In The Trial of Jesus Alan Watson argues that by virtue of Jesus’s conviction and crucifixion at the hands of the Romans he failed to fulfill the prophecy of his messiahship in the manner he had intended. Jesus’s destiny, as he saw it, was to be condemned by the Jewish authorities to death by stoning. This is just one of the provoking insights in Watson’s fresh interpretation of the arrest, trial, and conviction of Jesus. Drawing on the four Gospels, writings from the period, and Jewish and Roman laws and customs, Watson adds substantially to what we know about Jesus himself, his prophesies, the justness of the charges against him, his degree of guilt, and the powers, prerogatives, and motivations of his accusers. The Trial of Jesus joins three other works by Watson—Jesus and the Jews, Jesus and the Law, and Jesus: A Profile (all Georgia)—to examine the early dynamism of western religion through refocused attention on biblical texts and other historical sources.
