why they were confused when he died, thinking he could not have been the Messiah because he did not fulfill this.

The Romans certainly would have taken all of these things to be seditious ideas against Rome, especially upon hearing that many people thought he was the messiah, and he spoke of the establishment of a new kingdom. Thus, the Romans dressed him up, and put on a crown of thorns in addition to the "King of the Jews" plaque, to send a clear message to his followers. As far as Pontius Pilate... Well, he was eventually removed for horrible mismanagement of the province, and left in shame. Despite that, the Gospel writers would likely try to shift direct blame away from him, to avoid persecution, as the gospel were written in Greek for the Greek speaking population of Romans and Greeks in the east.