Christian Answer
The Jews were jealous as Jesus was getting more and more popular each day, and what they did not like was that Jesus claimed openly, that he was the son of God. this was unpardonable to the Jews , and worthy of a death penalty. but the Jews had no power to crucify anybody. It had to be by the Romans, so Pilate gave the order to do so.
Jewish Answer
There are two questions here. The first is why Jews had difficulty accepting Jesus' message and the second is why the Jews crucified Jesus. Each will be responded to in succession.
Why did Jews Have Difficulty Accepting Jesus' Message
The assumption that the Christian ascription of Jesus' redemptive qualities (i.e. He is the Christ, the truth, and the way) accords with Jewish principles or understandings of the Messiah is false. It is on account of this major issue that Jews opposed what Jesus was saying and doing, even assuming that the Gospels are accurate or historical materials.
The Jewish Messiah is to be an Earthly King, not an incarnation or union with God. As a result, a person claiming to be God himself is instantly recognized as not being the Messiah. John 5:16-18 asserts that Jews clearly believed that Jesus was articulating that he was the physical progeny of God. Additionally, John 3:16 is at fundamental odds with the Torah's prohibition on Human Sacrifice, its prohibition of blood consumption, its prohibition on cannibalism, and its prohibition on expiation for another's sins. There is no verse in the Old Testament that explains that one of the purposes of the Messiah is to die for sin at all (never mind for the sins of other people).
Jesus failed to perform requirements to be the Messiah and additionally performed actions contrary to the established Commandments. The Bible makes clear that one of the defining marks between a True Prophet and a False Prophet is that no True Prophet will ever deviate from the Law as it was established (Deuteronomy 13:1). A Messiah must also comport to this standard, since he is to be a Holy King. Lists of several of these actions continue below.
Functions of the Jewish Messiah that Jesus failed to fulfill (this list is not exhaustive):
Why did Jews Crucify Jesus
Jews hold that they did not crucify Jesus and are not responsible for his demise. The below examination of the New Testament account and the Jewish discussion will explain what Jews hold actually happened, assuming that Jesus was a true historical figure.
Examining the New Testament Account
The New Testament certainly holds that perspective and paints Pontius Pilate as a man who seems fair and honest. Meanwhile, the rabid Jewish crowd demands Jesus' blood in a persistent and foul way.
Conversely, it seems far more likely in actuality that the reverse occurred. The Romans were probably intent on crucifying him and the Jews most likely begged for long-term imprisonment instead of execution. Of course, this would not be out of any love for what Jesus was preaching and many probably would have agreed that as heretic he should be silenced. However, there are only four acceptable implementations of capital punishment in Judaism that are strongly regulated: decapitation, quick strangulation, quick strangulation with internal burning, and stoning. There is complete rejection of any form of capital punishment that uses piercings to kill or leaves the criminal to suffer for hours on end. Crucifixion is in both categories and would be opposed on those grounds; it remains a uniquely Roman punishment.
It is interesting that Pontius Pilate is painted so dovishly in this part of the Bible as concerns the debate on Jesus' death, but nearly every other Roman source and some other parts of the Gospels paint him as a vile and cruel man. Such a man would have delighted in crucifying a man he perceived as a threat and Jesus was a serious threat to the Roman Empire. The Messiah of that period was understood the way that Jews still understand this concept: an Earthly King who would establish a Jewish Kingdom. Necessarily, therefore, Jesus was going to have to raise an army or commit some political intrigue to achieve this goal. The Romans were likely afraid that Jesus would try to lead a rebellion to free Judea from Roman occupation. This fear would prove justified when another Messianic candidate, Bar Kochba, actually led a temporarily-successful revolt against the Romans that eventually ended disastrously for the Jews. In order to prevent Jesus from taking that power, the Romans pre-emptively sought him out and questioned if he was the King of Jews, i.e. someone actively trying to create a Jewish Kingdom in defiance of Rome. When Pontius Pilate received answers that troubled him, why would he spare the rod here when there was such an obvious threat?
The Catholic Church does not even hold to the line in Matthew 27:25 where Jews take upon themselves the bloodguilt for the Crucifixion. The recent Popes, and the Catholic Church in general, have made clear that this part of Matthew (if not the whole book) is a polemic and that the truth is that Romans executed Christ. Many Protestant Churches (like the Lutheran and Episcopalian Churches) got there even sooner than the Catholics. Since Christian leadership does not hold those lines in the Book of Matthew to be necessarily authentic or worth following, Christian leadership does not even advocate for them.
