The Trial of Jesus: Victim of Bigotry and Cowardice - Tapa blanda

The author shows how Jesus' message of love and tolerance, so rapturously received by the masses, was recognised by the Jewish elite as being a dangerous threat to the fragile privileges they enjoyed under Roman sufferance. At the same time, Pontius Pilate is seen to have been a political opportunist intent on saving his own career at any price. Using verbatim evidence from the Gospel accounts, Elio Palombi traces the fascinating interplay of two legal systems: that of the Sanhedrin and that of the Romans. He shows that although the Jewish leaders condemned Jesus for blasphemy - a religious crime - in the end they only persuaded a reluctant Pilate to act when they said that Jesus claimed to be a king and was therefore a potential rebel against the Emperor. Recent studies have tended to put most of the blame on Pilate; this work redresses the balance by showing how disastrous consequences can ensue when religious or political leaders put self-interest before the truth.

Elio Palombi is a senior barrister-at-law and a Professor of Criminal Law in the Federico II University of Naples. In this new book he analyses the most important trial in history from the point of view of an expert in the principles of criminal law and legal procedure.