Examining the Jewish Perspective
Jews do not recognize the Christian claim that they killed Jesus. Jesus was executed by a bloodthirsty Roman Tyrant: Pontius Pilate. However, Paul and Peter could not sell Christianity to the Gentiles while claiming that the Roman people were responsible for the Death of the Savior, so Matthew 27:25 ascribing bloodguilt to the Jews was added to avoid condemning the Romans for their act. Jews, while not major fans of Jesus are not responsible for his death and therefore are not proud or remorseful for it.
Jews disagreed with Jesus quite fervently. The most potent infringement of Jewish Law that Jesus put forward was the consumption of human flesh and human blood as the seal of a divine covenant made through human sacrifice (the eucharist). This violates (according to Jews) the sanctity of humanity (Genesis 9:3), the horror of cannibalism (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57), the prohibition of blood consumption (Deuteronomy 12:23), the prohibition of human sacrifice (Genesis 22:11-12), and the prohibition of transferable expiation - that one person can relieve the sins of another. This is just one of numerous Jewish arguments against Jesus.
There even seems to be a discussion in the Talmud on the issue of Jesus (although it is unclear if this is a later edit or part of the original text). The Rabbis come to conclusion that he is heretic and that he merits stoning in this passage of the Talmud.
However, the act of plotting to actually commit murder is far removed from these discussions and more serious. There are many debates in the Talmud concerning both historical individuals and alleged stories like the Oven of Achnai. This does not mean that those events actually happened, only that the thought experiment of "what would happen under these circumstances" was done. The New Testament makes a number of simple errors about Jewish jurisprudence on such matters. For example, it claims that the Sanhedrin convened on Passover to condemn Jesus. However, the leaders of the Sanhedrin followed the letter of the law to a fault (Jesus even reprimands them for it) and one of the laws is that the Sanhedrin can never meet on a holiday, especially one as central as Passover. Secondly, they allude to a connection between the High Priests and the Sanhedrin in agreeing on what actions to take on Jesus. There was an intense political fight between the High Priests and the Rabbis of the Sanhedrin as to the future direction of Judaism. The High Priests were more corrupt and elitist. The Rabbis were more earnest and populist. There is no reason that the High Priests would not wish to keep Jesus preaching if his populist approach would weaken the appeal of the Rabbis.
The Romans killed Jesus, not the Jews.
Why did the Jews have difficulty in accepting Jesus' message?
According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Torah-sages (Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others) were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:
Hecateus declares again, "what regard we [Jews] have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."
No one (even any who did hear of Jesus) - would have given heed to what was and is consideredunacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with him soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.
Rather, you might prefer to ask "What does Judaism notbelieve about Jesus." And the answer is that we do not believe that he is or was anything other than a regular human being.
(See: What do Jews believe God is like?)
We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.
Here is a related topic:
The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach means "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had a number of meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There need be nothing supernatural about a moshiach.
This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach. However, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanakh.
The Jewish requirements of the messiah are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.
Jesus was crucified in the nineteenth chapter of John. In Luke, he was crucified in the 23rd chapter. In John, he was crucified in the 27th chapter.
The Roman empire was in power when Jesus was crucified.
There were two criminals crucified with Jesus.
Pontus Pilate sentenced Jesus to be crucified.
No. Jesus was crucified to clean the souls of all mankind if you accept that he died for you.
They did not have to drag Jesus to any hill. He went willing up the hill to be crucified. He was beaten before he went up the hill so he probably did have difficulty making it up the hill.
No, Jesus was crucified during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who was the Roman emperor during 14-37 AD.
Jesus' followers did not want him to be crucified. Jesus, himself, did not entirely want to be crucified, but he saw the necessity of it and allowed himself to endure the pain for the greater good.
Jesus was crucified alongside two other criminals, he was treated as a criminal. The disciples of jesus were not crucified.
JerusalemTo be more accurate, Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, or Calvary, outside of theancient city of Jerusalem.The name Golgotha, is the Greek transcription given by the New Testament.
God caused Jesus to ascend up into heaven. But the story is not done because, according to Muhammad, Jesus will return to guide all people to the final message - Islam. www.freequran.org
He was Crucified.